By Jim Hagarty
2016
This is kind of embarrassing, I suppose, but at the age of 65, I am still afraid of the dark. Maybe even more than when I was a kid and was terrified by it. That is why I like the city – lots of light at night. It’s damn dark out in the country.
I am alone this weekend for the first time in a long while and even though our house is not a large one, when you’re alone, it can seem like an old castle with 200 rooms. I hear sounds, both inside and outside and wonder what’s going on. Of course, with two cats, a dog and a mouse, some of these unexplained sounds can be figured out fairly quickly.
One night, I sat straight up in bed in the middle of the night and if I had hair, it would have been on end. Someone was playing the piano upstairs but no one was home. Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Whoever was playing it, wasn’t very good. I crept upstairs; no one there. A day or two later, our cat Mario went walking across the keys in broad daylight for some strange reason. Mystery solved.
I have to be honest, my imagination conjurs up all sorts of horrors in the middle of the night. But only when I am alone. It’s always been that way.
I have no idea how I would react if something really bad ever did happen.
I hope I never have to find out.
