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Mar. 5th, 2011 03:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jack_babalon“Dad, Dad! Come quick!” I shouted from under the cocoon of my covers, clutching my pooh bear to my chest and shivering with fear.
Silence. Then, from across the then vast distance of our Avenue E apartment, I heard a curse groan out, a toilet flush, the bathroom door slam open, a slow clomp of steady footsteps and then the creaking of my bedroom door.
My pooh bear and I risked a peek through the blanket’s breathing hole. A narrow slice of yellow living room light silhouetted my Father; his shadow cast across my bed.
“What is it, Jack?” He asks with wariness of a cop who’s made one to many calls to the same address.
“It’s back!” I whimper.
“Who…the Dancing Skeleton? Johnny Redcap?”
My arms thrusts out of the cocoon and points directly to the window.
“Ah…The Face.” Dad says as if that should’ve been his first guess. He walked over to the window not bothering to flick the light on in the room. He pried open two of the blinds and took a peek. But of course the Face wasn’t there. It never is when grown-ups are looking. That’s one of the Rules and I remember being more than a little frustrated that he couldn’t see that. He turned around and sat on the edge of the bed.
I wiggle wormed out of the cocoon and sat bolt upright in the bed with Pooh hugged across the chest.
“Jack,” Dad began with a reluctant sigh, “I know your Mother isn’t here tonight and you’re a little more worried than usual. But I think it’s time we had a talk about these monsters of yours.”
“You’re just gonna tell they don’t exist,” I huff and pout.
“On the contrary,” snorts Dad, “they’re quite real. In fact they’re even more terrifying than the most frightening dream you’ve ever had.”
My eyes bulged comically while my head shook in a series of ‘Say What?’ double takes.
“Oh yeah,” Dad continued casually, “now I know your Mother has told you otherwise, but of course your mother and I can’t see them. That’s just part of the Rules, right?”
I nodded along stupefied.
“Well there you go then,” he throws his hands out palm up and shrugs stoically in the manner of our people –the Brooklynites from the Island of Coney. “I’m afraid there’s nothing I can do for you.”
We sat there for a drawn out moment without a word between us. From the bottomless depths of my room’s darkened corners, terrible shapes flickered and scurried along the corner of my vision. I began to whimper.
“But I can tell you a secret that might help with the monsters…, “ he looked around the room and continued in an air of conspiracy, “if you promise not to say a word to your Mother.”
I knew this must’ve been a grave secret indeed. Usually such oaths were reserved for when he would pull me out of school so we could hop the train to the Natural History Museum or the Planetarium. That or when he called out of work to smoke his ‘special’ cigarettes and we would watch the Three Stooges or horror movies on Channel 9 together.
Dad leaned down and grabbed an especially cherished issue of “The Avengers” I had been re-reading before bed. He held it before me and I laid one hand across it while raising my other one up and solemnly vowed to never say a word to Mom.
Satisfied, he laid the comic back down over the homework I didn’t do and proceeded to tell me the Secret.
“Now while it is true there are monsters lurking inside your closet or outside the window or especially slithering under your bed…”
“Wait, what?” I yipped, “You never said there were monsters under my bed!”
“Oh they’re the worse,” Dad waved off my concern and continued, “but even so, they’re no match for the scariest thing of all.”
“What’s that?”
“Our lives!”
“Huh?”
“Allow me to explain, Jack.” Dad laughed sadly, “See no matter how scary the Dancing Skeleton or the Face or any of their friends may seem… all you have to do when they come for you is to think about school.”
“What?”
“Listen, I’m trying to help you here…,” he sighs disapprovingly, “if you want I’ll just go now and you can take your chances with the Window. After all, it’s not like I can see it.”
“No, no, no… I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”
“Okay…, so there you are. You’re under the covers and Johnny Redcap is crouched over at the foot of the bed waiting for you to look at him so he can get you. The Rules, right? So what do you do then? Well, think about school… how the teachers don’t really like you…”
“They don’t…?”
“Oh, god, no… you should hear what they say about you at parent- teacher night, but anyway… I want you to think about how lonely you are. How you have no friends…”
“What about Barney?”
“Well, Barney has no friends either so it doesn’t count. In order for two people to be friends one of them has to have at least one other friend or else it just looks desperate.”
“I don’t understand…”
“You will one day,” he pats my leg reassuringly, “but for now you should focus on how much the other kids laugh at you. In fact what I want you to do is close your eyes and remember that field trip to the Bronx Zoo last month..”
I close my eyes and comply.
“Okay, now do you remember when you wet pants because one of the baboons scared you. How everyone laughed at you, even the zoo keeper and all the monkeys in their cages?”
I nod sadly.
“So, tell me… do those monsters really seem so scary now, knowing that the worst they can do is eat you and spare you the continued pain of having to face your everyday life?”
I shook my head slightly.
“Now you know what to do whenever there’s a monster in the room, right?”
I just sat there blinking helplessly in meditation.
“Right then, that’s that sorted.” Dad stood up, leaned down and pecked a kiss on my forehead, “Okay, Buddy… I know it seems rough now, but it will get better eventually.”
“When?” I chirpped.
“Well…, college probably… maybe high school if you’re lucky. But for now, just remember your constant misery will keep you safe from the dark until then.”
Dad exited the room, gently closing the door behind him and swallowing my room back in total darkness. I look over at the window.
There, in the corner where the blinds were broken by the cat, the ghoul pale countenance of the Face stared at me.
I looked at it for a moment and the Face just shook his head slowly, sadly growling: “Daahmn, your pops is one seriously messed up individual, you know that right?”
“I know.” I snorted and rolled over, ignoring the cavernous safety of my blanket. It would be the last time I ever saw the Face while Johnny Redcap and the Dancing Skeleton never appeared to me again.
Silence. Then, from across the then vast distance of our Avenue E apartment, I heard a curse groan out, a toilet flush, the bathroom door slam open, a slow clomp of steady footsteps and then the creaking of my bedroom door.
My pooh bear and I risked a peek through the blanket’s breathing hole. A narrow slice of yellow living room light silhouetted my Father; his shadow cast across my bed.
“What is it, Jack?” He asks with wariness of a cop who’s made one to many calls to the same address.
“It’s back!” I whimper.
“Who…the Dancing Skeleton? Johnny Redcap?”
My arms thrusts out of the cocoon and points directly to the window.
“Ah…The Face.” Dad says as if that should’ve been his first guess. He walked over to the window not bothering to flick the light on in the room. He pried open two of the blinds and took a peek. But of course the Face wasn’t there. It never is when grown-ups are looking. That’s one of the Rules and I remember being more than a little frustrated that he couldn’t see that. He turned around and sat on the edge of the bed.
I wiggle wormed out of the cocoon and sat bolt upright in the bed with Pooh hugged across the chest.
“Jack,” Dad began with a reluctant sigh, “I know your Mother isn’t here tonight and you’re a little more worried than usual. But I think it’s time we had a talk about these monsters of yours.”
“You’re just gonna tell they don’t exist,” I huff and pout.
“On the contrary,” snorts Dad, “they’re quite real. In fact they’re even more terrifying than the most frightening dream you’ve ever had.”
My eyes bulged comically while my head shook in a series of ‘Say What?’ double takes.
“Oh yeah,” Dad continued casually, “now I know your Mother has told you otherwise, but of course your mother and I can’t see them. That’s just part of the Rules, right?”
I nodded along stupefied.
“Well there you go then,” he throws his hands out palm up and shrugs stoically in the manner of our people –the Brooklynites from the Island of Coney. “I’m afraid there’s nothing I can do for you.”
We sat there for a drawn out moment without a word between us. From the bottomless depths of my room’s darkened corners, terrible shapes flickered and scurried along the corner of my vision. I began to whimper.
“But I can tell you a secret that might help with the monsters…, “ he looked around the room and continued in an air of conspiracy, “if you promise not to say a word to your Mother.”
I knew this must’ve been a grave secret indeed. Usually such oaths were reserved for when he would pull me out of school so we could hop the train to the Natural History Museum or the Planetarium. That or when he called out of work to smoke his ‘special’ cigarettes and we would watch the Three Stooges or horror movies on Channel 9 together.
Dad leaned down and grabbed an especially cherished issue of “The Avengers” I had been re-reading before bed. He held it before me and I laid one hand across it while raising my other one up and solemnly vowed to never say a word to Mom.
Satisfied, he laid the comic back down over the homework I didn’t do and proceeded to tell me the Secret.
“Now while it is true there are monsters lurking inside your closet or outside the window or especially slithering under your bed…”
“Wait, what?” I yipped, “You never said there were monsters under my bed!”
“Oh they’re the worse,” Dad waved off my concern and continued, “but even so, they’re no match for the scariest thing of all.”
“What’s that?”
“Our lives!”
“Huh?”
“Allow me to explain, Jack.” Dad laughed sadly, “See no matter how scary the Dancing Skeleton or the Face or any of their friends may seem… all you have to do when they come for you is to think about school.”
“What?”
“Listen, I’m trying to help you here…,” he sighs disapprovingly, “if you want I’ll just go now and you can take your chances with the Window. After all, it’s not like I can see it.”
“No, no, no… I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”
“Okay…, so there you are. You’re under the covers and Johnny Redcap is crouched over at the foot of the bed waiting for you to look at him so he can get you. The Rules, right? So what do you do then? Well, think about school… how the teachers don’t really like you…”
“They don’t…?”
“Oh, god, no… you should hear what they say about you at parent- teacher night, but anyway… I want you to think about how lonely you are. How you have no friends…”
“What about Barney?”
“Well, Barney has no friends either so it doesn’t count. In order for two people to be friends one of them has to have at least one other friend or else it just looks desperate.”
“I don’t understand…”
“You will one day,” he pats my leg reassuringly, “but for now you should focus on how much the other kids laugh at you. In fact what I want you to do is close your eyes and remember that field trip to the Bronx Zoo last month..”
I close my eyes and comply.
“Okay, now do you remember when you wet pants because one of the baboons scared you. How everyone laughed at you, even the zoo keeper and all the monkeys in their cages?”
I nod sadly.
“So, tell me… do those monsters really seem so scary now, knowing that the worst they can do is eat you and spare you the continued pain of having to face your everyday life?”
I shook my head slightly.
“Now you know what to do whenever there’s a monster in the room, right?”
I just sat there blinking helplessly in meditation.
“Right then, that’s that sorted.” Dad stood up, leaned down and pecked a kiss on my forehead, “Okay, Buddy… I know it seems rough now, but it will get better eventually.”
“When?” I chirpped.
“Well…, college probably… maybe high school if you’re lucky. But for now, just remember your constant misery will keep you safe from the dark until then.”
Dad exited the room, gently closing the door behind him and swallowing my room back in total darkness. I look over at the window.
There, in the corner where the blinds were broken by the cat, the ghoul pale countenance of the Face stared at me.
I looked at it for a moment and the Face just shook his head slowly, sadly growling: “Daahmn, your pops is one seriously messed up individual, you know that right?”
“I know.” I snorted and rolled over, ignoring the cavernous safety of my blanket. It would be the last time I ever saw the Face while Johnny Redcap and the Dancing Skeleton never appeared to me again.