The Night Visitor

I had found evidence of the intruder in the middle of the night.

It was the earlier hours of the morning, and I had needed to go to the bathroom. It was mid September and there was a light chill in the air, as I climbed out of bed and hurried to the bathroom. I noticed immediately the shadow sitting on the window sill, the dark shape resting on the various pieces of paper, just sitting there, telling me it's own story. I carefully avoided touching the evidence, not sure that I exactly wanted to let loose the potential terror of what lie beneath.

I knew straight away of course, but sometimes denial is better than knowing, so I went back to bed quietly.

The next morning I checked the window sill and noticed it was still there, taunting me and I could resist no longer!

I spoke with my daughter as soon as she awoke "What happened?" I asked. She looked at me, and shivered. " Mum" she said, " it was horrible!" She paled as she related the tale to me, " I was just going to lie down for the evening, and just as I was going to turn out the light, I saw something scurry across the bottom of my bed! I quickly turned on the light, and saw it! It was awful! It was so big, I have never seen one that size before, but it was gone before I could do anything!" I sat there beginning to understand, " go on" I said already knowing what was coming, but wanting to hear the details. "Well I couldn't go to bed then could I? Not knowing where it was. What would happen if it crawled on me? Or if I swallowed it?" OK I thought, now it was my turn to shiver, I am not phobic or overly scared of them, but I certainly I could appreciate what she was saying as if I was already there.

"So what did you do then?" I asked.

"I spent the next hour searching the whole bedroom, and I was getting to the point where I was going to come in and sleep with you, when I found it! I was so scared, that I wanted to make sure it was gone for good, so covered it up, and using the paper, I got rid of it!"

"Well that is good then, isn't it." I said, knowing how brave she had been.

" Not really" she replied, " I have spent the night waking up worried that there might be more!"

I looked at her with some sympathy, knowing that she managed her fear of spiders very well, but at night it could all seem much worse.

I looked at her and smiled " I would love to chat to you about that"

Who do you know who experiences a spider phobia or  night terrors who would like to let that go? Happy to have a chat about that :)

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