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What lurks in the darkness, beyond the fields and touching the tree line? I know something is out there and it is as dangerous as my mind will permit. It’s as if there is a force, a shield perhaps that prevents me from venturing further. I must retreat to the safety of my home.

As a 10 year old boy I experienced real fear on a late summer evening in a run down neighborhood in Syracuse, NY. My Aunt and Uncle had to run into a grocery store and left me in the car. I was fine and had all the windows rolled down just people watching and it was a good thing I was watching. Out of the darkness appeared a very large, scary looking and extremely drunk older man. He was aimlessly wandering around the store parking lot when he suddenly spotted me.  Like a gorilla, with arms swaying, he started approaching the car I was in. I screamed, but no sound. I tried again, yet still nothing came out. He kept coming toward me.

I leaped over the back seat into the front and feverishly rolled up the two front windows. He moved from one side of the car to the other. Still trying to scream I couldn’t make any noise. The crazed man stealthily approached the rear of the car. I looked at the front of the store and I could see my Uncle at the cash register. Please help  me I wanted to say, but it was to no avail. Everything was normal for my Uncle as I could see him laughing with the cashier. “Hey, look out here, I’m in trouble and I need you,” I was saying, but no words would come out. I rolled up the rear window on the driver’s side. Still undeterred the ogre crept along to the rear passenger side. I just knew that if he got me he was going to really hurt me. As I frantically started to roll the window up he thrust his fat hand inside to snare me. Faster, faster I rolled until I had his fingers securely lodged in the window. He looked at me, then his hand and he was enraged and in disbelief. 

I felt somewhat in control of the situation as a taxi cab pulled up and witnessed my dilemma. The cab driver opened up his back door and yanked the filthy monster from my trap and threw him into his cab. Finally my Uncle saw the tail end of this horror show and came running outside, but he was too late. The evilness that lurked in the darkness had disappeared just as quickly as he had reared his ugliness. I was safe!

My voice didn’t return for two more days and still 49 years later there are times the darkness fills me with one question….will I find my voice if the demons materialize in the blackness of night?

Written By: Dennis L. Page

http://relijournal.com/religion/peace-on-the-water