My earliest memories from childhood all begin at the age of 3. At that time we lived in Monterrey, CA and my first little sister, Audra, was born. I can recall little snippets of our life there: I had my first crush on George Michael (my first crush later turned into my first heartbreak). I experienced my first earthquake which my three-year-old mind processed as giant bugs shaking the house. There was that one, fateful day dad allowed for my balloon to be sucked out of the car despite my pleas with him to roll the window up. I can remember it was a pink balloon if that gives any indication how attached to balloons I was and how traumatic I found the whole episode to be. Finally, one of the more strange memories I have occurred when I should have been napping but instead took a sneak peek at what mom was watching on TV. It was one of the more disturbing images of my young life. I poked my head around the couch to see the screen and I remember seeing a man standing over somebody in a bed and then, as the camera closed-in, the person's legs deflated and rolled up. That image has stayed with me for the last 27 years and to this day I cannot figure out what the heck it was. Unfortunately, "deflated legs rolling-up into body" doesn't really get the results I'm looking for in Google.
However, none of those memories have scarred me as much as the one I'm about to tell you. I don't remember what time of year it was and I don't remember exactly how old I was. I was definitely between the ages of 3 and 5. I do remember that Audra was already born because we shared a room and her crib was next to my bed. Across the room from our beds, against the far wall, was a tall dresser which had a night-light on top of it. At some point during the night I awoke. I don't know exactly what woke me up but my guess would be a noise or possibly a dream. Maybe I was just restless. Who knows? Either way, I sat-up in bed and looked across the room towards the dresser. Moments after I sat up, from behind the dresser a shadowy figure, human-like in form, quickly darted up and just as quickly disappeared back, behind the dresser. Immediately, I started screaming and my dad ran into the room, scooped me up, and took me into his and mom's room. I was terrified and clung to him for dear life. In order to get to my parent's room we had to pass the dresser and I was scared to death I might see the figure again. To this day I'm not sure if what I experienced was real or a night terror.
According to Papalia & Feldman (2011) in A Child's World night terrors "appear to awaken (the child) abruptly early in the night from a deep sleep in a state of agitation. The child may scream and sit up in bed, breathing rapidly and staring or thrashing about. Yet he is not really awake, quiets down quickly and, and the next morning remembers nothing about the episode" (p. 240). The only part of that definition that doesn't apply to what I experienced is the "remembers nothing" part. I remember everything.
The story gets even creepier. Fast forward 25 years and I'm having a conversation with my dad about my earliest childhood memories. In doing so I recounted the shadowy figure story to him. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped. "You remember that night? I remember that night" he said. He said he remembered I was so scared that he was scared and that I pointed at the dresser as if something was really there. Even after he looked behind the dresser to prove that nothing was there I was inconsolable and beside myself with fear. Eventually, he brought me into my parent's bedroom to calm me down. The fact that both and he and I remembered what seemed to be an inconspicuous, though clearly memorable, event bowled me over. For years I had written off the terrifying memory as nothing but a dream but to hear my dad give an exact account of what happened gave me pause and further proved (to me) that what I experienced was real.
To further expound the idea that maybe this was something different from a night terror, my mom recently confessed that she felt there was something odd about the house in Monterrey. The house itself was located on base and, as military housing typically is, was old. Mom told me she would often see things out of the corner of her eyes such as shadows darting by. As she told me this the chills and watery eyes I get when truly scared hit me. To think that after all of these years being enthralled with all things ghostly I had actually experienced a haunting was too much to handle. While I love to hear a good ghost story I really don't want to live a good ghost story.
Has anyone else experienced something not-of-this-world? Or am I the only crazy three-year-old?
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