The house in which I grew up was a small row house (now it is called a townhouse and sounds a lot more fancy than it truly was or is). We had three bedrooms on the second floor, mine being at the back of the house and mine no larger than maybe two walk in closets. My parents had the middle room, right next to the stairs leading up from the first floor, which at night with all of the lights out, seemed like an endless canyon leading to the flood gates of something evil (I did watch a lot of Chiller Theater and The Twilight Zone), the room a the front of the house was occupied at that time by my one sister a few older than me and my younger sister. Most of the time my room located at the back of the house was cool, but at night when thunderstorms erupted, or howling winds sounded like monsters, my room, which faced nothing but a bunch of garages and vacant spaces where garages had been, plus a panel of trees we named the woods, was scary, VERY scary. I was about 8, my older sister was 13, and my younger sister 6, and my parents were out at a party. My 13 year old sister was our baby-sitter, albeit just in title only, But she was the oldest and deemed mature enough to watch my little sister and I.
I am not sure what time it was, as night time in our house seemed to be always around midnight, of course when monsters come to life. I was still awake, listening to the wind rattling the branches outside of my window when I heard my to sisters calling me from their room in the front of our house. Both called my name at he seem time and said, they hav something to show me. I was reluctant at first to leave my room and visit, but I was also sure something might be crawling at my window, so maybe it was a good idea to take a break from the back of the house. Of course to get to the front room, i had to through the hallway (which always seemed eternal at night, past my parents bedroom and worst of all past the stairs that ld to the first floor, knowing of course some peering eyes would be staring at me, with long arms ready to grab me. I promise my self to dash out of bed, run directly to my sisters room and not look toward my right which led to the spooky stairs. I did all of that and as i reached the front room, my two sisters grabbed me, and pulled me into their room, slamming the door really, really hard. The words they both stammered contained the sentences:There isSOMETHING in Mummy and Daddy’s room, what do we do. I had to pass Mummy and Daddy’s room plus the scary stairs to get to my sisters room. I could have been eaten, dragged, taken, used as an offering to Satan, but did either of my sisters WARN me. Shaking, really shaking it was my job to use the extension phone and call our neighbor Uncle Nat (back in the day we called our good neighbors Uncle and Aunt), to come over with our house key and check out the monster in my parents room. To this day, i still feel my throat close up, my right hand holding the phone spasm, and the pain in my lungs trying to breath and get enough air in my throat to speak. My sisters were of no help, as they ran into the closet while I, having to be the brave son, stood facing the bedroom door, which at any moment would be shredded into pieces as THE MONSTER came in the front room to eat all of us. Uncle nat rushed over with a baseball bat went into my parents room, bravely, laughed and told us that the monster had been the venetian blinds caught in the window flapping as the wind blew. Fear that might was forever, and all three of us stayed awake in the front room until my parents returned. It was a night filled with what if, and then what, and how would it end.
The people of Hawaii, were provided with an amount of fear, no one would ever wish upon their worst enemy. They were warned to take cover because of the possibility of an ICBM missile hitting the island. For the 45 minutes it took for OUR government to respond and reassure these Americans had to be and still must be memories that will only rot away at your gut. My sisters and I lived, (only three of us) through half an hour of Oh My God, but Uncle Nat came to the rescue. Hundreds of thousands Hawaiians were counting down their death clock, and it seems no ONE, let alone Trump came to their rescue, and all they got for seemingly an endless nightmare was OOPS, My Bad. Monsters lurk and it would be nice someone is there at the ready to rescue!
