One early morning when I was 8, I got up and ready for school. As usual, I grabbed my trusty red flashlight while Daddy buttoned my coat and said good-bye. “Be careful and watch out for snakes.” he’d always say.
I was nervous that morning. I felt a little frightened of walking out of the holler in the pitch black darkness by myself. There were no fancy street lights in a holler. I walked slowly across the damp plank near our barn. I always loved waking the minnows and crawdads with my flashlight. I rarely saw them in the bustling creek but I searched from them anyway, as I dreaded facing the monster tree limbs of the wooded path out of the holler. Suddenly my foot slipped from the plank. My red shoe was completely soaked from the creek. Great. Now my feet would get cold!
I started down the dark wooden path as I heard my shoe squish every time I stepped on it. I began to hum some songs from the Muppet Show to keep me company from the dark.
“It’s time to play the music. It’s time to light the lights. It’s time to meet the Muppets on the Muppet Show tonight!”
I hummed the words I didn’t know.
“It’s time to get things started on the most...hmmm...tional, inspirational, celebrational, Muppetational -This is what we call the Muppet Show!”
The more I sang, the more I recalled funny instances from the show. For a moment I was distracted, avoiding the darkness around me, then my flashlight started to dim. Oh no! The batteries are dying again. I shook and shook as the batteries rolled around inside the flashlight. For a moment the light went completely out. There I stood frightened in the pitch black shivering nervously. I shook the flashlight hard again but nothing happened. I slung it and shook it again and the light came back on brightly. Yah! The batteries were new again. I started skipping down my path and hoped my journey would eventually end. It always took forever.
I finally came to where the path sloped down the hill. I had another creek to pass. It was near a place where someone had thrown their garbage away years ago on the hillside. Bottles and cans had settled with the growth of the weeds on the side of the hill. Suddenly I heard a rustling coming from the weeds. What was that noise? I stopped for a second to look around but I didn’t see anything. The weeds rustled again. Oh my gosh, I wondered what it could be. I hope not a snake.
I started on my path again. I whipped my flashlight across the creek to see the other side. My heart almost stopped. On the hillside across the creek, two bright glowing eyes appeared by the tree. Snakes don't have eyes as big as these seemed to be. I couldn’t see a body, just the glowing evil eyes.
In those short moments, I stared and the eyes stared back at me. “Oh my gosh! It’s a monster. It has to be.”
I nearly dropped my flashlight. I screamed but the eyes never moved. I refused to cross to the other side with those eyes over there.
“I am not going near those eyes.”
I screamed again and still the eyes never moved. They stared at me with an evil glaze. Suddenly the fear got the best of me and I began to run. My heart pounded and pounded in my chest.
“I want my Daddy. I want my Mommy.”
I felt so frightened. I suddenly realized I was going backwards towards home. I didn’t care. I was not going out of the holler with those evil eyes staring at me. On and on I ran, crying all the way.
I finally made it back home but I knew I would be in trouble for missing school. Daddy scolded me naturally. “There ain’t nothing to be scared about. You just wanted to get out of school.”
For years I think he thought I made up the story of the glowing eyes but they were real to me. So real that sometimes when I close my eyes, I can still see them glowing at me today.
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