I was the baby in my family until I was eight years old when I finally became a big sister to a precious baby girl.  I swore I would never torture and tease my sweet little sister like my older sister and brother did to me.  They often taunted me and called me a tattle tail.  They played endless tricks on me.  One evil trick haunts me to this day…..

It was a dark fall Sunday evening about 8:00 p.m.  My parents had invited some couples over after church to visit.  They were all in the living room.  My siblings and I stayed in the back room separated from the adults by a long kitchen. 

Since it was a school night, my mom told me to get in the shower and get ready for bed.  I was eleven years old, old enough to take a shower by myself but scared to do so.  You see, our house was old.  It had a bathroom on the main floor that had a tub and a shower down in a partially finished basement. The basement housed the shower, washer and dryer, storage, and creepy crawly things. The light was dim but I told myself I was brave; I was safe.

I went down the stairs to the basement; the whole descent my eyes were silently pleading “come with me” to my brother and sister who were sitting in the back room watching TV.  They ignored me; or so I thought.   I rushed downstairs and showered as quickly as I could.  As I finished, I towel dried and wrapped my towel around my body to sneak up the stairs to my bedroom to get dressed.  My bedroom door was off the backroom so I could safely make it to my room without any company seeing me.  As I advance toward the stairs to make my safe incline, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye.  It felt like my heart stopped and my stomach dropped to my toes. I couldn’t’ breathe and I was frozen with terror.  My brother and sister jumped from opposite sides of the basement and screamed, “BOO!” Certain, I was being attacked by someone or something,   I screamed at the top of my lungs.  I dropped my towel and ran screaming and naked as fast as I could up the stairs, through the backroom and kitchen to the safety of my mom’s arms.   It was then that I saw the visitors staring at me.  It dawned on me as my sister and brother came in laughing that it had been them.  At the same time, I realized I was naked.  I was so humiliated, I cried and cried.  My mom escorted me to my room.  For punishment she made my brother and sister go to bed as well.

After that night, I never took a shower in that house again.  Baths were safer.  To this day, I am scared of the dark.  I am scared of things that jump out and go boo!  And often at family gatherings, this story is told and my brother and sister still laugh.  My little sister is lucky that I was nicer to her than they were to me.