THE EVIL PARALLEL UNIVERSE OF DARKNESS

When I was very young, five to eight-years-old, I wondered what existed at night. Somehow, I imaged the darkness as a secret, evil world where people lived a different way of life than the people of light.

I knew it was so, because before I went to sleep each night I would hear sounds: train whistles, truck motors, airplanes engines, unimaginable sounds that I knew were from monsters and animals that didn't exist during the day. It was the reason we locked the doors to the house each night.

One night I tried with all my might to stay awake all night in hopes I could glimpse the unknown and face my fears. I could never seem to stay awake past about 10:30 or so, but I heard sounds and felt fear of the night as the temperature fell and the wind came to a dead, silent stop, and the noises traveled farther in the distance. I became even more convinced of the secret, dark world on the other side of the normal bright one.

Experiencing the evil night was something I was never able to accomplish until I had grown old enough where that hidden parallel, evil universe no longer mattered to me, and I had forgotten it.

Now, I no longer wish to see the evil darkness. I long for the peace of deep sleep. Those evils may turn up when I don't want them to.--TED--