Scared of the dark

Hi, my name is Tami and I'm afraid of the dark. I have to sleep with a night light on; I can't walk into a dark room and coming home to an empty house is awful. I sing walking up the steps. My singing will scare anybody.

A few years ago, I finally figured out the root of this phobia and no it's not because I'm a chicken, but because of a scary fall night when I was about 10.

My job apparently has always been to take out the garbage. This time though, it was night time and chilly. We were getting ready to go visit my cousins and mom was finishing up the dishes. She handed me a bowl and told me to run it out and dump it in the garden.

Not a problem, the garden wasn't far away and the light from the kitchen window would allow me to see until my eyes adjusted to the dark. I hurried out the door across the driveway, past my swingset and my playhouse, and now I was in the shadows. The light from the window didn't extend this far and our yard light was blocked by the pole barn. Ahead of me was blackness, but I knew the way. I kept going, but then..."pooofffff" I heard something. Not a snort, but a loud exhale. I slowed down. Ahead of me I saw something glowing. I could see two of them, no four...glowing circles about 4 feet off the ground. Poooooffffff. I stopped. I could see huge hulking black shadows.

I didn't stop for long! I screamed, (I do that well and often)drop the bowl of garbage and fled back to the safety of the house. Well, I was 10 now so I should be a bit braver, so when I got close to the house I stopped and turned back. I squinted against the darkness.

There was something out there. Something big and black with glowing circles. Well, of course everyone heard me scream and came running from the house. I tried to explain that there were glowing, floating circles in the garden. My dad was carrying his heavy duty flashlight and started search the area.

I'm sure that no one believed me at first, but then dad came running back to the house. He ran right to the telephone and called the neighbor.

Yep those four glowing circles were eyes. The neighbor's steers had gotten out earlier in the day and were out running around the area and I had just scared them off. It took a few days but eventually they were rounded up. As for me, whenever I hear something go pooooooofffff in the night, I don't stick around, I don't want to run into any big scary steers who are out for a midnight stroll.