Boogie Man

One day when I was younger I went into the basement with a flashlight to get something Mom had asked me to get on my own. As I reached the stairs on my way out I suddenly felt someone's presence. I made a mad dash out of the basement and slammed the door not wanting to ever go back down there. Who was there, why was the hair on the backs of my arms standing on end and why do I suddenly have this warm wet spot in my britches? But luck would have it, Mom and Dad made me and after a few years ( lol ) I learned there was nothing in the basement but my own fear of something I never laid eyes on and misunderstood. The basement, I said. Just the basement.

Time passed and I was soon 13 years old. I was no longer scared of the Whatever in the basement but that didn't stop me from screaming my head off at my sleepover with 13 other girls my age after my brother and his friends saw fit to scare the shit out of us on purpose. Banished he was from anywhere near the house til the next day, the girls and I went on about our sleepover with dread and fear of the unknown every time we heard a noise we couldn't explain or shadow that passed before the nightlight after the last lamp was turned off.
The Boogie Man?

Many of us can recall a time as children when we were gripped by trepidation. Those fears controlled many aspects of our young lives. One such angst was our belief in the 'Boogie Man.' While we never actually saw the Boogie Man, we instinctively knew that he lurked in the dark recesses of our room and meant to do us harm. His evil presence was palpably felt and had a profound effect upon our mood, and our behavior. So we would be so racked with fear, we'd scream holy terror in the middle of the night praying someone would come rescue us from whatever it was that scared us the most.

Now fast forward a few years, ok a lot of years. I'm a grown woman with children of her own, on her own. Only thing that protects me from the Boogie Man is my own 37 year old rational, motion lights and a 110 pound dog. He still exists. The trees blow in the wind and limbs tap on the window panes when I have no trees near the house, the dog barks at phantom randomness, and my kids crawl into bed every other night when the Boogie Man visits their room and sprinkle nightmare dust over their sleeping bodies. No he doesn't attempt to eat them, he just intends to give them and me some of the worst dreams one could fathom while hiding in the corner in the eerie shadows, feeding off soundless screams for his sick amusement. His sustenance to exist.

When it comes down to it, the Boogie Man doesn't actually exist anywhere out of our own imagination, our own fear, our own fallacies and misconstruals. We're in the dark, not seeing what is truly there. So how do we get rid of the Boogie Man? I know it sounds cliché or even corny, but it's actually time to turn on the proverbial flashlight and shine it in the darkest recesses of our minds and shed some light on what we really fear.

If the monster lives under your bed, then turn the light on and throw back the covers revealing, yep you guessed it, nothing but dust bunnies and discarded toys.

If he exists in the closet, open the doors and pull the chain to flood the small space with such lumen to burn any monster to ash.

The basement holds nothing but silence till you open your mouth and introduce yourself to the spiders and boxed up Christmas decorations.

Nightmares, well they are just dreams about issues in our own lives that we can't always handle when awake. Irrational fears and delusions, even ignorance. Only way to get rid of the nightmares is to wake up. That's right, wake up and realize you, not the Boogie Man, are in control of your own destiny and you'll soon find Boogie Man fades away with the flip of a switch.
IF after all that, the Boogie Man still exists, invite him over for pizza and a cold beverage. The shock alone that acknowledges his existence should settle him down quite a bit. Might even become a great friend. Go on vacations. Bike rides. Sleepovers…..