I am participating in the NaBloPoMo challenge for May. It should be a fun one. It is titled: Play.
Toady’s topic: Are there monsters under your bed?
That’ s a good question. For the better part of a year I slept on a queen mattress on the floor of my bedroom in Alaska while I was renovating, or shall we say fixing up, the place that I aptly call Forto’s Fort. (Then my wife finally moved up and we had to get a proper bed frame).
So with the mattress firmly in place on the floor, there was absolutely no way that monsters could live under my bed. Dust bunnies the size of Great Danes, yes. Monsters, no.
That doesn’t mean that they don’t lurk in my closet or in the attic. Boy do I have a story to share…
It was shortly after the winter solstice, the shortest days were upon us in Alaska which means it is only daylight for a few hours during the day. The rest of the time we are blessed (or some would say a cursed) with darkness for long periods of time.
Around midnight as Michele and I settled into bed and drifted off to sleep I could hear faint music coming from what sounded like the attic. It sounded like old-timey tunes from the roaring 20s. You know that Big Band stuff?
It kept playing and playing until I got up the nerve to get out of bed and go check it out. I thought maybe I left the TV on or one of the kids had iTunes going or something. Nope not at all.
The music continued to play. It sounded scratchy like it was on an old phonograph or something.
Lying there still as a board we couldn’t help but lay there and listen. You couldn’t quite make out the words but you could definitely hear the music.
At some point we drifted off to sleep.
There are some nights you can still hear the music playing in the attic. Spooky isn’t it?
I guess it doesn’t help that I am a huge horror movie fan and I have read just about every word that Stephen King has ever printed.
Monsters under my bed? Nah. Poltergeists in my attic? Let’s hope not!
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Robert Forto is mushin’ down a dream in the wilds of Alaska. He and is wife are raising two teenagers at Forto’s Fort.
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