Lighting

Reply to: I had recurring nightmares that terrified me when I was 7 or 8 years old. I was afraid to be in our living room alone at night because of the "electric motorcycle man" from my dreams who'd come to the front door, lights flashing all over his motorcycle and his suit, and whose touch could electrocute you. I was afraid to go into the basement alone because of the witch who lived there in my dreams with an axe and a chopping block. I don't know the source of those dreams. A few years later, living in another city, I secretly peeked over the back seat of our Rambler at a drive-in movie with my parents when they thought I was asleep and watched a science-fiction movie (the second movie in a double feature) about a test pilot who was propelled too far into space and came back to earth as a monster covered in crust and thirsting for blood (see photo). I spent each night for the next several months with a pillow over my eyes and covers pulled up to my nose because I imagined him at my bedroom window. I finally gave that up when it got hot later in the summer and my sister who shared the room with me seemed okay without those precautions.

Q