The Dark

The Dark

‘“Are you afraid of the dark?’ a voice came from the side of my room.

Several thoughts flashed through my mind. One, a scary monster in my room. Then, that I was dreaming. Then, whether I was awake or asleep, there was someone or something in my room. Going on the assumption that if it was going to kill me, or eat me, it wouldn’t be talking to me first, I decided to just go with the flow. My parents call that pragmatic. I don’t know if that’s good or bad but it seems to amuse them.

‘No,’ I said, ‘although, I might be afraid of things I can’t see in the dark that talk to me.’

‘Is that rude?’ the voice said.

‘Sometimes, like when you’re in someone’s bedroom in the middle of the night and you weren’t invited.’

‘Oh, I’m terribly sorry. I’ll go.’

‘You may stay if you like, now that we’ve met, or, almost met. I’m James.’

‘I’m Tran.’

‘There now we’ve met. Why are you in my room? Am I dreaming?’

‘I don’t know. I’m lost.’

‘If I turn on the light will I see you?’

‘Yes.’

I turned on the light. I was looking straight into my mirror. ‘I don’t understand,’ I said, still out loud because I was actually disappointed.

And then the mirror me said, ‘I don’t either.’ His mouth moved, mine didn’t.”

Dr. Clark listened, jotting notes, conscientiously, in his notebook. Then suddenly he stopped as a memory of his own hit like a bomb exploding in his brain. This had happened to him when he was eleven! This is how he got involved in this field! They’d convinced him it was a childhood illusion. Was it?

He turned back to James, “Do you and Tran still talk?” he asked, eagerly.