The Night I Saw the Boogieman

One night when I was very young I saw the Boogieman in my bedroom.   


True . . . I think it has to be one of my earliest memories.

I must have been about three because I clearly remember the bars on my crib. 


 I shared the room with my two older sisters, Ellen and Lenore. As older sisters thru the ages they loved to tease the younger one.
 As we were falling asleep they would tell me the Boogieman lived in the big walk-in closet that was next to my bed.
  
I remember It had a flowered curtain for a door, and if the window was open it would move in the breeze.

My sisters said it was the Boogieman waking up, and that he would "get" me in my sleep!  Then they would laugh.

I had a very good imagination and would often see monsters in the folds of the blankets at the end of the bed. I remember scaring myself quite often. 


 If I heard a noise from the closet I would try not to move or breathe.


One night I woke when I heard something moving around in the closet. 


 Something pulled the on the chain to turn on the small overhead light bulb in the closet.  I could see the shadow of a large creature on the other side of the curtain.  Moving around.


The light went out. 


 I froze.  


It was coming out to "get" me!


I squeezed my eyes tight shut and wished I had thought to pull the cover up over my head.  
To late.  If I moved it would see me.


I felt it move toward my crib.  It paused and then drifted quietly toward the hall door.


I peaked, and saw the back of the large fluffy white creature.  


I never forgot, and believed my sisters.

Years later I realized exactly what I had seen.  
My mother!  
She had a big white fluffy bathrobe. 


 I didn't see her in it very often.  She was always up with my father at the break of dawn. And of course she was fully dressed when we went to bed at night.


But that big old robe probably became the boogieman's coat in the dark bedroom.


Maybe not . . .


        Maybe he was real ...
Audio Version: Merikay tells the Story