Fear

Has there ever been a time in your life where you were totally scared to death? Something life threatening? Or something silly? Well I had a pretty funny experience a couple of years ago. Looking back on it now I laugh at what a coward I was on that warm summer night.

The scariest 24 hours of my life began with a phone call from my cousin Amy.
“Hey Jojo, want to come have a sleepover?”
“Of course I want to have one! You should’ve asked if my mom would let me!” I set the phone on the nightstand and ran to find my dad. Usually I ask my dad for permission to go places because my mom usually says no. So when I found my dad I begged him to let me go to my cousin’s house. Before he really had time to register the question he blurted out
“Yes of course Jojo.”I really have no idea where he got the name “Jojo,” but he’s called me that since I’ve been five. Anyway back to the story.Hastily I snatched some clothes out of my closet and fetched my toothbrush out of my bathroom drawer. You may wonder how a girl packs for a trip in about two minutes, but it’s easy for me. It’s not like I can pack any girlie things like nail polish and hair curlers for when I go to the Rivers’ house. They have seven children in their family, five boys, and two girls. Ally, ( the youngest girl in the family) loves girlie things. If I brought any make up she would put it not only on herself, but on the walls too.

Thirty minutes later I was chillin’ like Bob Dylan at Amy’s house. We decided to watch “The Pink Panther,” a movie that they had just rented. I laughed at some parts, but I still thought that it was pretty tacky. By the time that we were done watching the movie it was about 10:00 so we decided to get ready for bed. That’s when everything went wrong.
“I just thought of the best idea ever!” Amy squealed.
“What?” I yawned loudly.
“I bet it involves our sleeping arrangement.” I added.
“How did you know?” Amy asked.
“I didn’t know. I just guessed.” Amy ignored that last comment and continued.
“It’s really warm outside, why don’t we sleep on the tramp?”
“That is the best idea ever! Let’s go set up our sleeping bags!” I suggested. We skipped outside and laid our matching dark blue sleeping bags on the big black tramp. Then we headed back inside to brush our teeth. On our way to the bathroom Uncle Mike came back home from work. After working till 10:00 at night he was rather bad tempered.
“What are you girls up to?” he snapped.
“We were just setting up our sleeping bags on the tramp,” said Amy innocently.
“You were what?!?” his voice level soared.
“Go bring your sleeping bags in, right now!” he demanded angrily. So grudgingly we went to clean up everything. We walked out the back door and down the creaky old stairs onto the grass. Suddenly something big, black, and furry darted in front of us yowling at the top of its voice. “REEER!”
“AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!” screamed my cousin at the top of her lungs. I jumped a foot in the air. And together my cousin and I ran for the tramp shattering the silence of the night. We dived onto the tramp and hid in our sleeping bags.
“What the heck was that thing?!?” panted Amy.
“I think it was a cat.” I laughed uneasily.
“It must have been my neighbor’s cat, Clifford.” She assumed.
“When you screamed I thought you were being murdered.” I said seriously. At that remark we couldn’t help but giggle.
“Let’s go inside.” she suggested.

Don't worry that wasn't the scary part of the story. What I’m about to tell you is something that made shivers run up and down my spine the next morning.

I got up early in the morning and headed groggily to the dining room to see if anyone was eating breakfast. Uncle Mike, Aunt Becki, and Amy were all huddled around the round table. Lexi’s mouth was wide in horror and Aunt Becky’s eyes looked like they would pop out of her head.
“Did you hear what happened last night?” My Uncle questioned me.
“No, I just woke up.” I said, showing my talent for stating the obvious.
“Our neighbors over the fence got robbed last night.”
“What?” I gasped.
“The robber jumped over our fence to escape. They found his foot prints in our garden.” said Amy sounding as scared as I felt. Ever since that day I have been really grateful that my Uncle was so grouchy when he came home from work.