by Sadie Grey

Created on: October 07, 2008

I was supposed to be in bed. At nine years old, I should have been.

The house was dark, save light from the television in the living room. Mom was sitting on the couch, which sat on the opposite side of the dining room wall. Mom always sat at the dining room table, working crossword puzzles or reading while she waited for Dad to come home from work.

I was curious and had to know why she wasn't at the table. With the house in darkness, I made my escape from my bedroom. I crept through the dining room and hunkered down next to the arched doorway, right behind her. As long as she did not get up, I'd be okay.

Eerie music came from the television and I began to watch. A man and woman are sleeping but a child is crying. The man, sleepily, makes his way down the hall. A dog is standing outside glass doors, barking wildly. The man tells the dog to be quiet.

When he gets to his daughters room, hes surprised to see the bed is empty even though he can still hear her crying. He teases her about falling out of bed, reaches for her and shes not there. He and his wife make a desperate search for their child but cannot find her. Yet, she is in the house; the little girl, by no fault of her own, had moved into the Twilight Zone.

I didn't move a muscle while I watched this show. So enrapt with the frightening fact that the little girl was in some invisible portal of another dimension simply swept me away. My active rather over active imagination was in full tilt. At nine, words like invisible and other dimension excited me and I lay in bed afterward, pondering what it would be like to be in a portal. The end of the world was thrilling!

Ahh, I loved being scared. As I grew older, the end of the world became exciting with aliens, and haunted houses would soon become my favorite. Since 1962, my love of being frightened hasn't changed. Anything that is spellbinding, which keeps me on the edge of my seat, literally, is good enough for me. Blood and gore is about the only thing that turns me off. That's not what it takes for me to enjoy a good movie or show. I could go into all the great movies but they are too numerous and for another time.

Never did I contemplate being a witness or part of something so frightening. I was fifteen years old and it was close to Halloween.

On any given Saturday night, I would stay up and watch the all night movies. They started after the news and continued throughout the night until dawn. The movies were not always horror or science fiction but mysteries, drama

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