This occurred around 6:00am one winter morning, when I was six years old. My
two sisters and brother (Judy, Wendy, and Larry), and I were all in the bedroom Judy and I shared. We were all
playing on the bed. We were up early because my Dad was getting ready to leave for work. Dad was
a long haul truck driver and was up before the crack of dawn on the days he left. He was often gone for weeks
at a time so we didn't want to miss saying goodbye.
We were jumping about and acting positively silly, laughing and giggling, with the occasional,
"Settle down you wild bunch!" being yelled at us from my parent's room. My older sister, Judy, noticed that something
wasn't smelling too lovely. Wendy, the youngest, was in need of a diaper change. Larry and I were assigned
the task of retrieving a diaper from Wendy's room across the hall. Now, maybe as a child you weren't afraid of the dark,
but my brother and I were scared silly!
Before we left the bedroom, Larry and I made a pact to hold hands, close our eyes and
cross the hall together. When we got close enough to Wendy's dresser (how we would know with our eyes closed is
anyone's guess), we would open our eyes, grab a diaper out of the drawer, and run like the blazes back to my room. We just
got to the doorway of my little sister's room when I felt Larry let go of my hand and take off. I kept walking
for a bit and then opened my eyes thinking I must be close. I was still about three feet away from the
dresser and even though my brother had run back to the other room, I realized I was not alone.
Crawling towards me on its' hands and knees was a very small child-sized skeleton. It had
emerged from under the dresser that held my sister's clothes, and, more importantly, the diaper I was suppossed to be
getting. With a surge of adrenalin, I turned in total terror and ran at top speed back to the doorway
of my bedroom. From the doorway I jumped and landed on the floor against the wall on the other side of the bed.
I was shrieking the entire time. That alone can tell you how terrified I was. My brother Larry was already on
top of the bed. He reached down, grabbed me and pulled me up beside him. He was looking totally
terrified too. I didn't know if he was scared because of me, or if he had seen the skeleton before he took off.
My father, upon hearing all this commotion, came running into our bedroom turning on the light.
"What the heck is wrong with you?" he yelled. Believe it or not, even with the light on, from my point of view on top
of the bed, I could still see that skeleton crawling across the hallway towards our door! It crept to our doorway,
and then was out of my sight near the end of the bed where my father was standing. I started screaming at
my Dad, "It's coming Daddy, it's coming! Look out, it'll get you!" My dad was getting more frustrated by the minute!
Then at the end of the bed, I watched the skeleton as it crawled on top of the bed right beside him. I just kept
on yelling and screaming. At that point I remember throwing the covers over my head, because I could still see the little
skeleton crawling up the bed towards me. I couldn't remember what happened after that. I did try to recall
what happened next but there was a blank spot in my memory.
This topic was never discussed again until years later. Judy and I were telling scary
stories around a fire on a camping trip, while Larry and Wendy listened. Mom and Dad were off on a nature walk.
Judy asked me what had happened that early winter morning years before where I had run back into out room screaming incoherently
about "it" coming to get us. I told her about the skeleton that had crawled out from underneath Wendy's dresser and
how it had crawled towards our room. I told her I couldn't remember what happened after I threw the covers
over my head. She told me I had my father so upset that I got the spanking of my life. Larry added his memory
then and told us that he had seen the skeleton too. He had been too afraid to say anything because of my father's
reaction towards me. He said, "I did save you though, I got you back up on the bed as fast as I could after you flew
over it and hit the floor!" I thanked him and then we continued telling our spooky tales.
I asked my mother some time later where she had gotten that old dresser in my little sister's room
and what had happened to it. She told me she had bought it at a yard sale and that it had long since gone to the dump.
I guess we will never know if the two were linked, but it makes me think twice about buying used furniture!