The Woods Behind the House

As a kid I was always afraid of the woods behind my house. I never knew why and I wasn’t afraid of other woods but the woods behind my house scared me.

When I was 10-years-old I was left alone over night for the first time. I had been alone in the hose before, when my parents went to the store or out for something but never more than a few hours. This was the first time they trusted me enough to stay home when they had to leave for a few days (which was rare).

They were going to a wedding in Vegas, across the country. My mother made me meals I could microwave, they wrote down all the phone numbers and put them on the refrigerator, I’m sure my father hid somethings. They asked me multiple timed If I wanted to stay at our neighbors. Each time I said ‘no’. They hugged me and kissed me, Mom called me her “brave little man”. Friday afternoon they left to catch their plane.

Friday night, alone for the first time at night, I stayed up after bed time, ate ice cream for dinner, and watched HBO (it was the first time I saw a nude women). I went to bed at about twelve. Laying in the dark, I finally began to feel alone. What was worse was the feeling didn’t last, I felt something there. I told my self I was too old to believe in monsters, that there was nothing there. Then I saw something out of the corner of my eye. It might have been my imagination, a shadow from a bird flying past the Window, or more likely that mouse that we couldn’t get rid of (I think he was Jerry because it knew how to get the cheese off the traps without setting them off). I panicked, ran out of my room and slept in my parents bed.

The next morning I woke up to the phone ringing, I barely got to in time to answer it. It was my parents checking on me. They asked me if I was scared and how I slept. I lied, I told them everything was fine. Mom asked me if I ate the dinner she made, I lied there too. They made sure I had the phone number to the chapel (this was before cell phones were ubiquitous), told me they loved me, she called me her “brave little man” again before hanging up.

I made me cereal, watched my cartoons, took a nap on the couch. In the afternoon I went out side to play. I pretended I was a base ball player, throwing a ball in the air and trying to hit it. I hit it, in, into the woods. I had lost many ball that way and that was my last one. I yelled “No!” and I wanted to cry. I remembered my mothers words: “my brave little man” and in my ten-year-old mind I took those words seriously.

I decided to face me fears and go into those woods. Going into those wood alone when my parents weren’t home was a bad idea but I was ten, I didn’t think ahead. I slowly walked into the woods, to where my ball landed. I picked the baseball up and threw it into the yard, I saw other balls I lost and threw those into the yard as well. I should have went back into the yard but I was ten. I walked further into those wood, being a “brave little man”.

I wasn’t sure how far I was into the woods when I saw something, a human figure with antlers or more likely an antler headdress. It scared me enough that I ran without thinking about where I was running, so I got lost. Being lost caused me to panic even more ran, I tripped on a fallen branch and knocked myself out.

When I woke I was on a couch in a house I had never been in. I was scared then I herd the owner. “Good, your awake, I was about to take you to the doctor.” It was a women I had met before (it was a smallish town), I remembered her name, Gwendolyn.

I asked her were I was. “My place.” She told me. “You’re lucky I herd you otherwise you might still be in the woods.”

“You herd me?” I asked.

“Yes. Why were you screaming out there?”

“I saw something,” I told her, “like a man with antlers.”

“Ah, there are things in those woods but you shouldn’t be afraid of them” she told me as she examined my forehead. “Looks like your cut is sealing up.”

I felt my forehead, the right side hurt when I touched it and there was a sticky substance on it.

“You hit your head hard, I put some salve on your cut. It should heal right up, you might not even have a scare.”

I heard ding of a timer. Gwendolyn went into the kitchen, she returned and handed me a mug of something. It had a green liquid in it, it stunk. “It smells gross.” I said.

“And it tastes terrible as all good medicine does. Drink it up, it will make you feel better.

“I called your parents, they didn’t answer.”

“They’re not home.” I shouldn’t have told her but I was ten and unused to being home alone.

“They’re not?”

“No, they’re at a wedding in Vegas.”

“Los Vegas?”

“Yeah.”

“Do they leave you home alone a lot?” There was concern in her voice, maybe some judgment. I didn’t register it as a child.

“No, it’s the first time.”

“Oh. Did they say you could play in the woods while they were gone?”

I almost lied but I’ve always been a bad liar in person. “No, they said not to leave the property.” I looked at the stuff in the mug. I could see different shades of green and something oily on the surface.

“Drink it up, it’s for concussions. Why did you go in the woods if they told you not to?”

“I lost my base ball in the woods.”

“Drink it.” She told me sternly. “Just hold your nose and gulp it down, all at once. It’s the best way.”

I looked at the green stuff in the mug then forced it down. It was nasty, the kind that brings tears to your eyes. I coughed after getting it down. “Eww it was gross.” I coughed.

“All good medicine is.” She took the mug, putting it on her coffee table. “You must have hit that baseball far.”

“No. The woods are scary. They’ve always been scary. Mom called me her ‘brave little man’ so I faced my fear and went into the woods. Then I saw that man and got scared. I guess I’m not a brave little man.” I looked down at the floor. I so wanted to be the brave little man Mom called me.

Gwendolyn touched my chin, pushing my head up. “Brave doesn’t mean you’re not afraid, brave means acing in spite of fear. You are brave but you should have waited for your mom or dad or someone who knows the woods to go with you, so you wouldn’t get lost.”

Even as a ten year old I know she was right. I knew I should have waited until my parents got home. Childhood is for mistakes though, so that we learn from them.

“Why are you afraid of the woods?” She asked me.

“I don’t know, they’re scary.”

“You could feel it, the weakness in the veil. Such things are scary if you don’t know what they are. People fear what they don’t understand.”

“Veil?” I asked never having herd of it before.

“It is the wall separating our world and other worlds. Some people can feel differences in the veil, you must be one of those people.”

“Like, I’m magic?” I found the idea appealing.

“Every one is magic but some are better at sensing than others.”

“You can sense it?”

“Yes, I’m a witch.”

The statement shocked me. This was before Harry Potter, most of the depictions of witches I had seen and read were evil.

“But a good witch, like Glenda. I don’t curse people, bad magic comes back on the caster. That’s why evil witches look like old crones.” She was half joking when she said it, I didn’t catch it though.

Gwendolyn looked out the window, back at me. “It’s getting late, I’ll drive you home.”

“Drive, but if you drive me the neighbors might see and tell mom and dad. I’ll get in trouble and they’ll never let me be home alone again.” It’s strange how as a child your mind goes to the worst scenario you can think of when you think you’re going to be in trouble. Of course your worst scenario is not the worst and it’s never nearly as bad as you think it is was going to be.

“Well you shouldn’t have left the property. And yes they will.”

“No they won’t and I’ll be baby sat the rest of my life.” Gwendolyn looked at me. “Please.” I pleaded.

Gwendolyn sighed. “Fine, I think I know how to get to your house through the woods, but you have to tell them that you broke the rules.”

“But-”

“It’s that or I drive you home.”

She walked me home though the woods. I didn’t see that man again but it did feel strange and I did see things that looked weird but in a way that is difficult to explain. When I saw my house I thanked Miss Gwendolyn and ran home. That night I slept in my room. I did see something moving but this time I brought a flashlight, it was the mouse. I yelled at the mouse and it fled.

My parents got home Sunday afternoon. “There’s my brave little boy!” Mom said to me. “Did you eat all the ice cream?” Dad asked jokingly, I didn’t answer.

Noticing the cut on my forehead Dad asked me what happened. I told them I went into the woods but left out the part about me getting seeing that man, getting lost, and knocking myself out. I just said I tripped. They probably saw through that though.

“You should not have done that, what if you were seriously hut?” Dad said to me. He sighed, “At least your facing your fear now.” They were probably too tired to be angry and I was safe.

For lunch we ate the food I didn’t eat. I asked them how the wedding was, Mom said it was boring, Dad game them six months, he was two months off.

After that I never feared the woods again. I would go into the woods to explore, I even met the man with the antler headdress. I would go to Gwendolyn’s, she would teach me magic.