Grandson for Courage

I have a little retreat in the suburb of my home city. I only spend my mornings there – reading, gardening or doing nothing – just enjoying being there. I never spend any dark evening there as I suffer greatly from phasmophobia – the fear of ghosts. I have never spent any nights there, either.

It took the company of my grandson, Daniel, who is only two and a half years old to give me the courage to spend the night there. I babysat him when he was home on holiday. We spent three nights at the retreat.

On the first night, I turned on all the lights at the pied-ā-terre. I had the lights in the bedroom switched on, too. I found it most difficult to go to bed as my imagination of ghosts had gone to overdrive. I was so terribly frightened that some spirits might suddenly appear that I had an extremely restless night.

The second night was better as I had a bit more courage then. I was able to go to bed albeit with some difficulty.

I found myself better relaxed on the third night. Daniel had finally given me the courage to be there that night.

But do you think I will be able to spend a night, all by myself, there after this?

ltbs

Coward – one who in a perilous emergency thinks with his legs.

Ambrose Bierce

Any Ghost-busters, Around?

In my younger bachelor days, I was able to stay alone, like Robinson Crusoe, on an uninhabited island, during the school holidays, to fish, snorkel and enjoy the sea. I was also unafraid, either, to follow timber lorry tracks into remote jungles where I would camp  -  Davy Crockett-like  - alone, and fish throughout the nights. I was not frightened of anything.

However, those bravura days are all gone. I am now extremely afraid of the dark. I am being hounded by horrible nightmares  -  the chasing, crushing and frightening kinds where I would find myself being crushed by a moving heavy load on my chest, struggling and fighting against it and then waking up in the small hours of the mornings. I am terribly afraid to be alone in the evenings when darkness comes.

Are there any ghost-busters  around to help this spectrophobic or phasmophobic soul?

ltbs

One hour's sleep before midnight is worth three after.
George Herbert