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Barn Scene Some years ago my daughter and I had occasion to live in a 100 year old farm house. Our landlord needed to leave his horse in the barn for a few weeks so my daughter volunteered to feed him. One night, after dark, I asked my daughter if she had remembered to feed Dandy. She had forgotten and said, "I'm not going out there, in the dark". I grabbed a flashlight and said, "I'm not going to do it alone. You're the one who said you would feed him and you're not getting off that easy". Reluctantly, she followed me out into the dark. The barn sat more than 100 feet from the house. My daughter, being city raised, was petrified of walking out into the pitch black night. When we reached the barn, I had her hold the flashlight while I crossed over to the side wall to find the light switch. I tossed the hay over to the horse then turned back to switch off the light. Just as I turned off the light and was headed for the barn door, my daughter let out a blood curdling scream, her eyes fixed on something behind me and obviously taller. Panic catapulted me forward as I bolted toward the door almost knocking over my daughter who was still focused on something that must have been huge, considering her eyes were still fixed on something that had to be at least 6 feet tall. Once outside the barn, I turned to see what it was that had scared her so badly but when I peered into the barn, I saw nothing out of the ordinary. "What!?", I bellowed. "A rat!" It took a second for me to focus my thoughts on what she had said. All along the walls of the barn, there was a 2"X4" board that ran lengthwise about 6 feet off the floor. This was a very old barn with holes in the walls and broken board pieces missing. Evidently, she had seen a rat poke his nose through the wall behind me. "A rat?!", I squealed in disbelief. "That's all it was? A rat!" Now I was whacking at my daughter's back while I screamed, "Don't you ever do that to me again!" |
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