What Scared You As A Child?

Tawny Stokes - Jodie

A fierce wind blew up against the house. It battered at the window, rattling the glass pane. It was as if someone or something wanted in, desperately. Running from something? Or trying to catch something? Namely, ten-year-old me. I pulled the covers up tighter to my nose; I was in a pink and black checkered cocoon, making sure none of my limbs were sticking out from the protection of the blanket. Everyone knew that the Boogeyman only grabbed body parts hanging over the bed frame with no bedspread force-field around it. But it wasn't the Boogeyman I was afraid of that cold dark night. Nope, it was Jodie.

Who or what is Jodie you may be asking yourself? Well, she's a complicated being with many layers, much like an onion. When I first met her she was a giant, stuffed, pink pig with large glassy expressive eyes. She was a gift from my mom, I think. For Christmas? My birthday maybe? I collected stuffed animals. I had a lot of them, but that pig was special. She was great to cuddle with. But that night, something changed. Jodie changed.

She sat as she always had on the very end of my bed, watching me, protecting me my mom had suggested. I stared at her from over top the edge of my warm blanket. The whites of her eyes seemed to glow in the dark. Not the happy playful glow of a firefly's butt, but the menacing malevolent burn of hellfire. I closed my eyes, trying to block her out. Thoughts of a secret attack crept up on me, and I quickly opened them again. If she was coming to get me, I wanted to see it so I could protect myself.

Jodie hadn't always been scary. She used to be my cuddle buddy. Jodie hadn't initially been her name either. When I first got her, I called her Piggles. That was until I saw the movie Amityville Horror. Obviously not a movie for children, but I managed to watch it when my big sister let me (she likely encouraged it so I would be frightened to death. We didn't always get along) while babysitting me one night when my parents went out. This is not a movie for an impressionable ten-year-old with an overactive imagination.

The movie was was based on a true story, which of course made it infinitely worse. It's really creepy but the creepiest part of it was the little girl had an imaginary friend who she talked to all the time. This friend was called Jodie. And when the little girl drew pictures of her friend, they were always of some pig-like creature. So, yes after watching that movie, I thought it would be cool to call my special pig friend Jodie.

Biggest mistake of my then ten-year-old life.

My heart pounded against my ribs. It felt like they were going to crack open from the intense impact. I swallowed down the irrational fear rising in me. My Jodie couldn't possibly be the evil creature from the movie. Renaming her Jodie had just been a lark. Nothing MADE me do it. I was just being silly, trying to be tough in the face of fear. The evil spirit of the pig-like creature from the movie wasn't real. It didn't attach itself to my innocent stuffed animal through the TV set. That was impossible.

I relaxed a little; my rational thoughts soothing me for a moment. Maybe I could close my eyes and go to sleep. I had to get up for school in seven hours. I needed my sleep. Then Jodie jumped off the bed.

I froze, my eyes wide, my hands gripping the covers tight. What should I do? If I looked over the side, she'd gouge out my eyes. She'd rip my throat out so I couldn't scream. Breathing hard, my body shaking with terror, I considered my options. I didn't have many. It was fight or flight.

It was about twenty steps to my parent's room. I'd be safe there. But I had to cross my bedroom floor to the closed door first. That was going to take some fancy footwork. Closing my eyes for a moment, I tried to control my breathing. One, Mississippi. Two, Mississippi, Three, Mississippi. My eyes flicked open, I threw off my bed covers, and I made a dash for it. In three giant leaps I'd reached my door. But then I made the mistake of stopping and looking back over my shoulder.

Jodie was there, on the floor, crawling toward me on her stubby foamed-stuffed limbs. She was looking right at me, straight into my soul. I let out a little yelp, flung open the door and ran across the hall to my parent's room. Thankfully they slept with their door open. I dashed inside, jumped onto the bed and hugged my mom. I'd made it. I was safe. Jodie never got me.

At least not that night.

Here is Jodie, 35 years later. Still protecting me from darkness. 

Creepy photo, huh? Did you have a childhood toy that freaked you out? Tell us!