Leave A Light

Lucy had a profound fear of the dark.

Each night her daddy attempted to comfort her and reason her out of it and each night she would tremble and cry until he left a lantern burning. He would gently ask her what she was afraid of but she could never say - she saw faces of monsters everywhere, in the clouds, in the water, and especially outside her window at night in the scratchy tree branches. She'll grow out of it, her stepmother said dryly but Claude wasn't so sure. He was careful to leave her bedroom door open slightly and covered her window with dark cloth but shutting out the moonlight only made things worse. By the time she was ten, she'd begun sleepwalking and her daddy took to spending his nights in a rocking chair outside her room - several nights a week he would intercept her and carefully guide her back to her bed. She turned twelve and things were no better - Charlotte's patience ran out and with a handful of nasty words to Claude, she packed her things and left. Child needs a doctor not a jailer, she complained bitterly to my mother, And I need a man not a nursemaid.

Lucy's sleepwalking abruptly stopped with Charlotte's departure, a fact Claude took particular notice of although he said nothing, but her nightmares continued. One summer doctor suggested a variety of sleep medications, Rowena volunteered her herb cures, Aunt Vi suggested a dog. Only this last made any sense to Claude and when Uncle Shad's hound produced a litter of puppies, he took Lucy to pick one out for her very own, a rough coated, short legged and long bodied mix of God knew what - Lucy immediately christened him Daniel, he was about to enter a den of lions, she explained to Claude - and the two became inseparable. With Daniel sleeping by her side, Lucy's nightmares faded and eventually stopped completely and her fear of the dark, although with her for the rest of her life, diminished considerably.

To demean or dismiss a fear in another is to strengthen it. It must be dismantled and dissected, piece by piece, until it's proved false or harmless. It's a slow, up and down process but sometimes a hand to hold, a warm body at your side, a light left burning or a dog called Daniel can help you find the way through.