the SPOOKY room

Terry, Abby and Ryan came over tonight to play for a while. We got McDonald's for everybody, ate dinner, played some, then went to the Halloween Fun Night put on by the city. When we got there, Emily noticed a huge bouncy slide, so we made our way over to that.

Per the norm, it took Emily once with me helping her up before she warmed up to the idea of doing it herself, but once she did, we spent about the next 20 minutes watching her do laps around the thing, sliding down, running over, jumping onto the ladder, then sliding down again.

During these laps, Terry and her kids decided to go through the "Haunted House" in the back of the facility. They came back shortly after, Abby and Ryan didn't look too pleased. Terry told us it was pretty scary in there. As she was talking to us, Emily became quite interested in the conversation. After she was finished, Emily looked up at me and said, "Daddy, I want to go in the spooky room."

Perspective: Two nights ago Leslie heard a thump outside while I was putting Emily to bed, and asked from the computer room, "What was that?" Emily sensed something in her mother's voice, and like a switch had been thrown somewhere inside her nervous system, began crying and asking what was going on. It took about thirty minutes of reassuring her that there was no dog outside barking (and I was praying the stray dog that had been hanging out by our house wouldn't come back any time soon) or any other noises before she managed to go to sleep.

Perspective: At Wal Mart, when we're shopping and we get to the mask section, Emily tells me to put on a mask, then immediately asks me, "Daddy, is that you in there?" And VERY shortly after, "Daddy, take it off."

"Emily, it's really scary in there, are you sure you want to go in the spooky room?"

"Yes."

I looked over at Leslie, and she had that look on her that I could read instantly: "If you are crazy enough to encourage this, you are going to deal with the outcome." I didn't mind that challenge one bit, so we started moving toward the door. Between that point and the door, I asked Emily no less than three hundred and sixty two times if she was sure she wanted to go in the room. Each time, she said, "yes." So we continued.

As we neared the door, we could hear loud voices, sounding as if they were over an intercom system, as well as lots of screams. I was trying to gauge Emily's responses, but she seemed okay. I looked at her and told her, "Emily, everything in that room is pretend, and all the masks are from Wal Mart."

"Okay."

At this point I was beginning to second guess my judgment. I looked back over at Leslie. Yup, same look. I asked Emily again. Yup, same answer. So there we were at the front of the line. A few seconds later, a couple of kids came screaming out of there at full speed. I glanced at Emily, she showed no signs of backing off... Then the door opened for us.

As the door creaked open, I could see some stuff hanging from the ceiling that looked to be spider webs, ghosts and other spooky stuff. At the end of the first corridor (made of trash bags for walls) there hung a skeleton, which was glowing under the florescent flashing lights. I took one step in the room, and Emily said calmly, "I don't want to go in here Daddy." Out we went. Total time in room: 4 seconds.

We came out, Leslie had a pretty big grin on her face. "That was quick," she said laughing. So, back to laps at the slide.

About five minutes later, Emily walked up to me and said, "I want to go back to the spooky room." Now, you can throw all the evidence in the world that this kind of thing isn't genetic, but the resemblance to Leslie was uncanny at this point. I could tell how badly Emily wanted to be scared, but at the same time, wanted nothing to do with it. Leslie LOVES scary movies (they're the kind of movie we both can agree on), but then attaches herself to me for the next several hours (and I love scaring her during those times more than just about anything else.. it's the little things in life that make it all worth while :) So, off we went, back to the room.

The man at the door was smiling as we neared the front of the line. He tried to assure Emily that there wasn't anything real in the room, just all pretend. The door creaked open, and in we went, again.

As we neared the end of the first corridor, we noticed a group of two young girls and their father behind us. As I rounded the first corner, I saw the long hall formed by trash bags, and began wondering at what points those bags were going to come apart with somebody jumping out in front of us... So, I asked the girls and dad behind us to go ahead of us, hoping I could diminish the initial shock when people came jumping out, using the ones in front as bait. As they passed us, Emily said, "I don't want to go in there." Out we went. Total time in room: 34 seconds.

It was about time to go. Terry rounded up her kids, we said our goodbyes, and away they went. We were packing up getting ready to go, and Emily began insisting that we go back to the room. After some convincing, we went back, for the FINAL time in the room.

As the door opened this time, the man at the door called in, "we've got a young one coming in," then looked at me and said, "they'll go easy on her." This was it, I figured if we could make it past the first corner, I'd just push through as quickly as possible.

We rounded that first corner and she started crying. Not an all out cry, but a "why did I do this?" cry. I could tell she wanted to get through this, she was mustering up every ounce of bravery that she could. I could see people behind the bags as we walked down the hall, and I knew they were taking it easy on us, as they just stayed back there, not popping out. Then we reached the first big turn, and there was a cell with a strange clown looking dude with a lollipop. He looked at Emily and asked, "You wanna lollipop?" I figured Emily wouldn't even answer, she never does with even regular looking people if she doesn't know them, but not this time. She looked right back at him and said (pretty sternly, if I remember correctly), "NO." Okie dokie, and off we went. As we turned that corner, I could tell all that bravery she had pushed up to answer that scary man had pushed her over the edge, and she began to lose it. I picked up the pace, and there was a guy poking out of the "wall" with a scary mask on. He could tell things were going south quick, so he just waved. Didn't help too much. I whipped around the next corner, and we were out!

She lost it for a few moments, but calmed down enough to thank the man for the skittles and dots he gave her, then off we went. As we neared the car, Emily told us, "maybe when I'm... TEN I'll go into the spooky room." I told her, "Emily, you already went in there, and you were VERY BRAVE!"

"No, I'll go when I'm ten."

"Okay."

We didn't talk much on the way home. She just played games on my iPhone. We got home, and I was sitting with her at the computer before we got ready for bed, and out came the question...

"Daddy, can you tell me the story about me and the spooky room?"

So, I began to replay the details of our evening together. I watched her face as I described the room, and I could tell how proud of herself she was for making it through it. I was pretty proud too.