In Broad Daylight

Heidelberg, Transvaal, 1989


I was 16. It was a Saturday afternoon at our 3 bedroom house in Heidelberg, near Johannesburg and I was in my room, as always, drawing. My Metallica was not too loud, as I needed to concentrate on what I was drawing and in the next room the rugby was starting.

My parents were big rugby fans, like 95% of the country and it was apparently some big match semi-final or something, so the TV was loud in the living room. It was about 2pm on a sunny day and my curtains were wide open so I would have proper light for drawing.

The sun rays fell in thick streaks over my mattresses (I did not have a bed. I was allowed to decorate my own room and I wanted to sleep on the floor) as the match wore on and I could hear my parents cheering in the next room. Occasionally my dad would scream profanities at the ref, which pretty much told me how the match was progressing.

I switched off Metallica to catch a catnap, as the concentration on the drawing's detail was fatiguing me. I walked over to my cupboard to put away the drawing pad and suddenly felt like I had no energy in my entire body. The air in the room felt really heavy and I felt like I was moving under water. But I just thought I might be tired form drawing.

I sat down on my "bed" and sorted my tape collection because I had tapes lying everywhere on my bed. I was still busy reading the names on the labels, when I could have sworn my bed shifted an inch. My whole body went ice cold with adrenaline and I tried really hard to put it out of my mind, but you know sometimes you are so scared that you can pretend to read labels all you like, but your brain keeps saying "There is a fucking ghost in here" :-))

Again, the bed shifted and I heard the next kick-off in the living room. Then, the bed MOVED. It moved so powerfully, that I was almost thrown off and I clutch both sides of the mattress with my hands, my heart exploding in fear.
With all this, all that was going through my mind was how I was being cheated in the rules of the supernatural....I kept thinking how unfair it was that this was happening in broad daylight and how impossible that is supposed to be!!! I knew my room was iffy at best, but this shit is only supposed to happen in the dark, man!!!

My dad screamed at the referee again and my mom laughed heartily, as the bed propelled across the room with me on it, IN THE BRIGHT HAPPINESS OF THE SUNSHINE outside! I was terrified, and hearing my folks in the room right next to me, was just cruel. I tried to scream at the top of my lungs, but not even a whimper came out!!!
My scalp was so taut from goosebumps, that I thought my face was gonna tear in two, the hair on my arms and legs stood on end as if an electric current went through me. Still I screamed in mute panic, trying to stay on the violently shifting bed which moved completely to the other side of the room.
I was right next to the window where the bright sun light was and the irony still confounded me.

My mom suddenly knocked loudly on the door and came in. The bed stopped shaking at once and there I sat, my eyes like saucers in my head, next to the window. She looked at me, quite unfazed at the obvious terror in my face and said : " Oh nice, you moved your bed. I always told you you need more fresh air in your room," pointing at the open window.

I dared not tell her what really happened, because although she is a believer in the paranormal, she always blamed all the weird shit on my music.
"Yes, its that devil music that you listen to" or "Its the metal that makes you hate your drunk father".......you know, eventually you don't bother anymore.
I wonder what HER excuse was when the things that bump, bumped her! She is a Country Music fan.