Night Sounds and Shadow Puppets

       I am five or six years old and it is an unusually cool summer night in 1961. It is around 2 AM but I am one of those kids who hate to sleep, wandering around the house at all hours or staring out into the night, like this night. Not a whole lot moving ..., St. Louis is still pretty much a cow-town at this time, at least this part of it.

        When a car does actually move down the street I am treated to very brief shadow puppet shows on my bedroom wall. I learn to remember the shapes of shadows and how they move. I am a shadow physics savant but even I don't know about it. I had a little toy slide projector for a brief time but because I was also one of those kids who broke their toys, my research was short-lived.

        A cool breeze blew in through the window but I am also aware of the sound of something giant breathing in the background. Not the breathing of something sleeping, but the breathing of something watching. I know it is not God. I hope it is flying saucers. 

        I finally start to tire out and lay down, making sure not to face the side of the room where I was pretty sure the devil lived.

                               **********************************