The Dark Side of Imagination

I think having a healthy imagination is a very good thing. However, it can have its drawbacks. As I mentioned yesterday, I'm playing bachelor this week while my family is out of town. While I enjoy a little peace and quiet, being in a house all alone is a bit...odd...when you're used to being in a home with three other people. The lack of laughter, crying, the TV, or just the sounds of the boys' bedtime music playing leaves me with nothing other than the creaks and groans of the floorboards. Now, I don't believe in the supernatural. The only ghosts and goblins waiting in the shadows are those found in my games and writing. However, there are times when my imagination runs away with me, and I'm currently dealing with one of those times.

My parents gave my 1 year old a giant singing reindeer for Christmas. This thing is almost taller than Grayson, and its sitting down! When we got home from my folks house after Christmas, I placed it on the futon in our basement play room. It "stares" at the stairwell leading upstairs, and it's the first thing you see when you come downstairs. It just sits there (unless you press the button on its hoof, then it sings carols) staring blankly with its beady little black eyes. I hadn't payed it much attention until today. I was getting recycling gathered to take to bins and I looked at it. It almost seemed like it was staring back at me. The thought gave me chills.

Now, it's dark out, and the thought that gnaws at the back of my mind is if that thing is monstrous? It could silently stalk me throughout the house. I'm sitting at my desk in my man-cave and that thing is right outside. I find myself glancing into the playroom half-expecting to see a shadow. Every time I walk out into the playroom, I expect to see a subtle shift in the way its sitting on the futon, or even a dramatic change in position to set me screaming like a wildman out into the night!

It's all crap though. These images are just the by-product of an over-active, and likely over-indulged, imagination. I'm not honestly scared of a partially animatronic stuffed reindeer, but my imagination won't let loose of the idea. Maybe I'll put the reindeer in my son's room so I won't have to see it...but then it could start plotting with the Elmos he got for Christmas...everyone know how evil those things are...