Not a red chair but you get the picture.
I have a vivid memory of my childhood. I even have memories dating back to almost baby-hood or at least toddler-hood. Snippets of memories, but memories none the less. Writing has always been a peaceful little place of mine. It’s a way to tell the stories and to keep those memories. Memories are tricky little things, they have a tendency to be distorted with time and you can almost doubt certain things ever happened. But some memories, oh some of them … they stick with you and you remember every detail and when you do remember them, they need to be written … documented if you will. Like this one …
I am afraid of lizards. Like desperately afraid of them. Herpetophobia, is what its called scientifically. If there is a lizard in the room, I most certainly cannot be there. I get paralyzed with fear. I am not even exaggerating. I get stupid. The funny thing is, I remember exactly when that fear actually started …
Let’s set the scene shall we? Well as much of a ‘scene’ as could be set, seeing as I don’t remember the exact date, nor do I remember my exact age…
My sister Karina, (Fun fact: I have literally never called her that, I call her Karrie), is 11 years older than I am… although you’d never know it because she looks so young and we are so close. At the time, I was a toddler and she would have been a young teenager. On that dreadful fateful day that fear was born, Karrie and I and the stupid lizard that nightmares were made of, were in the kitchen of our childhood home. I remember clearly that she was washing dishes in the kitchen sink. Guess where I was? If you guessed that I was in the red high chair, you would be right my friends … I was sitting in the red high chair by our kitchen table, doing God knows what … probably eating, since that’s what toddlers do in high chairs … especially when said chairs are next to kitchen tables … or so I’m told.
Just to give some concept of the space at that time, the kitchen sink, where Karrie was standing, was above the cabinet that housed the trash. The kitchen table was not far away from the same sink. I quite clearly remember looking over to my sister, when my eye became fixated on a wretched lizard perched on the ledge just beneath the kitchen sink and right above the trash cabinet… You know, RIGHT NEXT TO MY SISTER! I’m sure you know the type of devil lizard I’m talking about too. We all know them … they’re the little ones that are cream coloured and semi transparent. They’re also the ones that freak me out the most … although, lets be honest, the sight of any lizard is cause enough for panic!
I have zero concept of time here, but I do remember staring at Godzilla’s little spawn for what seemed like an eternity. It was not moving. At all. Until … it fell … onto my sister’s foot! I watched it fall, then I watched it wriggle wildly and confusedly on the ground and I watched as my sister screamed bloody murder (rightfully so) and ran out of the kitchen. Yup, she got the hell outta dodge. Although she still feels so bad to this day, I don’t blame her one bit! The kitchen tap was still running … and in the kitchen two opponents remained: The animal that my sister fled from … and me, a screaming toddler …. trapped in a red high chair.
And that my friends is how a fear is born …
