I may be all "cute puppies and rainbows" on the outside now, but on the inside, I bear the soul of a child who almost crapped his pants, no thanks to two of his uncles.

Don’t Panic

I certifiably guarantee that neither of the accused in question here will ever read this nor would they probably have the ability to use Google adequately to find my Steemit space to begin with, so I’m not holding anything back. Nor should I need to.

As a child, my mother can attest that I wasn’t exactly in the present and that I was a real dreamer. I’d sleep at school regularly, coming home with hair in the form of a birds nest and believed much of what was happening on TV was happening either just around the corner from me or not much further away.

Everything I saw was real. Despite being a cartoon, I’m also pretty sure there was a version of Spider-man swinging around New York saving people and battling villains (obviously they must have been real, too). I would sit in the bath and stare into my reflection in the tap. I can’t explain it in any way other than I felt like I was existing there in at least a few different dimensions. Looking back as an adult, it’s really bizarre, and cool at the same time.

I’ll be frank. I was a gullible, spaced out kid.

All this only amplifies what I’m about to share with you. Who knows? Maybe you won’t find this as creepy and frightening as I did. But then again, I was the multi-dimensional kid that slept at school.

As you’ve probably read earlier, my uncles introduced me to Star Wars. However, prior to me actually seeing the film and all the cutsie creatures (the Ewoks were widespread by then), Michael, the older of the two planted some seeds into my mind. Those seeds took the shape of the unknown. The two of them would talk about Darth Vader as though he were a ghost or a supernatural being, sort of like the monster under your bed. I didn’t have the context of a man in a suit just like any other bad-guy to put it all in perspective. Remember, I didn’t see the movie at that time, and with my imagination, Darth Vader was lurking about somewhere ready to frighten any naughty kid (specifically me) back into line.

I wasn’t a naughty kid, so why would Vader ever want me? It only ramped up my paranoia.

For what seemed like weeks, Damien and Michael would casually bring up Darth Vader and how he was watching me. Looking back, the persistence of it was a kind of tormented bullying. It was the regular reminding with the intent to scare me that kept me edgy whenever Vader was mentioned. My eyes would widen and both would cackle laughs of glee that my mother would eventually loathe and mock them both over. She wasn’t happy with how they chose to amuse themselves at my expense.

As I said, I had never watched Star Wars through up to this point, but I did see parts of it and was also familiar with a green monster named Yoda. He was never angry or showed ill will towards the person he was with but he looked very scary. I’d later find out that this was Luke’s training in the swamps of Dagobah. Yoda was simply an old guy trying to teach Luke how to harness the Force. I was just too scared to hang around to know any better.

My uncles played on this knowledge (or maybe I’m just giving them too much credit here) because they had conjured up their own creature who just so happened to be an entity of similar visual qualities (in my imagination) to those of Yoda – small (yet, more wiry and nimble) and green. However, this being lived in dark places, would frequent the gutters of my nan’s house, but more frighteningly, had malevolent intentions.

Michael would call out in a sing-song type manner,

“Little Jimmy, Little Jimmy! Nicholas has come over today. Isn’t that a lovely thing?”

After the call out to Little Jimmy, Michael and Damien would end in a cackle of their own quite intense maniacal laughter. They reveled in the whole thing.

Even now, my heart races as I recall those words and hearing the cackling in my mind. I envisioned Little Jimmy’s red eyes and teeth like one of the ‘Critters’ from the movie of the same name. Although he wasn’t as round. He was wiry and even more capable of harm. Mental harm and anguish.

Source

I can only assume that it all led up to this day. The morning I will never forget.

Don’t miss Part 2 which concludes this frightful trip down memory lane!

All the best,

Nick.

All content is original.

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Acknowledgements

Critters Image