Really, Really Scary Stuff
From the à propos of nothing
department.
Forget
goblins. Forget things that go "bump." Forget chainsaw-wielding
madmen.
The scariest thing in
the world can be a parent's voice saying your own name.
Try it: pull a memory of
something you did when you were a dumb kid. Something that truly made your
parent(s) mad, and for good reason. Now pull the memory of the parent(s) saying
your name. Just your name. Maybe it was your full name. Some parents do a
good line intoning "Firstname Middlename..." but they had to plan ahead for that
one and give you one that works for that treatment. Some middle names just
don't lend themselves to a stern, scary reprimand. Mine, for instance - it's
hard to get anything menacing out of "Adelaide." You need more staccato
consonants or spittle-spewing plosives to really get a good, scary bluster out
of a middle name.
My dad did
without my middle name when he was good and mad. He did just fine with my first
name. He managed, when well and truly cheesed off at me, to infuse my name with
all of the contempt and disgust he felt for me at that moment. The guttural
monosyllable, spat out as if he wasn't just ashamed of being my dad, but of even
knowing that I existed. Now that was
scary.
"Jill!"
Brrrr...
Posted: Tuesday - October 31, 2006 at 06:09 PM
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