Writer's Block: Fearsome
The boogeyman, global thermonuclear war, being forced to eat broccoli—there's a lot to be afraid of when you're a kid. What was your biggest childhood fear?
Bees and wasps, but not without good cause. When I was five years old I was playing hide and seek with some kids in the neighborhood and hid under a largish shrub that was part of a hedge separating two yards. I hunkered down in the still green shadows, patiently waiting to be found (I never made the mad dash to to the established homebase) when I felt first a prickle, then a sudden intense burning on top of my head. I don't recall being aware that I'd been stung, at first; I only remember an incredible freak out of running and screaming bloody murder, my mother coming out of the house with a magazine in hand (so much for her relaxing cup of coffee and read while the kids were outside playing.) She rolled it up and started beating me on the head with it, which added to my confusion and terror. It wasn't until she was picking the dead bodies out of my hair that I realized I'd hidden directly beneath a large wasp nest. I was double-stung again several years later - stepped on a bee, and when I put my other foot down to lift the hurt foot, I stepped on another one. I still have problems today not doing a duck and squint when a bee or wasp zips by.
Another fear I had was of being abducted by aliens, which I wrote about here a few years ago.