I have a confession.

Hello, my name is Susannah and I am afraid of the dark.

Terrified.

Well, not the dark itself, but what may be in the dark.

Last night, at approximately 12:25 a.m., the power went out. I was standing at the bathroom sink. I froze. I didn't know what to do. A smart person would take this as a clue to go to bed. Not me. I stood there at the counter, being freaked out by the little bit of light I could see, as it was reflected about thirty-eight times (we have mirrors on opposite walls, reflecting into eachother.)

I turned to leave the bathroom and walked straight into the door. (Genius, aren't I?) After fumbling around to open it, I froze again in the open doorway. I couldn't see a thing, therefore I was afraid to move. I made my way to the balcony overlooking the entryway and I could see my neighboors, through the large window, wandering around their house with flashlights. That's what I needed! I made my way down the stairs, clingly tightly to the banister. When I reached the entry I could hear my father walking around his room. I saw him weilding a flashlight. Again, a reminder I needed a light source of my own. I saw a tiny white light in the corner of the room. Meridith's laptop! (Yeah, she just got a new iBook. Don't worry, I hate her for it enough for all of us.) I immediately ran in the direction of the laptop--smacking into a chair and the coffee table in the process. I grabbed the laptop and opened it. I held it up to me, facing outward, and used it as a flashlight as I wandered around the house looking for matches.

I finally found the matches in the cupboard and headed back up to my room--still using the laptop's screen as a flashlight.

When a sane person would have just gone to sleep, I lit every candle in my room and stayed up another hour reading a book.

...It was kind of a Signs moment. I knew there had to be a reason I had six unburned candles strewn about my bedroom.