Jaci Dawn

I have been thinking about updating and changing my blog for some time. Today, it came to me: it is time to write my history down. Now, before I get started, I have a disclaimer: my memories aren’t necessarily accurate. Sometimes, they are more of impressions of things, or clips of dreams, and sometimes they are short clips of things that really happened – but with embellishments for the reader. A for instance would be: smells. I don’t necessarily remember how things smelled, but I might toss in that “it smelled like fresh leather” because I know that the subject had to have smelled like…

Once in awhile, I will consult my only living family member on the facts. Other times, he will probably comment in the comments. We won’t always agree on the sequence of events or any of the details of an event. This is normal because people process information and events differently.

My life isn’t really that interesting, so I will probably include a lot of dragons and flying horses and things. That’s just in case someone decides to make a movie out of this: I’d want Steven Spielberg to be the director, not Stanley Kubric, and definitely not Woody Allen. There will be at least one Dementor.

I’m not going to sugar coat the story. If I wet the bed until I was 12 years old, I will tell you that. If I peed my panties in 5th Grade, well, that’s a true story, too. It isn’t all about the rainbows and unicorns, but sometimes it’s about the scorpions and rattlesnakes, too. I’m pretty sure Shelob makes a few appearances, and maybe Miracle Max. There’s vampires, hidden doorways, poltergeists, and religious conversions.

I started writing today, on a yellow lined notepad. Here’s my first vignette:

Bloody Bones waited in the dark hallway, rattling his chains. My stomach roiled and nausea washed over me. Bloody Bones wasn’t real…was he? Hot waves flushed over me and I regretted the hot dogs, cotton candy, and soda pop that I’d consumed at the circus in Reno yesterday. I’d been on top of the world.

I moaned. My helium balloon had exploded in the heat. The train that took us to and from Reno swayed like a boat on choppy seas. I couldn’t sleep like the other kids. Nausea escalated to vomiting and my mother pulled the car over to the side of the road so I could puke out the door. It was dark outside.

I cried. Someone on the train told ghost stories and my brother jabbed me in the ribs to scare me. Everyone laughed.

My dad would be so angry.

I wet the bed because I knew Bloody Bones was waiting in the hallway, and now I threw up. I had to get my mom to help me. My dad was no longer as frightening as the spectre in the hallway. I made it to the bedroom door, but I couldn’t go any further. Bloody Bones was there. I could feel him. He was by the kitchen and I could hear him sliding down the hallway to get me.

I whimpered for my mom to wake up and save me…

*All kid trip to Reno for the 3-ring circus. Little kids, like my sister, couldn’t go, but I was a big kid. Probably 1st or 2nd Grade.