Monday, August 12, 2013

i miss out on one of the sweetest pleasures of summer.  balmy, starlit summer nights.  and especially the silvered hour of nightfall.  it's rare that i can sit and sink into the nightness around me and enjoy the gentle air on my skin.  and if i do, i can't be alone.  there is safety in numbers.  i have a fear.  i don't have many fears that control me.  but this one, i admit, has quite a hold on me.  i'm terrified of bats.  and our lakeside neighborhood is quite full of them.  swooping into our yard nightly on quite a strict schedule.  and at the cottage, it's much the same.  and at the farm.....don't even let me think about that.  you see 39 years ago, we moved to the farm with it's elegant limestone farmhouse, graceful gardens and waving fields.  but one of the first evenings....in those silver moments as the day fades, my parents were pushing me on the swing that hung from one of a dozen huge elm trees in the yard and bats started to pour from the eaves.  at first my parents were lost in the idyll of the moment, and they thought the air was full of swallows.  until my father shouted, 'those aren't swallows, they're BATS'
my father is a determined and driven man, so the next morning, he had a ladder up to the eaves and with a putty knife and pink insulation, he spent the day stuffing every crack and possible opening there was.  and then night came again.  my little slope ceilinged room so sweetly tucked under the eave, seemed attacked from
above.  the rush of flapping bat wings, trapped in the attic now, thundering  above my head and the squeals echoing and bouncing between the stone of the walls and my ceiling.  there was panic.  my father had done his job well and the eaves were frighteningly secure.  the only escape for the adventurous few was directly into the house. 
i don't need to continue do i......the 7 1/2 year old that i was, has never recovered from that day.  believe me, that wasn't the end of the drama, but, i panic and hyperventilate and shriek at the first dark swoop and flap of wing.  i don't care how many mosquitos they eat. 

5 comments:

  1. this is quite a common,fear, I would say you are not alone, what a terrifying happening, stay in, its not worth the fear, at all, you have my sympathies,

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  2. I never knew why you were afraid of them. You never told me the story. Now I understand and I am so sorry the fear makes you unable to enjoy the night. I love summer nights and the bats, but I am sure I wouldn't if I had lived through your experience.

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  3. I remember this now (the fear, not the horror story) and I'm so sorry. xo

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  4. eeeek, i can certainly understand why this fear took hold after reading the story about it. too bad you cant enjoy a balmy summer evening outdoors now; last night's moon was a glorious almost full with a big happy face.

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  5. This makes my fear of the 17-year Cicada seem quite silly. Bats. Eek. They are far scarier.

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