The Boogey Man

One of my earliest memories as a child happened when I was about three years old. My parents and my aunt and uncle all lived together, so there were four adults and seven children living in a rather large house together. At night my mom usually had me and my cousin and my older sisters at home. The house we lived in was a 1950's style house with a laundry room by the back door. One night we were home and my cousin and I were playing in the kitchen while my mom ran laundry; she would go back and forth between the laundry room and the kitchen checking on uo. We were happy playing in the kitchen floor, but every once and a while we would venture into the laundry room to ask my mom a question. On one such trip into the laundry room my cousin and I were standing at the door and noticed a man peering into the back door of our house. Of course we were a bit curious as to who he was and why he was standing at our back door, but my mom wasn't saying anything, so maybe it was no big deal. Of course, being three and four years old neither me or my cousin deduced that perhaps my mom was not saying anything because her back was to the door and she couldn't see the man peering inside. We asked our question and then left the laundry room. When we got to the kitchen we began discussing the strange man at the door. If mom knew him, why did she not let him in? If she wasn't letting him in, why was he at the door?
After a few minutes of this sort of talk my mom entered the kitchen and overheard our conversation. She asked, "What are you girls talking about?" We calmly looked at her and replied that we were discussing the strange man at the back door. She looked at us with a puzzled look on her face and asked, "What man?" "The one at the back door," my cousin replied. My mom again asked what we were talking about, informing us that there was no man at the back door. "Yes, there is," said my cousin, "I'll show you." The three of us then walked back to the laundry room and there was no man to be seen. My mother laughed and called us fanciful little girls, and then we left the laundry room.
A short while later we were getting ready for bed with one of my older sisters when we heard a commotion in the front part of the house. We raced down the hall to see what was happening. My mom was on the phone to my dad insisting that he come home and call the police because there was a Peeping Tom running around outside the house. Within a few minutes there was a friend of ours from the police department at the house checking it out. Of course we were not going to bed until we knew how things would end up, so we waited in the kitchen for the report. My cousin and I looked at each other knowingly. We really HAD seen a man and now no one would disbelieve us.
After what seemed an eternity, the police officer came inside the house. He and my mom walked into the laundry room to talk, I'm sure so we kids wouldn't hear them. My cousin and I slipped up to the laundry room door and listened as best we could. We heard my mom telling the police officer about our earlier sighting and how she had not believed us until she saw the man for herself. The police officer assured her that the man was no longer outside but that they had found footprints in the front and back yards around the windows. My cousin and I looked at each other again. We had been right! A man had been watching us! The chills went up and down our spines. Wow! At that moment the officer spotted us outside the door and asked my mom if he could ask us some questions. She said that was fine and he then questioned us on what we had seen. We felt pretty important at that moment. We had seen the man the police had come to check on. We had seen the Boogey Man and had even been talked to by the police officer and had helped them in their search for the man. How many little girls get to do that in their life time? Certainly not too many; but we had! This night would forever stay in my memory as one of the most interesting nights of my life.