When I was growing up in Missouri, we lived in two different houses on Lover’s Lane.  Most of us remember the house closest to the Patton’s Store as the house where Robert died.  So the incident I’m about to relate had to have happened in the house closest to Marston.  Okay, it was only a couple of miles from the first house, but it’s my way of explaining where we lived at the time.  Keep in mind, I’m telling it the way I remember it.  I’m sure others in my family will remember it differently.

I believe I was around five years old when the incident happened.  Since Leroy was only a couple of years older than me and Ruby a couple of years older than him, we were all fairly young. One night, Leroy, Ruby and I were sleeping in one bed together-I was lying next to the wall, Ruby was in the middle and Leroy was lying on the outside of the bed – and our brother, Robert was sleeping in another bed across the room. I don’t know why he was sleeping alone that night and why Leroy was in bed with us girls, (If it was in the winter, it was probably to keep warm) but I believe it was in the summer and the window had been raised to keep cool.  It was in the middle of the night when I was awakened from a deep sleep.  Leroy and Ruby were screaming bloody murder. Their screams seem to go on and on.  At that time we had no electricity and the room was as black as tar.

I had no idea what was happening but I remember that I was scared to death and clinging to Ruby like a leach.  Suddenly, dad raced into the room carrying an oil lamp.  “What’s wrong with you kids”?  He asked.  Both Leroy and Ruby were talking at once, their bodies shaking in fear and their voices shrill with excitement. All I could understand was, they believed someone had been in the room.

Dad sat on the side of our bed, shook the two kids to get them to stop screaming and urged them to tell him what was wrong.  When they both started yelling again, he asked one of the two to hush and let the other one do the talking.  While they shook like leaves in the wind, they took turns and told dad the same story that someone had been in the room, reached up under the covers and ran his hand up between their two bodies.  Dad tried to reassure them that they had been dreaming, but both kids kept shaking their heads, certain they had not been asleep.  I think Robert slept through most of the fuss, but finally woke up long enough to ask dad to check under the beds. And my older sisters who slept in another room yelled for dad to come check under their beds as well.

Dad checked under the beds and searched all through the house and found nothing out of the ordinary.  He came back to our bed and reassured us again that no stranger was in the house.  Finally Leroy and Ruby said they knew who had been in the house.  They believed it was Mr. Moore who lived down the road.  (Keep in mind that I’m not sure it was Mr. Moore they named that night, but I had to come up with a name for my story and our old friend Mr. Moore’s name came to mind.)

Dad chuckled, probably to calm their fears.  “Now I know you were dreaming”, he said.  “Why would our neighbor, Mr. Moore do something like that?  Doesn’t make any sense!  Now, let me get this straight.  You’re saying all he did was run his arm up between your two bodies.”  They both nodded.  Dad chuckled again and reminded them, “This room was very dark when I came in here, the moon wasn’t shining and no lamp was burning, so how do you know it was Mr. Moore?”

Leroy and ruby glanced at each other and said at the same time, “His arm was really hairy when it rubbed against our legs.” Dad frowned and we could almost hear him thinking.   Mr. Moore did have really hairy arms, but it still didn’t make any sense.  Mr. Moore had been a friend for a long time.  He was a very nice family man who wouldn’t hurt a fly or scare anyone.

Dad questioned us all again.  I admitted I didn’t see or hear anyone until the other two woke me up screaming and Robert who was sleeping the bed next to ours said he had not heard or seen anything either.

Dad searched through the house again and even went outside, but said he didn’t see anyone.  He told us all to go to sleep.  But it was a long time before we actually went to sleep again and I could hear Leroy and Ruby whispering for a long time after dad went back to bed.

The next morning we found the screen outside our window had been cut and it fold have been pulled up wide enough for someone to climb through, if they wanted.  Over the following days, everyone seemed to have a different scenario of what might have happened that night.  For instance, Mr. Moore might have gotten drunk and thought he was somewhere else and was searching for something. When the kids started screaming, he realized his mistake and climbed back out the window.   The other possibility was that Robert had done it to scare us and denied he saw anything.  But Robert was not known to do such things before and his arms were not hairy.

We never did discover exactly what happened that night and if our parents found out, they never told us.

The moral of the story is:  If you sleep on the back side of the bed next to the wall, the boogie man with hairy arms can’t get you.  Okay, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.