• You know how small children, or toddlers, had their little perks? The little things only a small child would do? Maybe play pretend, or bounce around the colored tiles in rooms that had them. Maybe it would be even copying Mommy or Daddy to impress them. Either way, they all had something.

    I know I did. I remember the day, so crisp and clear. It was sometime in the spring, maybe April. I knew it definitely to be a Saturday, because my mom was home. I was maybe 5 or 6 years old at the time. She was in the kitchen, and I was too, being a small, pesky child that I was. I was stomping around the kitchen, hearing my feet smack against the tile. I knew my mother grew irritated with the sound, because she lightly reprimanded me and sent me to the living room to play, and I obeyed.

    Shortly after, my mother stepped out, to chat with the neighbor, a good friend of hers. And me, being sly, or so I thought, popped back into the kitchen, where I returned stomping away, enjoying it. This went well into the night time. I was always there, resonating in the soothing sound. It was the next evening, when my parents went out and the baby sitter was asleep, that my game came to an abrupt end. I remember this very clearly. Why, you ask?

    The echoing footsteps were starting to scare me.