The Zodiac Killer

As the story goes in the summer of the mid sixties a serial killer was terrorizing the Bay Area. We were watching TV in the front of the house. We equalled, at that time, Donny, Claudia, my Grandmother and myself. Everyone else was either at work or just not there. My Aunt Carmen had a small, white toy poodle she called "Hercules". In the days before AC people actually left their doors and windows open to create a breeze. Suddenly, Hercules went down the hall and started barking into the darkness. He would move forward a little and then retreat. This was odd behavior - even for Hercules. So my Grandmother who was born on the Flat Head Indian Reservation in Montana and as tough as nails decided to go investigate. Then she remembered the accounts of the Zodiac Killer. So she grabbed my peg board and a butcher knife and went down the hall to investigate. (This sounds like a cheap thriller but people apparently act this way in real life). She told us that IF we heard anything we should run to the neighbor's house. Why didn't she go to the neighbors with us? Why didn't she call the police? I think that it is because we are all basically stupid, but I digress. She turned on the hall light with Hercules at her feet barking and snarling. She went first to the room were my Granny stayed and checked it out. Then the bathroom beside it. Then to Donny's room on the right with a window open to the street. Nothing. The tension was obviously building because the dog was still freaking out and she had not found anything. There were only two rooms left, my room and her room. My room checked out "safe" and then the creepy sensation dawned on her that the dog was still barking at the threshold to her room. Police? Oh no, that would be too intelligent.

She flipped the light switch and it did not come on . Of course, she had turned it off beside her bed. This meant she had to walk across the dark room to turn it on. Undaunted, she crept forward with butcher knife and peg board as her protection. In the dark she could see the wind blowing the plastic curtains of her open bedroom window. Turnaround? Go for help? Nope. She continued across the room ready to take down anything that moved. When she reached her bedside she expected to see a lurching image and she was ready - but nothing. She check the closet, under the bed and the small bathroom. Nothing.

After her search Hercules stopped barking and simply trotted back to the living room. So my grandmother, followed closing the window and nonchalantly returning the butcher knife to the kitchen and my pegboard to my toy box. She did not search the backyard or even call anyone. At best she mumbled "damn dog".

Fortunately for us all the dog was either on acid or scared away who ever was there and the Zodiac Killer disappeared from the Bay Area for good. Even though my Grandmother was 5'2'' I would have laid money on her taking out anything in her way. She was one tough broad.

The Devil Returns

During the day I would go down the street and was watched by a friend of the family. It may have been at her house, our my own, it was too dark to tell. Donny and I walked into a room holding hands. There were stacks of cloths or something creating heaps of mounds to walk around. It was strange and detached. I felt no pain - nothing. I was numb. All I knew was that the part that was supposed to be on my front and soft and small was not like that at all. In fact, it was precisely the opposite. I looked up at the wall above the door and remember the pictures there. I remember them as grotesque images of Dali-esque baby, bottoms with messy diapers. I was grossed out by the three similar images but not what was happening around me, to me.

Children are amazing creatures. They have an astounding resilience to accept the absurd, detach themselves and move on. That is why I think so many live with abuse. They simply do not know any better and the mind will do whatever it has to in order to survive.

The Back Yard and Splinters in Claudia's Butt

We had a huge backyard. OK it seemed huge to a 4 year old. It was fenced in with a standard swing set and wooden slide. I remember the red berries that huge over the neighbors fence and which a was informed were poisonous. I would walk on the other side of the yard just to avoid them. But in spite of the possible poisonous peril, I would often play in the warmth of the California sun in our backyard. I had a small play tub made of plastic that I loved to fill with water and play in it like a bath tub. That was until Donny got in it and broke it. And then there was the time Claudia and I were playing on the swing set and she went down the wooden slide on the edge and got a splinter in her butt. I remember a great deal of screaming and crying as her mother tried to pull the splinter out. This was also the place I saw the biggest spider in my life. I was walking under a work bench of some kind and came face to face with a spider web as big as I was. So all things considered it was small but is filled my world and in the middle was an ugly black and brown spider almost at eye level. I think I screamed and cried louder than Claudia did!

This is the time in my life where the adult in me asks, "why were Carmen and Claudia with us again?" They seemed to ebb in and out of our lives like a familiar tide. I am sure it was because the needed a place to stay and Carmen needed someone to watch Claudia while she was at work.