1. My taxi driver kept looking at me in the mirror. I tried not to pay attention to it.
Then he asked, “Did your childhood house have a green door?”
“Yes,” I said slowly.
A minute later, he asked, “And did you have a swimsuit with a unicorn on it?”
That made my stomach turn. I had not thought about that swimsuit in years. I used to wear it everywhere, even in winter, because I thought it made me faster. Children are strange little citizens.
I checked the door handle. I looked at the route. We were still going toward my office.
Then he pulled over near my building, turned off the meter, and said, “Do you remember being frightened at night because you saw a strange man standing near the hallway window?”
That was when I nearly got out without paying. But before I could move, he opened his wallet and pulled out an old photo.
In it, I was six years old, standing in front of a green door, wearing the unicorn swimsuit over pajamas and holding a plastic spoon like it was a sword.
Beside me was my mother. And behind her, half out of frame, was the driver. Much younger, with a ridiculous mustache.
He said he used to live in the apartment across the hall. My mother worked late some nights, and he and his wife checked in on us until she came home. One night, I woke up, saw his shadow through the hallway window, and screamed so loudly that three neighbors came out.
He had not been standing there to scare me. He had been waiting by the door because I had sleepwalked into the hallway twice that month, and Mom was afraid I would do it again.
What happened next changed everything… FULL STORY on the next page.
TAP ” READ MORE ” 👇
