happy thoughts

When I was a little girl I used to have horrible nightmares. Blood-curdling-scream-inducing nightmares. I don't remember the screams so much and I definitely don't recall what kind of terrible things my childhood mind came up with to warrant them. But of course stories were told about my middle of the night adventures and those descriptions have stuck with me into adulthood. What I do remember very distinctly is my dad sitting on my bed next to me trying valiantly to chase my demons away. Just think of something happy, he'd say. We'd sit there whispering about Fourth of July parties and happy faces, trying not to wake up my sister on the other side of the room. And it always worked. We cleared all the evil away together through the strength of our combined will. A lesson of survival when I was young, later applied without conscious thought to life's obstacles as I grew up. I wonder if he remembers that as clearly as I do.