When I was in elementary
school, I used to stay alone at home. My parents tried to fill up the
space of my loneliness; thus, they gave me many toys and rented many
video-tapes to keep me company. Among all the movies I had seen before,
I liked "Home Alone" best because the kid in the film showed absolute
wisdom when it came to defending his home and himself from burglars.
Since I was often home alone, I identified with the boy very much and
learned every trick he used, just in case someone might break into my
house someday.
One night, I was left home alone as usual. I had
told my dad that I would be fine by myself, but after my parents went
out, I regretted it. I was only pretending to be independent and brave.
But inside my heart I was screaming, "Please don't go! I have no sense
of security!" But it's too late. I struggled to rid myself of all those
imagined dangers; I shouldn't create a scary atmosphere for myself. I
should try to finish my homework assignments and go straight to bed.
When I was doing my homework, the wind blew hard
against the chimes on the wall. There seemed to be no stop to the
wind. I felt the wind was rather mad at me. And as my uneasiness grew, I
was not able to concentrate on my assignment. I hurried out of my room
and took a seat on the sofa. I turned on the television as soon as
possible. I wished that the sound from the TV could convince me that I
was not alone. The TV did conquer my fear for there was an intriguing
suspense movie on. I realized that such a movie may contribute to
creating a weird atmosphere around me, but I wanted to prove that I was
not a coward, so I decided to watch the suspense movie. As I watched
the movie, I was of course scared, but at least the movie engrossed me
and I did not feel too much alone.
After I finished watching the movie, I looked at
the clock and it's almost eleven in the evening. "Time to go to bed!" I
told myself. When I went into my dreams, I felt very restless. I kept
thinking about the plot of the movie in which a stranger tried to break
into another's apartment and steal things. I was very frightened about
the same thing happening to my home. I thought of the movie 「Home
Alone」 and how the kid had defended his home. Likewise, I got out of
bed and spread lots of thumbtacks over the living room floor, and went
back to sleep soundly.
When I was about to fall asleep, I heard a loud
scream. I thought that the burglar had fallen into my trap. I was quite
satisfied with my setup, but I hesitated about going out to check. I
decided to call the police. As I went downstairs, I held a baseball bat
in case I would be attacked. I peeped out the door, and I found dad
sitting on the floor with a twisted face. The bottom of his feet
were covered with thumb-tacks. I felt so sorry and tried to apologize
to him. But He only yelled at me in anger. In the end I couldn't help
but burst into laughter. I said to him, "Sorry for protecting myself so
eagerly!"
Dad』s feet recovered after a week, and I was quite
embarrassed and felt regret that I had done such stupid thing to
unintentionally hurt my father. However, my dad was actually not angry
about my weird behavior, for he and my mom started to reflect on their
coming home too late and my phobia of being 「home alone」. They
readjusted their daily routine and I was no longer a 「latchkey child」.
After all, the family should always be the first priority in their
perspective. I can just say jokingly that my dad』s injury was the
punishment for leaving me home alone.