Hi friends, it's Rosie.
Welcome back to Radio Headspace.
When I was a kid, my sister and I had this weird little ritual.
My parents, maybe out of exhaustion, maybe out of mischief,
would let us watch scary movies at night.
Not the whole thing.
There were adult moments.
You know the ones.
And we had to cover our eyes until the scene passed.
But the rest, we devoured it like it was candy.
One night, we watched Nightmare on Elm Street.
Yes, Freddy, the guy with the knives for fingers.
I remember the movie like a hazy neon nightmare.
The dark, the scratchy music, the way the shadows moved on the wall.
That night, I dreamt that Freddy was coming for me.
He was in the hallway of my house,
just outside of my bedroom and I could feel those metal fingers scraping the floor.
I woke up screaming, heart racing, hands shaking.
My abuelita, bless her, was there like magic with a mug of hot chocolate.
She put it in my hands, tucked me in and whispered, está bien mi amor.