The house was fairly big and had plenty of room, and since it lacked having adequate furnishings to accommodate it, anyplace was suitable for playing. With my father being a department store manager, he would bring a toy home for me almost every evening when he came home from work. I literally had more toys than I had time to play with them all. Most days, Susie would come over and we would play with the latest thing that my dad brought home for me the night before.
The house always felt comfortable in the daytime, but it felt really creepy at night.. especially on the upstairs floor. There was never really any way to explain why, but something always seemed to be lurking in the shadow of my instincts.. just waiting. Given that I was barely four years old at the time, I was too inquisitive to be that imaginative and I was sheltered from any source of outer influence to create any irrational fears. It wouldn't take long for those fears to be validated.
One day, my aunt sent me a package in the mail. My mother opened it, revealing two red toy telephones that were battery operated. They resembled the classic rotary dial table top models of the time, both being connected by a single fifty foot cord, but unfortunately no batteries were sent with it. Upon making the discovery, my mom phoned my dad at work to ensure that he brought home the right size batteries for it. My father came home a few hours later than normal and we ate a late dinner. After the meal was finished, he handed me one of the telephones and had me sit at the top of the staircase with it, while he took the other into the living room that was adjacent to the banister. I almost instantly felt cold and uneasy. I just wanted to be as far away from the upstairs floor as fast as I possibly could, but at the same time I didn't want to disappoint or upset my father either. I held the receiver to my ear, hoping to quickly appease my dad so I could go downstairs. I heard a voice, but it wasn't my dad. It sounded creepier than normal and made where I was sitting feel more uncomfortable. I couldn't stand it any longer and risked the chance of making my father angry by running down the steps. As I turned the corner from the banister on the main floor, I ran into my mom. She asked "What's wrong?" I answered "I heard dad on the phone. I'm done, I don't want to play anymore." She said "That can't be possible, he hasn't even put the batteries in the phone yet. He needs a screwdriver to open the cover so he can put them in."
What the Hell was it that I just heard?? It's strange, but time has a way of hiding the details to the things we can't explain. I remember hearing the voice, but have no memory of what was said. The next day, Susie came over like she always did and tried to encourage me to play with the phones with her. My dad didn't have the right sized screw driver to remove the plate to insert the batteries, so they were still essentially inoperable. With the experience from the previous evening still fresh on my mind, I didn't want to have anything more to do with them. She decided to play with them by herself and I went into another room and played with Matchbox cars. It wasn't long after, I went back to see what Susie was doing but she was no longer there. I located my mom and inquired about Susie, to which she had no clue or answer to her whereabouts. She phoned Susie's parents and verified that she, without any explanation, ran home. It was the last time she ever came over to my house and I never saw her again.
Many years later, my family finally purchased a color television. I could never understand why I would get cold shivers up my spine watching reruns of Batman.. but oddly enough, it was only when the red Bat-phone was flashing that it would happen. We moved to Detroit not long after, and luckily for me the phones were left behind. It seemed like a new beginning for better things to come, but unfortunately worse things were still waiting. I can't fathom the reasons why, but I started having epileptic seizures after the red phones came.
