One of the scariest things that ever happened to me was when I was about 8 years old. One night I went to bed just like any other night. My big sister, Sharon ( who was 4 ½ years older than me) , had gone out for the evening with some friends. My mom and dad were in the living room reading and talking softly. I was safe, secure, and happy so I just snuggled down in bed until I finally fell sound asleep.
Pretty soon I started feeling real, real cold. I didn’t want to wake up because I was so tired, but I kept getting colder and colder. Finally I did wake up … but I wasn’t in my bed ! I was in the back seat of our car which was parked out on the street in front of our house!
I sat up and looked all around but there was no one to be seen. It was dark outside and all the houses on our street didn’t have any lights on at all. All I had on was my under ware shorts so that’s why I was getting so cold. I started to get very scared. Where was my mom and dad? Where was my sister? Why was I in our car all alone? And at night?!
When I couldn’t take being out there in the street any more I opened the car door and ran up to our house door…but it was locked! That’s when I started to cry and bang on the door as loud as I could. For a long time nobody came to the door, and nobody turned on any lights. That just made me even more scared and I cried louder and banged harder and harder.
Pretty soon my mom came to the door half asleep. When she opened it she was shocked too !

“Duane,” she cried, “What are you doing out there?!”

“I DON”T KNOW !” I sobbed.

Well she took me in her arms and by then my dad was up too and he hugged me. Neither one of them had any idea how I had gotten outside into the car in the middle of the night. Boy was I scared. Finally, after I calmed down we figured out what had happened.

During the night, right after my mom & dad had gone to bed, I must have gotten up and walked in my sleep! I must have dreamed we were going someplace so I had gotten into our car and laid down on the back seat. Meanwhile, my sister had come home from being with her friends, gone into the house, locked the door , and turned out the lights.

It was the first, and only, time I ever walked in my sleep. It had scared me so bad that for months afterwards I couldn’t go to sleep at night without my mom tucking my sheets in around me tightly on my bed.