Grasping Hands
... since it was aloooong time ago, I was very little (well, littler than I am now,not-quite-5'2" isn't exactly towering over anyone, maybe'very young' would be more correct) and I can't really rememberthe details very well - or I can, but I think they might be alittle cloudy from retelling it to loads of people duringsleepovers etc. I only thought of it just now because I happenedto see a book just like the one I was reading at the time in thesecond-hand bookshop in town.
Anyway, enough babbling and apologising for not having thedetails very well... on with the story.
I remember it was night-time, after me and my brothers had beenput to bed but before my parents had gone upstairs, so I wasawake and reading - I always used to read until one of my parentscame in and made me stop! The book I was reading was an EnidBlyton 'Famous Five' (see, told you I was very young :) one thatwas sort of like a choose-your-own-adventure book, and a game aswell - it came in a clear plastic packet with a dice, a pretendtorch, a map, some 'food cards' and the like. I was sitting cross-leggedon my bed so that I could spread all the stuff out on the covers,and I happened to be facing in the direction of the door. I wasdoing quite well with the game and was very engrossed in it whenI suddenly thought that perhaps I should look up (that stillhappens now, usually when one of my gerbils is escaping orsomething) and I did. My door was wide open - I would never letmy parents shut it at night - and my bed was along the wall thatthe door was in, so that I couldn't see behind the door. But whatI am still adamant I did see was a pair of hands reaching frombehind it, sort of flexing and grasping handfuls of air, thenretreating.
I sat there for a few seconds in complete shock, and then a partof my brain said "Go on, be scared" (I remember thatclearly) and I went hot then cold all over, and after about tenminutes I decided that my parents would know what to do and Ijumped out of bed and ran downstairs. They calmed me down andsaid it was most likely just my little brother sleepwalking. I'mprepared to accept that that's possible, but I'd only ever knownhim sleepwalk once before, and to get to my room he'd have had tocross the landing, and the floorboards were so creaky I'm sureI'd've heard him. Also, although it's difficult to tell, I'm surethose hands were much too big to be my brother's, they were morelike adult size.