EMBARRASSED BY A FREIN

 ANYONE BEEN EMBARRASSED BY A FREINDS MOM AT A SLEEPOVER 

IT WAS DAD

Last year, my daughter went to a sleepover at a friend’s house. It was Justin’s birthday, and about ten boys and girls from school were invited and would sleep in one and the same room — some in genuine beds, some on the floor.

Around 3AM, my daughter awoke, and saw Justin’s father sitting on one of the beds, staring at the sleeping kids. Although he was one of the funny dads, his face was all different now — very serious, and dark, clenching his jaw and with a vein visibly throbbing in his forehead. Although his eyes were actually blue, his pupils were now so dilated that they looked black as night.

When my daughter told us the next day, I couldn’t stop myself from thinking about Ted Bundy, who also had widely dilated pupils when he talked about his victims, the dump sites (and what happened after the demise of the victims), and what have you. Even before he became a murderer, he could have episodes in which his eyes darkened until they were pitch-black, looking altogether like a different person — and thinking about altogether darker things.

And then I remembered that years ago Justin’s father had been involved in a traffic accident in which he (on his bike) had been run over by a speeding car. He ended up in a coma, and suffered from bad nightmares and really bad head aches ever since he woke up —

If he ever really woke up, that is.