The longest night of the year

Welcoming darkness, awaiting the dawn

As a girl, I was terrified of the dark.

I especially disliked being outside alone at night. This didn’t happen often. There would be the occasional need to run out to the car, after the sun had set, to grab whatever I’d left behind earlier in the day. Given that I grew up on the outskirts of a small town, there were no street lights, no lights from neigh…