the boogie man

At one point in my life I worked three jobs and was enrolled in undergraduate studies full time.  I was tired a lot!  Regardless, one of the three jobs was to work midnight shifts as a personal care attendant for an elderly woman who owned a restaurant and hotel in Marquette, Michigan.  Behind the hotel was the Marquette State Prison.  My job here was easy, it was to help my patient get ready for bed, administer her medications, and then go to sleep myself (I had my own bedroom there) with a monitor on so that I could wake up and get her to the bathroom if she needed to go.  On one occasion we received a phone call to say there was an escaped prisoner on the run and if we see him to alert the authorities. From this point on, I never slept very soundly there.

One particular evening many months after the call from the prison to be on the watch out for a prisoner (who I believe had already been apprehended again) my patient asked if I would get her ready for bed.  So I proceeded to get the bathroom set for her typical routine.  As I was helping her this was our conversation:

Patient: Rachael, I don't want this nightgown.  Will you get me a different one?  And when you do be sure to watch out for the boogie man.
Me: [Patient], right!  There is no boogie man in your house.
Patient: Yes there is.  Watch out for him!
Me sarcastically:  Ok!  What night gown did you want?

Once I knew which nightgown my patient wanted I proceeded to leave the bathroom, walk through the kitchen, enter the living/dining room, and there stood a man.  I continued to walk through the living/dining room and into her bedroom, quickly turned around and went back into the living room and screamed at the top of my lungs, "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"  I turned around and went back into the bedroom, only to turn around again and walk back into the living room to scream "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"  There stood a real live man, laughing.  It turned out being the patient's son who still to this day I don't know if he'd been in the house the entire time, or if he had come in as I was getting his mom ready for bed.  He simply asked, "Why are you screaming after you walked past me?"

It was simply this, my brain must have registered that I knew the person; however I keep wondering why would you enter your mom's house unannounced and stand in the dark shadows of the living-room corner.  CREEP!  So, readers beware.... there are some real boogie men in this world.

p.s. My patient claimed she knew nothing of her son being in the house or planning on coming to the house.