Little Ghoul Baby

OK, It just might be official: I may truly be a freak. I've always had a vivid imagination, and I tend not to be scared of most things. I am a horror movie fanatic and I love to be scared. Truly, I do. During my early adult years I became entranced with horror movies, especially those made during the early to mid-70s. I enjoy turning off all the lights in my house, lighting some candles, and popping a scary movie in the DVD player while I sit with my head half under a blanket, watching these flicks that are sure to disturb the normal person. I'm un-phased. I don't even have nightmares.

There are things, however, that creep me out (snakes, spiders, roaches, people picking their nose in public, etc.), but I'm not afraid of them. Let's just say I love to be scared, but I don't believe I ever thought I had an unusual love of the macabre. That is, until a few weeks ago.

My boyfriend has known from the beginning of our courtship (do people still use that word?) that I am crazy about scary movies and I have a large DVD collection of these flicks, and he has always seemed to think this was cool. I was "cool" until a few weeks ago. Now I think I've gone from cool to creepy.

It started when we took a trip to the plant nursery and bought several additions for my front yard (I'm trying to brighten it up a bit in case I have to sell...remember, I'm still unemployed). As we were digging the 2nd or 3rd hole for our newly purchased plants, I blurted out, "Wouldn't it be grand if we found a skull or some bones in this hole?" I felt such an excitement flair up in me and as I was basking in this fanciful, disturbing thought of uncovering some sort of remains that I didn't even notice he had stopped digging.

When I looked up to see why he had halted the digging, I found he was looking at me with an odd expression on his face and he was simply shaking his head. I think he was a bit scared of me at that moment. I tend to blurt things out that may or may not be appropriate at particular moments, musings that just enter my mind, and I shrugged this off as one of those moments when I completely caught him off guard.

I didn't think too much about this again until we were watching a scary movie--a great Swedish vampire horror flick called "Let The Right One In"--and I made some comment about the movie. I don't want to give any of the story away because I highly recommend watching it (I would suggest getting the Swedish version with subtitles rather than the dubbed English version - you can check out the trailer here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/m2G0C4LE7XPH5G but finish reading my post first!), but there is a scene where a body is discovered in the snow. I again made a comment about how interesting it would be to just be strolling along and finding a body in the snow. That was a mistake.

A mistake because my boyfriend looked at me again with an expression of concern. He shook his head, patted my arm (he really did pat my arm), sighed, and said, "Ah, my little ghoul baby." Like I said, it just might be official...I am truly be a freak.

--Fortuitous Observer