Don't go in the basement!

[Chenyelu Bomani]

Throughout my young years in my grandmothers (they raised me) house in Detroit I had this frequent experience. One day going downstairs into the basement a hand grabbed my ankle and I looked down and could see through the steps a little man that looked odd. I ran back upstairs and closed the door to the basement. Naturally, I told grandma but she just shrugged it off and said that there is nothing in the basement.
I would often go into the basement cautiously to play or read without incident but at times I could sense this "little man" and would close the basement door and this feeling happened in the daytime as well as night. Many times my grandma would ask me why did I close the door and I could only say to her that the little man was down there now.

Childhood fear of the basement? But everyone turned on the lights when entering the basement so, it was not about the dark.