Silly Fears

  

"Will you come with me when I do my wash?" My housemate in the company apartment where we lived was fresh out of university, tri-lingual, intelligent, well-read, and a good nine inches taller than I was. I was in my 40s.

The apartment was in a tiny Swiss mountain village where cows out numbered people 10  to one.Voltaire had visited Jean-Jacques Rousseau there when Rousseau was hiding from the Geneva authorities. A priory from the 6th century had been converted into a champagne cave.

"It's spooky down there," she said.

She was right. The basement could have been a movie set for a horror or thriller film.

"Of course," I said.

She was equally kind to me.

The road from the village that we had to take to go to work when driven fast made my stomach drop. I hated it.

Each drop brought back memories of when at age six, I was staying with a neighbor while my mother was in the hospital. The woman made biscuits for her husband's lunch every day, cutting them into perfect round shapes with a drinking glass.

That day, her brother was visiting and suggested that after lunch we all go for a drive.

He started speeding down a long road. With each bump my stomach dropped.

I was terrified. I screamed non stop hitting him and had to be restrained, but the man would not stop the car as the husband held me back.

I was in my teens before I would get in a car with any male other than my father. Even today, I will not go on any roller coaster, Ferris wheel or carnival ride where I can't get off if my stomach drops.

My housemate, who loved to drive the road fast, when I explained my fear, would ask whenever she drove us to work if her speed was okay and adjust accordingly.

Were our fears silly?

I doubt any killer or ghost would have attacked us while doing the laundry, nor would I jump from a car that was going too fast. 

Were our fears real?

Compared to living in a war zone, thru a flood, hurricane, earthquake or volcano, fire, maybe not. 

Based on memories of scary movies and scary roads, yes. It didn't matter that we were now safe. And accommodating them was just kindness.