I don’t know how you’ll interpret this picture. Well, frankly, we never really know how anyone will interpret any picture. But some have more meanings embedded in the symbols. This on is more ambiguous. Are the children evil shades? Or just locked outside while their mother gets some needed rest? Either way, it’s scary.

A darkened window and someone peering in is one of those things that scare me witless.

True story (and aren’t they all?): While I was designing this painting, I was home alone. Alone on, yes, a dark and stormy night, the first one of the season. I was merrily drawing away in the silent house, enjoying the sounds of the storm, when something started knocking at the window. Jeepers creepers and yikes-a-bunga! I about lost my teeth from fright.

I don’t have cats anymore, or any pet to be a watcher for me, so I simply closed the shades, locked the doors, and hunkered down at my drawing table to work. Every so often there would be a clonk at the window, or on the side of the house. The motion detectors detected nothing. At least, they didn’t turn on the security lights, so I didn’t go investigating. That’s scary movie rule #1: girls should not investigate strange noises outside, alone, in the dark!

Yeah, I have to admit, when the mathematician got home, he investigated (he was not fed a steady diet of scary movies as a child, and as a result, does not know scary movie rules), and found the summer shade had come unhinged from the plastic sleeve that holds it against the wall, and the wind was blowing it around, and every so often it knocked against the house. No ghosts.

But it was a good cheap thrill while it lasted.