VIKING FEARwhen I was a kid we went to visit these old viking burial grounds in the north of scotland we, my little brother and I, were with our older cousin we started exploring around, and came upon this trap door in the ground. That's right, it opened right into the ground. So we lifted the trap door and climbed in. Lucky for us our cousin had a flashlight. Unlucky for us, she thought it would be funny to run out, slam the door behind her, and leave me and my brother all alone in the dark, under the earth. I was so scared at the time that it wasn't until 20 years later that I realized we had found one of the passages to the underworld.
In 1963, the same year that the United States lost a president, I lost my virginity. I was 5 years old when I was raped. My mom had sent me out on my bicycle to the corner store for a gallon of milk... it was a quiet neighborhood, kids, families, block parties. What made the whole thing worse was that I knew my assailent. Fred lived in the neighborhood, everyone knew him... a quiet good natured type. I remember seeing, from my peripheral vision, this huge dark form lunge from behind a tree. I was instantly knocked from my bicycle. I'll never forget the smell of his body during the attack... the white sticky fluid when he came on my shirt... his wagging tail... ...and though there was no penetration, my mom never let me play with Fred, the mailman's brown, standard poodle again. Bryan Konefsky, New Mexico USA the poodle
the poodle
