Moonlit Lies: A Dare that Scared the Girls until they cried

When I was a child I lived in a very small town in the mountains of Wyoming. Summer was especially precious there as it was so very short. My next door neighbor lived in California and was rarely there.

However, they had an amazing porch that the neighborhood children liked to sneak onto and camp out. One such night we were playing truth or dare. We clearly were not supposed to do this so all dares had to be acted out with precision.

Across the street lived a single woman who we all swore was a drug lady and we called the house a drug house and whether it was true or not we all lived in fear of the place. My brother dared me and my friend, Carrie, to go look in the car up on blocks in the side yard.

This was terrifying, but had to be done. We crept across the quiet street and pinched each other to motivate movement when we got too scared. Finally we were there. Of course the car only had some garbage and tools in the back seat, but Carrie and I were filled with our bravery from crossing the street and came up with a plan to get back at my brother for making us do it.

We ran back to the illicit porch and told everyone that there was plastic wrapped something in the back seat and we were sure that it was a body. At first they didn't believe us, but soon the moonlight and our unreasonable fear of the woman had its intended effect and they became very scared.

As some of the girls began to cry, I felt a little bad for making it up. Then my big and tough brother got too scared and had to go home. It was worth it.