Of all the stories in this book, the hallway monster probably kept me up at night the most.

A little backstory here. My mom loved Stephen King’s books. She loved reading horror stories and watching suspenseful shows on television. One of those shows we occasionally watched was Tales from the Darkside. I can’t remember the exact details but in one episode there was a young girl who found a little doorway in her room. Inside that doorway lived a little monster. Well, that is all my brother needed to scare the heck out of me.

In our upstairs hallway, there was also a tiny little door. This door was right next to the bathroom door. Behind this door was access to the bathtub and shower plumbing. Of course, I didn’t know why there would be a little door in this spot. I thought it was where a little monster lived because my brother made it a point to tell me he saw a slimy little tentacle sticking out one night. I ran by that stinking door for about 3 years!

Bonus: I was (and still am) an avid Calvin and Hobbes comic reader. So when he said tentacle, I immediately pictured Calvin’s teacher/monster in the Spaceman Spiff stories!