the boiler room

“If a fear cannot be articulated, it can’t be conquered. And the fears locked in small brains are much too large to pass through the orifice of the mouth.”

As soon as I read that line I shuttered. All the memories of feeling terrified as a little kid came rushing back to me. The repeat nightmares I used to have, the way shadows would look like monsters that go bump in the night, and the boiler room. I grew up in an old English Tudor. Built in 1927, the house had all sorts of creeks and cracks. I loved growing up in that house and I miss it very much to this day. Except for the boiler room. The boiler room was in the basement and always seemed out of place. It was never lit very well and didn’t have a door. For some reason, which I still can’t figure out, that boiler room terrified me. And unfortunately for me, since the Super Nintendo was in the basement, I had to pass by the ominous room, a lot. Daylight made the situation more manageable, but when it was dark I had no choice but to sprint right by it. I can’t explain why I feared that room so much. There was no reason to. I just did. This is the kind of fear King is talking about. The irrational and inexplicable fears that children have. A quote from the article linked below says, “Kids ages 4 through 6 have anxiety about things that aren't based in reality, such as fears of monsters and ghosts.” I think kids have these fears because they’re young and inexperienced. When something feels confusing or out of place, the small mind of the little kid can’t rationalize it, and that feeling turns into fear. Matt Burke is scared as he’s walking up the stairs. So scared that he reverts into a little kid. In this case, however, his fear is justifiable. This section of chapter 9 is a real testament to exactly why Stephen King is the master of the horror genre. Ugghhhh…. That boiler room still gives me the creeps…

Here is a link to the aforementioned article.