Tiny me and the lizards
One summer evening when I was big enough to go on the terrace all alone but not big enough to be there after the sun vanished and the night sky lit up. I was all alone on my rooftop sitting in my sister's red toy car.
I was driving the car all across the terrace with happiness oozing from my face. Though, my happiness was short lived, all of a sudden I spotted a "LIZARD". As a child I was shit scared of them (I still am). I froze at my place, engulfed by terror I put my feet away from the paddle and put them near the steering and waited and waited and waited for the lizard to go away. Soon I realized waiting was a mistake, because instead of the lizard going away more of them showed up. My eyes started brimming with tears.
I was hoping someone would come up and the lizards would go away, but luck was not in my favour. I should have shouted to call someone for help but, I was a funny child, I wouldn't even ask for food when I was very hungry (You can stop judging).
I just sat on the car with my legs near steering, petrified. After several minutes of waiting, shivering and sobbing nothing much had changed, except the sky started to darken more and a hazy moon started to appear. For a small child that I was, this was like living in my personal nightmare.
I couldn't just sit there any more, I needed to do something. I gathered all the little courage that I had, put my legs on the paddle and moved the car just slightly but nothing happened, then I moved it some more, and saw a few lizards move back. That was the encouragement that I needed, I kept moving and all of them scattered and soon the path to the stairs cleared. Without waiting any further, I jumped out of the car and ran like demons were trying to catch me.
It was fear of darkness that overcame my fear from lizards. All it took was another stronger fear for me to fight from the smaller one. And now thinking about it makes me realise how small of an effort it took, a few paddles only to fight it.