Who’s Afraid of the Dark

I put The Boy to bed last night, and five minutes into my bath, there was a rapping at the door. “Moooooooooom?”

I asked what he needed, and he snuffled that he had a stomach ache because he was afraid. So, I drew the curtain shut and told him he could come in. He sat on the floor and put his toes up under the shower curtain so I could touch him. I asked him what he was afraid of, and he said he wasn’t sure. He thought maybe it was just the dark.

“I’m afraid of a lot of stuff,” I told him. “I...