I have been told the story many times. They were all terrified until they realized it was me in the corner. My hair in my face and my eyes wide open. I had no idea this was going on or what I was doing; how could I have?                                  

They said they heard footsteps first. Then the chill trickled down their spine when they saw the silhouette shoved in the corner with its eyes wide open and its hair in its face.

“Mary, there's something in the corner over there!” Whispered Kathleen with a tremor.

My sister, Mary was having her sixteenth birthday party and it could not have been going any worse. Her sisters Kathleen, Theresa and me, Noreen, were annoying her and her friends were spread out in groups around our house gossiping about the girls in the other groups. After two hours of this cycle, Mary just wanted to get on with the sleepover portion of the party. She thought that would make it better.

She was wrong.

Mary spread the word that the sleepover would be starting soon and immediately sent Theresa and I upstairs. Theresa was one year younger than me and I was eight years younger than Mary; Kathleen was only two years younger than Mary, so she sent Theresa and I up and let Kathleen stay at the party. Like all younger siblings not being included with with their older siblings, we made a stink about it which eventually resulted in us still going upstairs. Mary then got everyone situated on the main floor to sleep. She asked her friends which movie they wanted to watch; they came up with The Ring, and if you don't know what The Ring is, it's basically a horror movie about a young girl with her hair in her face, eyes wide open, that climbs out of a well and then out of your TV to kill you.

…..So, a perfect choice.

When I fell asleep upstairs and away from the party that night, I knew I was falling asleep, but it felt different. It felt like I was almost floating. I felt like I was falling asleep while still staying awake, which is basically the definition of sleepwalking. I didn’t and still don’t remember anything about that night after I fell asleep, but I have been told the story many times.

Mary and her friends were all situated on the floor with their sleeping bags. The Ring was on and half of the girls were covering their eyes. All of them were huddled together in different groups. They were about half way through the movie when, suddenly, they heard creaky footsteps from the kitchen on the other side of the wall. Immediately, about four girls let out a little squeal and hid behind a chair. Some of Mary’s friends were looking around and saying, “I know the girl is supposed to come of the TV, but what if they just make you think that so she can come through your kitchen to kill you instead?” There was tension in the room; everything was quiet. The creaking had stopped, and Mary was trying to calm everyone down and convince them that our house was just old when Kathleen crawled over to where Mary was sitting and said, in a quiet, frantic tone, “Mary, there’s something in the corner over there!” Everyone was freaking out. All of the girls were huddled together thinking that I was the girl from The Ring and that I had crawled out of the TV to kill them, which makes sense considering the timing and my resemblance to the girl from The Ring. After that point, things weren’t very scary anymore because as I walked out of the shadows, they all realized that it was just me.

I was just standing there in the family room, looking around. Someone was about to say something or make a joke when I blurted out, “Where's the goldfish?” By goldfish, I believe I meant the cracker, which I’m assuming I was craving the day before. I stood there a little bit longer and then started shuffling over to the bathroom. That's right, I went to the bathroom. I still don’t understand how I could have done this without waking up, but it happened. So, with the door wide open, and about fourteen sixteen year olds staring at me, I went to the bathroom. There were some chuckles and Mary was making a joke about how this kind of thing was normal for me. After a couple seconds, one of Mary’s friends asked me, “Noreen, are you asleep or awake?” With my hair in my face, eyes wide open, I turned my head and said, “Sleeping.” After that, a couple of the girls screamed. I am still not sure if I woke up because of the screams or just started sobbing for no reason because I can’t remember anything. I was just sitting on the toilet, the door wide open, and now sobbing in front of all of my sisters friends; all of the people I wanted to be old enough to hang out with. Now, I am just happy I wasn’t awake to experience the embarrassment. I eventually calmed down, got out of the bathroom, and walked straight up the stairs and back to bed without another word.

I don’t know what happened to the girls after I left, but I can assume they probably didn’t finish watching The Ring. When I woke up the next morning and went to the main floor, some of the girls were asking me if I remembered anything from the night before. I was confused and said that I didn’t remember, so they told me the story. I have been told what happened many times and from many different perspectives. Some from a scary perspective and some from a hilarious one. The way the story was told really gave me a different view of what happened that night. Of course, over time, the story was exaggerated to make it funnier or scarier. People began telling the story with more enthusiasm and with more detail in order to keep the memory and the story alive. I will never truly understand what it was like being on the main floor that night, but because others do, they are able to tell me the story. Then the memory is able to spread for others to tell so it can never die.