From the editor: Monster crunch

The other night I literally heard a thing go bump in the night.

It was even under my bed. Clearly I’ve waited until the most embarrassing point in my life to discover monsters under my sleeping apparatus. Yeah, I’m a bit of a clot.

After waking up a bit more to consider investigating with a clear head (I didn’t shift myself though, it’s easier to dismiss imaginary monsters without moving than it is to find a comfortable position ready for sleep again) I remembered why I might’ve heard such a thing. I have a crap sense of aural direction. And I’d thrown a pillow to the other side of the room five minutes before, where it had been perched precariously waiting to fall. How to spook yourself 1-0-1.

It’s not the first time I’ve done something ridiculous because my hearing’s sense of direction has gone askew. When I was a student and we had a landline (bygone times, I know) I got up in the middle of a flatshare team-building film-watching session to walk next door and pick up the phone. That wasn’t ringing next door. It was ringing on the television in the film in the room we were in. I’d gotten aurally confused. We had to pause the DVD because my flatmates couldn’t stop laughing at me for long enough to follow the plot.

Along the way other smaller examples have reminded me that my ears work in their own special way. I’ll hear someone shout from a crowd “I’m over here!”, and I’ll reply “over where? Describe it!”. It makes me more aware of everything going on rather than focussing on a single direction. I’ve chosen to see this quirk of mine as a source of adventures and an opportunity to take in more of the world. It’s a positive. Creating jolly monsters under my bed well into adulthood.

Victoria Nangle
editorial@thelatest.co.uk