My seven-year-old daughter Lily kept telling me someone was making strange noises in our basement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I checked repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There were only old boxes, pipes, a furnace, and the usual sounds of an aging house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then one night, I woke up to Lily screaming downstairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I ran to the basement and found her standing against the far wall, staring at a small opening behind an old shelf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And through that opening, another little girl was staring back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was completely confused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The girl was wearing purple pajamas. Behind her was a brightly painted room filled with toys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then a woman appeared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWho are you?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I introduced myself and discovered that she was Rachel, our next-door neighbor. The little girl was her seven-year-old daughter, Maya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our houses shared a basement wall, and years ago there had been a small utility opening between them. Somehow, the girls had discovered it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But then I learned something that left me speechless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lily had known about Maya for weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The scratching and tapping noises she’d been telling me about weren’t pipes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They were Maya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The two girls had been secretly talking through the wall every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lily brought snacks and coloring books. Maya brought toys and crayons. They had even been trying to loosen the old metal grille so they could see each other better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That was why Lily had suddenly stopped being afraid of the basement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She hadn’t stopped hearing the noises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She had finally discovered who was making them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I asked why she never told me, Lily looked down and quietly said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBecause grown-ups always say no when something is weird.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That hurt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I’d thought I was reassuring her by telling her there was nothing there. But she had actually been lonely after our move, and she’d found a friend all by herself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The next day, Rachel and I secured the old opening and told the girls they could visit each other properly \u2014 through the front door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And something changed in Lily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She talked more. She smiled more. She started telling me about school again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A few nights later, she told me something I’ll never forget:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI wasn’t only scared of the basement. I thought we’d be alone here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I hugged her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe’re not.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The strange noises were never a monster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They were the sound of two lonely little girls finding each other through a wall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes the thing we fear isn’t what we think it is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My seven-year-old daughter Lily kept telling me someone was making strange noises in our basement. I checked repeatedly. Nothing. There were only old boxes, pipes, a furnace, and the usual sounds of an aging house. Then one night, I woke up to Lily screaming downstairs. I ran to the basement and found her standing against …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21271"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21273,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21271\/revisions\/21273"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}