I don’t know if this is a true story, and that bothers the hell out of me. Because, you see, if it’s not a true story, then some “thing” permeated by brain roughly forty years ago and has burrowed its way into its membranes. Maybe that’s possession of a sort?
Our memories can be fluid, I understand. How I remember one situation will be different from how someone else will remember if, should they have been present. But to remember something that may or may not exist? That to me is as frightening as it gets.
For years I’ve been searching for confirmation that my memory is true, that what I saw actually occurred and that it’s not something I created as child. I’ve made Facebook posts asking for confirmation and attempted multiple Google searches, scoured the Web in hopes of finding the truth. And all I come up with…is nothing.
I’m searching for Satan in Southern Ontario and the Devil has covered his tracks well.
Here is what I remember, or should I say, what I think I remember. It was the early 1980s. The location was Hamilton, Ontario, roughly an hour away from Toronto, where I now live. It would have been a weekend, and my mother and I were invited over to a friend’s house for a gathering of some sort, perhaps for Yom Kippur Breaking of the Fast or for Canadian Thanksgiving. It would have been a late afternoon in October, I remember the light still. I remember these friends had a laser disc player, and owned a copy of The Muppet Movie. These memories are so specific, how could the next part be wrong? How can it be something I just created in my minds eye?
I remember watching television. My instinct tells me it was channel 3 on the dial, which would have been the Global television network.
On the screen was a show about the Devil.
It was animated. I know this. I know this. I know the show consisted of three short stories, I think of them as vignettes, about the Devil, and people crossing him. The people would disappear. One of the vignettes included pilgrims.
And that’s it. That is all I have. But these are not vague memories. They’re technicolour and feel certain. But then again, I called those damn Berenstain Bears “Berenstein” like everybody else.
And so I’ve searched for the animated Satan. No, it’s not The Devil and Daniel Mouse, as wonderful as that piece of animated goodness is…and created by Canada’s own Nelvana.
Is this a true memory or something that my subconscious created as a cruel joke to make me doubt myself? Can you help me? If so, please leave a comment below. I’d do just about anything to know the truth.
Anything.
