HAUNTED BY NIGHTMARE
~~ a cautionary tale ~~

What is there to say about Pete Nightmare that hasn't
already been said? He 'struck gold' when 
he was tinkering with some electrical bits.
He had discovered something that no one in the 1940s
had ever thought possible: how to string together 
light bulbs on the same circuit to create the first 
ever set of Christmas lights.
But he was atheist and so he didn't call them that.
Soon he patented the idea and built up a family 
business.  
Those colourful Nightmare lights were everywhere !

He and his wife were wrong for each other. 
He was a total perfectionist with a fiery
temper, she was laxadaisical, one of those 
delightfully slow-paced, women, almost ethereal.
One Christmas there was a blazing row in their 
home and he stormed out, stayed away, and drove 
around all day. 
He was hard on his children, one of them 
wanted to be a rocker and grow his hair.
Well that just caused a split and he had 
to come and stay his grandparents.
He was too regimented, dangling the kids
off the edge of the factory building, and 
scaring everyone in the house.
He was one of those people that are impossible 
to deal with and not much escaped from his 
attention.
 
I guess when they were big 
enough there was a struggle, they cast
Peter out for good, and made it clear:
'Don't come back or you're a dead man'

Well the family did alright in life and Peter
continued too, wealthy but paranoid, believing
that he had created a hell on earth for 
himself and that his family were 
vultures circling overhead.
He had disinherited them in his will. 
Eventually towards the end,  his life ended
 itself.

His sons unexpectedly hijacked the funeral.
 They made an emotional speech 
'I haven't spoken to him in 20 years'
At the pub later they told of
a reign of terror. Not much is known about
where Pete went after the burial but perhaps he
walks the earth as a fictional ghost?
/ / / iolfree