Playing With Phobias
Anubis Anklehorn lives in a quaint town in the middle of Pennsylvania called Sabear. He is a trained glassmaker, but has many passions that deviate from this career. Hiking, swimming, watching old sitcoms, and curing phobias are just some of his favorites. One of those things definitely isn't a hobby that you hear of every day. Anubis was very proud of his ability to cure people's phobias. In fact, he started training one of the local children back in the 1990's to carry on his legacy. Samuel Smith was the child that Anubis had chosen to train. Unfortunately, Samuel soon got bored and decided that curing phobias was not something that he was interested in.
Samuel has since grown up and is now the mayor of Sabear. His daughter, Serenity, is a senior at Sabear High School and is at the top of her class. Serenity is extremely well-rounded, excelling in both her academics and her extracurriculars. Some of her notable accomplishments are being the captain of the soccer team, president of National Honor Society, and secretary of the drama club. However, there is one thing about Serenity that she is not proud of whatsoever. Serenity has myrmecophobia, which is the fear of ants. This fear started when she was a young girl, and she wandered over a fire ant nest. She was attacked by hundreds of fire ants and had to be rushed to the nearest hospital due to her injuries. Luckily, she survived the attack because her best friend, Poppy Plank, was able to find her father who then rushed Serenity to the hospital.
Poppy Plank is best friends with Serenity Smith. She is not nearly as smart as Serenity, and is ranked in the 50th percentile of her graduating class. However, she is extremely involved in her extracurriculars. Captain of the volleyball team, president of drama club, school board representative, and class vice-president. She is also known for being the most attractive girl at Sabear high school, and frequently gets asked out by guys at the school. Poppy knows that she is extremely attractive, but she also knows that there is something else about her that holds her back. Poppy has thalassophobia, which is the fear of the ocean or deep water. This fear started when Poppy had just turned 13 years old. Her parents had surprised Poppy with a trip to Florida to visit some of her extended family. Poppy was joined by her parents and her brother, Preston. Right before they started heading home, Poppy and her family took a trip to the ocean. When Poppy got into the water, she got extremely nervous and started having a panic attack. Preston had to grab her and get her out of the water to avoid her drowning. Ever since then, Poppy has been petrified of deep water, and refuses to swim in any water deeper than 3 feet.
Preston Plank is Poppy Plank's brother. He is not nearly as smart as Serenity, or as attractive as Poppy, but he is extremely strong. Preston has competed in a variety of state and national lifting tournaments, and almost always comes in first place. Preston is very proud of how strong he is, but there is something about himself that he is not so proud of. Preston has alektorophobia, which is the fear of chickens. His fear started when he was a young boy visiting his Aunt Sarah and Uncle John in rural Utah. Sarah and John live on a very large farm, and have a wide variety of animals, including chickens. Preston was out in the chicken coop one day collecting eggs, and he had taken a slice of bread from the pantry to feed to the chickens. However, one of the roosters had gotten upset over not getting any bread and attacked Preston.
The rooster had almost blinded Preston, but his sight was luckily preserved after the incident. Ever since then, Preston has refused to get within 5 feet of a chicken, no matter how docile they may seem.
There came a day when Serenity, Poppy and Preston had gotten sick of suffering from their phobias. So, they took a journey to Anubis' house, in hopes of getting their phobias cured. Anubis was delighted to see them, as he had not had any customers since the late 90's. Anubis instructed our trio that, in order to cure their phobias, they would have to face them head on. Serenity was up first, and she was tackled with letting fire ants crawl up her arm. At first, she was petrified, but once the ants started moving up her arm she became relaxed and was no longer afraid. Poppy was tasked with going for a swim in the deep end of Anubis's pool. At first, she was beside herself and did not think that she would be able to do it. However, after dipping her head underwater, she realized that there was nothing to be scared about. Preston was tasked with giving a piece of bread to one of Anubis' chickens. Even though the fear of being attacked was vivid in Preston's mind, he was able to feed the bread to the chicken successfully.
It is normal to have phobias, as there are a lot of things in this world that are scary. However, it is also common to be afraid of things that we have no reason to be afraid of. Tackling your phobias is a great, yet horrifying, way to cure them. So, next time you find yourself developing a phobia, find your local witchdoctor and have them cure it. If no witchdoctor is available to you then you may want to consider moving to a place a little more diverse and exciting.
Image obtained from Squarespace
