The Boogeyman

“‘I’d go to jail,’ Billings said immediately. ‘For life. And you can see into all the rooms in a jail. All the rooms.’ He smiled at nothing.”

This quote serves as one of Dr. Harper’s third-person insights about Lester. He notes that his patient is smiling at nothing, suggesting a disturbed state of mind. Lester’s fear of the Boogeyman is emphasized by his wish to go to jail, as the monster would have nowhere to hide there. This impulse may also illustrate a subconscious desire to be punished for his actions.

“‘I married Rita in 1965—I was twenty-one and she was eighteen. She was pregnant. That was Denny.’ His lips twisted in a rubbery, frightening grin that was gone in a wink. ‘I had to leave college and get a job, but I didn’t mind. I loved both of them. We were very happy.’”

This is the first mention of the “rubbery, frightening grin” that Dr. Harper notices on Lester’s face several times throughout the text. This sinister response suggests Lester was not as “happy” with his family life as he claims. The passage illustrates his monstrosity in comparison to that of the Boogeyman.

“You think I’m crazy, all right. It’s written all over you. But I don’t care. All I want to do is tell you and then get lost.”

Lester says several times throughout the text that he doesn’t care if Dr. Harper thinks he’s crazy. He insists that all he wants to do is tell his story, convinced that saying it out loud and unburdening himself will give him the closure he needs. However, it becomes clear by the end of the story that there will be no closure for Lester—and that his guilt is a form of self-punishment for his actions.

“Rita wanted to put in a nightlight. One of those wall-plug things with Mickey Mouse or Huckleberry Hound or something on it. I wouldn’t let her. If a kid doesn’t get over being afraid of the dark when he’s little, he never gets over it.”

This quote contrasts nicely with the point later in the story, after Shirl’s death, when Lester comes home from the hospital alone and admits to sleeping on the couch with the light on. He avails himself of the comfort he refused his child, and although it is an opportunity for reflection and character growth, it does not seem as though he learns anything from it, especially considering that he sacrifices his third child later in the story.

“Rita was screaming her head off. She tried to pick Denny up and rock him, but I wouldn’t let her. The cops don’t like you to touch any of the evidence. I know that—”

This quote makes a strong case for Lester being, in fact, the Boogeyman all along, or that he killed his children himself. His decision to refer to his son’s body as “evidence” suggests murder rather than death from natural causes.

“‘No.’ Billings regarded his hands and his face twitched. ‘How could I go to Rita and admit I was wrong? I had to be strong. She was always such a jellyfish…look how easy she went to bed with me when we weren’t married.’”

This is an example of Lester’s toxic masculinity (“I had to be strong”) and misogyny (“look how easy she went to bed with me”) that combine to convince him that his domestic violence is justified. Referring to Rita as a “jellyfish” effectively dehumanizes his wife and allows Lester to feel superior.

“‘Her eyes, they looked like those eyes you see on stuffed animals, all shiny and awful, like live marbles, and they were saying it got me, Daddy, you let it get me, you killed me, you helped it kill me…’ His words trailed off. One single tear, very large and silent, ran down the side of his cheek.”

Shirl is dead, but Lester assigns meaning to the expression on her face and interprets it as accusatory. One could argue that this is a classic case of projection, where the guilty party sees and hears accusations where there are none. The passage underlines Lester’s guilt, possibly suggesting he is more than just complicit in his children’s deaths.

“And when I woke up in the middle of the night, I thought that would be leaning over me. With claws…long claws…”

Here, Lester brings up the monster’s claws once more. A recurring symbol in the story, claws represent Lester’s terror of the Boogeyman, illustrating The Nature of Fear.

“I knew she’d get over it. When they’re that little, you don’t get so attached to them. After a while you have to go to the bureau drawer and look at a picture to even remember exactly what they looked like.”

While this quote does not necessarily prove Lester’s guilt, it certainly proves that he did not love his children as much as he claims. Rita’s reactions to finding her children dead—cradling their bodies and needing sedation in order to cope—are far more typical expressions of grief than Lester’s callous assertion that young children are forgettable. The passage illustrates the theme of Supernatural Versus Human Monstrosity.

“‘But you did move him, didn’t you?’ Dr. Harper asked. ‘Yeah,’ Billings said. He smiled a sick, yellow smile. ‘I did.’”

Here is another instance of an unsettling smile as Lester admits using Andy as bait for the Boogeyman. His “sick, yellow smile” has connotations of illness, suggesting the character’s moral sickness. Such sinister descriptions of Lester indicate that he is just as frightening as the Boogeyman.

“You’d wake up at three in the morning and look into the dark and at first you’d say, ‘It’s only the clock.’ But underneath it you could hear something moving in a stealthy way. But not too stealthy, because it wanted you to hear it.”

This quotation illustrates the theme of The Nature of Fear and the role the imagination plays in terror. Listening for the Boogeyman at night, Lester convinces himself he can hear the monster.

“‘But I couldn’t,’ the childish breaking treble continued, ‘I couldn’t. And an hour later there was a scream. An awful, gurgling scream. And I knew how much I loved him because I ran in, I didn’t even turn on the light, I ran, ran, ran, oh, Jesus God Mary, it had him.’”

In this passage, Lester’s voice rises in pitch until it resembles that of a frightened child. This echoes the way his children cried out for his help before they were claimed by the Boogeyman. Lester also claims that his actions here—running into the room without turning on the light—prove somehow that he loved his child, when not a paragraph later he admits to fleeing the house without said child, leaving him behind to be killed.

“‘Oh, I ran,’ Billings said in the same cool, dead voice. ‘I went to an all-night diner. How’s that for complete cowardice? Ran to an all-night diner and drank six cups of coffee.’”

Here, Lester describes his deliberate choice to leave his child alone in the house with the Boogeyman. The six cups of coffee mentioned in this passage are not a throwaway detail. They indicate the lengthy amount of time he abandoned Andy for before deciding he could safely return home. Lester’s actions underline his monstrosity.