From the ages of six until nine, I lived in a separate house from my parents. When I got scared in the middle of the night because there were strange noises, I was on my own. The rest of the main house was empty ten months out of the year. My folks lived in the studio caretaker’s cabin. If there was an emergency, I had to run outside, and down a quarter mile path to my parent’s cabin to get them. It was terrifying, because there were bears and mountain lions. Real ones.