What if this little boy's life depended on it?

So this happened in the 90's. I was about 9 years old at the time. One summer, my family was at the local lake. We were there for a week. It was a fairly crowded lake, but my parents bought us a little plot of land right on the water. We spent a lot of our days swimming, and a lot of our nights playing board games. <br><br>Well, one night I got up to use the bathroom. I had to walk past the back door, which was open a few inches. The screen door was still closed, and it was pitch black out. I looked down and there were two eyes looking up at me. I screamed, jumped about a foot, and ran back into the bathroom and shut the door. <br><br>When I came out, I told my parents, "there are eyes out there". My mom said, "Oh, it's probably a raccoon or something. Just close the door."<br><br>I, of course, freaked out. I wanted to close the screen door. They insisted that I leave it open. I didn't listen to them. I closed that screen door. And then I locked it.<br><br>My mom said, "Oh my gosh, there's an animal out there. What if it gets in?" I said, "I locked it." <br><br>She said, "That's fine. But what if there are two animals?" I said, "Then they're locked out. Because I locked it."<br><br>And I did. I locked that screen door every time I went out there. My mom made me feel so bad about it. She said, "We can't lock the door. There are people who might need to come in." I said, "I locked it." And I did. Every time.<br><br>This was a big problem for my family. My mom and dad wanted to invite some friends over one night. And I said, "I locked it. No one is coming in." And she said, "You have to unlock it. Please, just unlock it." And I said, "I locked it." And I did. And they couldn't come in because I had locked the door. And she said, "Why did you lock it?" I said, "Because there were eyes out there."<br><br>Well, my mom was really frustrated. And she said, "You know, you have to trust us. We'll take care of it. I'll call the park ranger in the morning, and he will come and catch it." I said, "I locked it." And she said, "I know, sweetie. But you can't lock it. We need to catch it." <br><br>I said, "I locked it."<br><br>I said that a lot. Every time my mom tried to come in, I said, "I locked it." And I did. I locked that screen door every time. <br><br>The next morning, my parents went to the park office, and they told the park ranger about the eyes. And he came and he searched the property, and he said, "It's a bear. And it's been coming through the campsite every night. It's not dangerous, but we need to catch it and move it."<br><br>And my mom came out and she said, "I told you so." And she said, not to me, but to the park ranger, "I told my daughter last night that there was probably a bear out there. And she laughed at me. She thought it was probably just a raccoon."<br><br>The park ranger went out and he caught the bear, and he took it somewhere else. And when he left, he said, "You know, that wasn't just a raccoon or a bear. It was a fairly small bear. But it didn't seem to be afraid of humans at all. It seemed almost tame. And it seemed to only be interested in people. We will have to kill it if it continues to come through the campsite."<br><br>And I said, "I locked it." And I did. I locked that screen door every time I went out there. And my parents would come out and they would try to come in. And I would say, "I locked it." And I did. I locked it. Because there were eyes out there.