When I was a little kid I would write my sister notes in red crayon, my bubble letters oozing drops of Crayola blood, and place them on her pillow. They would say things like, “Don’t go to sleep tonight. You don’t want to know what will happen to you if you do.” Or maybe, “I’ll kill you in your sleep if you dare open your eyes.”

I had no idea how much this actually terrified my little sister. She tells me that she would stay awake as long as she could, her eyes fixed, not blinking, on the door.

Before you get all sentimental and feeling sorry for her, please know that she used to beat me up regularly and once clocked me upside the head with a rotary phone.