There are big dark circles under my eyes. My hair has gone grey. I've rented Phantoms to watch alone tonight, knowing it can't possibly be as terrifying as last night in this house.
Dan is out of the the country, Ammo in New Hampshire (well, I suppose he still is-he hasn't bothered to call all week) CW in the pool house.
LAst night I was alone in this big old house. Out of a dead sleep, I was awakened by something crying next to the bed. Blue is trained NOT to enter our bedroom so I shot up terrified and looked over the edge. Since it was 4 in the morning, I couldn't see much, but there was something ALIVE looking at me. I said something like,"Eeeek" or "Oh, shit!" and it ran under the bed, squealing.
I didn't hesitate. I leaped out of bed and ran downstairs. I don't know why. Sure enough, I had left the laundry room kitty door partially uncovered. Something had come into the house as I slept, so innocent, so trusting.
I opened the door and looked into the garage. Blue was on the seat of the riding mower. It WASN"T BLUE!!! What was under my bed????
I raced back upstairs turning lights on as I ran. Under the bed was----nothing. Where had it gone? I checked our bath, our closets, do you KNOW how many places something can hide in a house??? I searched the entire upstairs, shutting doors behinds me.
Then I started on the downstairs, ending up in the garage. CW had washed his car that afternoon and had parked it in the garage so he could vacuum it. The interior lights were on. The keys were in the ignition so I got in and tried it. It started. Thank God. THen I tried to find the switch to turn the lights off. There was none. Really--I punched, turned, pulled everything. Frustrated I got out, keys in hand. I was going to have to wake up CW. I marched to the pool house and up the stairs to tap on his bedroom door.
"What? What? What?" he screamed.
"It's just me, " I hissed. "Your car lights are on."
"Jeez, you scared me to death." He emerged, blinking. We went to the garage. He tried to open the door. "Why'd you lock it?" he said, irritably.
"I didn't! But here are the keys." I tossed them to him, smugly. He looked at them. "This isn't the car door key." He peers in the window. "It's still on the seat. Shit" We stare at the car. "What are you doing here at 4 in the morning?"
"There's something in the house alive," I explain. "And it's not Blue. Don't we have some spare keys?"
"Dad has them." Dad's in Puerto Rico. "I'm going back to bed."
"Wait, wait. There's another set somewhere." I wrack my brains. Where did I see them? Yes-in the fruit bowl! SUre enough. CW turns the lights off and goes back to the pool house. I search the entire house again, but find nothing.
So I close my door and read, waiting for the sound of scratching at my door, the moans of something from under the bed, and I finally fall asleep at 5:30. I still don;t know what it was. Or where it went. I kinda think it was that feral cat, Shy. I thought (hoped)he'd melted in the heat. |
