Hey!

Jarom was out of town traveling for his job. Usually I'd just pop in "Anne of Green Gables" and fall asleep to the melodic sounds of Anne and Gilbert bickering, but that night I decided that I would try to watch a quieter movie, one that was dark and wouldn't light up the room. Maybe I would fall asleep quicker. I had turned all of the lights off downstairs, flicked the switch off in the hall and settled down in my dim room, praising myself for my bravery at sleeping in the dark house alone.

Just at the moment that I was surrendering myself to sleep, the harsh rings of the telephone sounded, calling me back to reality. Once, twice, three times. Fumbling I reached across my side table and clasped the cold metallic phone.

“Hello?” I asked. On the other end of the phone I could hear a ring tone. Possibly I had missed Jarom and he would call me back, I thought hanging up the phone.

Settling myself back into my cool crisp bed, I had just closed my eyes when downstairs I heard the rattle of the front door knob shaking. My heart started beating wildly as I listened to hear if the intruder would find the door locked and seek out another target. After a moment of silence a new sound started like the scraping of a lock.

“Please”, I thought to myself, “Just leave.” Instead I was rewarded with the sound of the door slowly creaking open and three or four voices whispering amongst themselves. They were the kind of voices that explained without saying that they were not there to just steal your TV.

By this point the blood was rushing through my ears, almost flushing out any other sound. Hurrying, I found my jeans and a jacket to throw on, intending to climb onto the roof. Where would I go from there though, I wondered? I would just be stuck waiting for the first person to find me and if no one knew there was trouble it was likely that they would find me first.

Picking up the phone I dialed 9-1-1 so hard that my fingers bent back, the hard edges of the buttons making imprints onto the soft pads of my fingertips

By this point the fear had replaced any form of sound that would have come out of my mouth. I knew that I needed to say who I was, where I was calling from and that there were intruders in my home, but nothing, nothing would entice my clenching throat to utter a single word. Meanwhile, I could hear soft footsteps and the groan of the stairs as they gave way underneath someone who didn’t belong on them.

Just say something, anything, let them know you know they are coming. Tell them that you have called the police and that they are on their way. Don’t sound afraid, everything depends on this.

But try as I may the words wouldn’t come. And then, I mustered something…

“Hey!” I shouted in a deep guttural voice. I intended to finish with “I’ve called the police.” But the sound of my own voice startled me into a new sensation.

I blinked a few times trying to figure out what was going on, when right next to me someone said, “Hey!?” back.
Jarom was looking at me, his face amused and also worried. It was like someone had lit a neon sign that said, “Laugh Now” because we both broke into hysterical laughter.

“What were you dreaming?” he asked as I attached myself to his side, my heart still pounding. “You were whimpering and saying, “h--, h--, h--, heh, HEY!”

“Oh, Jarom!”, I told him “I just had the scariest dream! You were out of town…”

It’s so nice to wake up and realize the scary dream you were dreaming was just that, a dream. Please let the rest of the month be dream free!