Sleepless Nights: Part Four--Face To Face with Fear

I was at work all day on Tuesday, so I couldn't be with Karen. I hoped she would be OK, especially as night settled. The forecast called for thundestorms, which really perpetuated to cinematic feel to everything that had happened the past few days. Really, when you think about it, we had the full horror-movie quotient at play. Dark nights, eerie scratching sounds outside then inside, shadows creeping about in the bedroom. Of course on this night, it had to include an unrelenting storm. I got home at my normal time, pulling up to our house with all the lights off. What were we going to experience tonight? I had practically resigned myself that this was how life would be during the summer months. I mean, we had moved out of a fourth-floor condominium right into a ground floor house. We already had to deal with ants, slugs, even maggots coming from...wherever they come from. I felt strong, maybe just like horror movie characters do when they're faced with no choice but to confront their worst nightmare. I unlocked the front door and walked in. A strange odor tickled my nose and I wondered what Karen had fixed herself for dinner. It was dark inside, save for the light coming from the family room. Karen had left the TV on and gone to sleep already?

I stepped into the kitchen to drop off my backpack and take off my soaked jacket.

"Chad? Come here." Karen's voice was strangely calm, coming from the TV room.

I paused for just a moment. I don't recall ever hearing that tone in her voice before.

I walked down the hallway to join her. Why were there no lights on? What was that smell? The walk seemed to take forever as I thought about what I might see in that room. Which movie might it reflect? "Amityville Horror" with blood streaming down the walls? "The Exorcist" with a green liquid spewed over the carpeting? "Poltergeist" with it's portal to purgatory? I entered the room. Karen sat in her chair. The TV was playing "That 70's Show."

Karen said flatly, "Turn the light on." I flipped on the switch and bathed the room in harsh flourescent light. "I saw it."




























One heartbeat moment later, she told me about her day here at home. She had an uncomfortable feeling that there was a presence in the house all day with her but couldn't find anything. Finally, just before 11:30 pm, she was watching TV and felt something behind her. She swiveled around to see...a BLACK CAT trying to pry open the door of the laundry chute! Time slowed as Karen and the cat stared at each other. He must have felt the rush of cool air coming from the basement and probably felt that was his last desperate way out of the prison that this house had become for him the past two days. Karen's startled gasp sent him darting to the guest bedroom. Now that she knew what it was, Karen could finally relax. She opened up a can of tuna fish and served it with a bowl of water, placing it just inside the doorway of the bedroom. That explained the odor I encountered when I came in. I walked into the bedroom and peered under the bed, all fear of "Poltergeist" and that movie Clown drifting away. Under the far end of the bed, there it was, a dark mass of fur and two glowing eyes. It wasn't moving, just waiting. After a few minutes of trying to coax the frightened cat from under the bed, I ended up taking the tuna fish out of the room, opening the window and closing the door.

Karen and I slept well Tuesday night, after laughing about the last two nights. The next morning came, like it always does, and I checked the guest bedroom. Sure enough, the bowl was nearly empty of water and the cat was gone. I stuck my head out the window and said a quiet goodbye to our unlikely guest.