For My
Daughter Paulina.
She was sitting as
still as she could trying to calm her breathing down so that she could listen
for the sound that awoke her again at 3 am .This was the 5th time
this month that she found herself awake and sitting here listening.
She was listening so hard that she thought that she could actually feel her
ears moving; as if trying to tune into the slightest sound. She didn’t realize
how nosy the quiet really was.
She sat there for 45
minutes knowing that even if she got up and roamed her small house, she
wouldn’t find anything out of place or that anyone had broken into her car, or
dogs into her trash can. No one at her door or running down the street. She
also knew that it would take at least an hour of tossing and turning before
sleep would find her again.
She awoke at 8am with
the sun trying to poke its way around the cracks in her tightly drawn drapes.
She hated to wake up with the sun shining in her eyes. She figured it was
better for her eyes to adjust to the light gradually. She leaped as far into
the middle of the room as she could. She had been doing this since she was a
small girl. She was afraid of the Giant Dust Bunny who lived under her bed and
who ate children who didn’t keep their rooms clean. She knew that this wasn’t
true, but it was a habit that was hard to break, along with her nightly
childhood prayer, “Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, bless this bed I lay upon,
Bless Mommy and Daddy etc…..
She was careful not
to look into the mirror while she brushed her teeth and washed her face. Her
hair was cut very short all she had to do was run a comb through it; Just a
quick glance in the mirror and out she went. She thought it was silly that at
her age be afraid of seeing Bloody Mary. She didn’t really believe in it, but
why take a chance. She was use to her little oddities. You know like don’t walk
under a ladder; don’t pick up a penny if it was heads up. Watch out for black
cats. Never look out the side window of a moving car at night. She didn’t want to
see a werewolf, or a monster running beside her. She lived in the town and took
the bus everywhere she went. She didn’t even own a car, but she didn’t look out
the bus window at night either. And since she didn’t own a car she wasn't too
worried about all the garage doors being jammed shut while the car was running
and her dying of gas poison. Always keep the lid down on the toilet so snakes
and swamp rats couldn’t crawl out. Oh and always look down into the toilet bowl
before sitting down. She only burned white candle when the lights went out and
she never lit three on a match. There were more, many more, never park at night
to make out {HOOKMAN}. Never answer the phone on the third ring, could be Death
calling. Never go into the attic at night. Always look the Motel bathroom door
when showering {bring a friend} Ha! Always keep your drink with you at the bar.
Chapter 2
Being it was a Sunday, she was to be at her parents’ house for dinner. She was to be there by 2pm; to help her mother cook and to get in a good visit. The buses stopped running at 7pm on Sundays. Sometimes she missed her bus, mostly on Holidays then either her father or brother drove her home. She hated having to have her dad drive at night and her brother lived out at the other end of town, so it was way out of his way. Although neither one of them complained. Still she didn’t want them out at night. She couldn’t keep them from looking out their side windows.
She had time before catching the bus to her parents’ house to do a little cleaning. Last week’s work clothes still needed to be washed. She put some music on and was rocking out to some good old disco. One of her favorite types of music to get her moving. Before she knew it; it was time to get ready and go catch the bus. Just as she reached for the door knob the doorbell rang. It gave her a little fright. She looked out the peep hole and was surprised to see her brother standing there. She opened the door and gave him a hug.
“I am so surprised to see you here.”
“I was in this part of town so I thought I might as well pick you up and we could ride to mom and dads together; you ready to go?”
“Sure just got to lock up.”
After she locked the door she did a quick tap on the horseshoe that hung above the door, she checked to make sure her garlic plant was doing okay.
“I am ready, be nice not to have to ride the bus both ways.”
As they drove along to their parents her brother talked about how his job was going and the baseball game he went to. He threw in a mention of a woman he had just started dating. All she had to do was ask” what was she like?” And they were in a deep discussion about his new girlfriend, and then her brother asked “when was she going to start dating again? After her break up with Bill she just wasn’t ready to go through that dating routine again.
She didn’t realize that she had stopped talking or even listening, it was such an ingrained habit to look straight ahead and hold her breath and to think a little prayer whenever she passed a cemetery .She let out a deep breath when they were completely passed the cemetery. She heard her brother laughing and thought she had missed a good joke.
“You still do that? I saw you touch your horseshoe when we left your place and now I catch you holding your breath, so no ghostly can get into you” He was laughing again. Everyone she knew laughed at her when they found out about her little oddities. Her brother was the most understanding, but still she guessed that at the age of 31 it did seem a bit odd, that she lifted her feet whenever she went over the railroad tracks, and all the rest of the stuff that she did. She was pretty sure that this was what drove Bill away.
She shrugged her shoulders at her brother. “Habits are habits, and some are very hard to break, I see you still bite your nails.”
“So right you are.” He had a big goofy grin, so she laughed with him.
They arrived at their parent’s house reminiscing and laughing about their childhood.
Chapter 3
They sat around the dining room table talking about their week. She loved her parent’s they were fun to be around, they knew her so well. I mean they did raise her from birth and had night lights all over the house, because she was afraid of the dark. So she went ahead and told them about the noise that kept waking her up at about 3am {just the end of the witching hours}. They asked the same questions she asked herself whenever she found herself sitting straight up in bed. She couldn’t describe the sound, but just that the sound awoke her. They all talked about it while they finished eating.
Her and her mother chatted away while they cleaned up, just about everyday stuff and her mom told her about a funny mishap she had at work. Before they knew it they were both laughing so hard that tears were running down their cheeks. They watched a little T.V. and had some pie. Then she headed for the door to catch her bus.
“Hey Sis, I have an idea on how to find out what the noise is that keeps waking you up.”
“What’s your idea?”
“Set up a tape recorder at night when you go to bed, then listen to it and maybe you can catch the sound and figure out what made the noise.”
“That sounds like a good idea, but what if I hear something really scary?”
“Tell you what, you call me and I will come over and listen to it.”
“Okay but don’t tell me anything bad, then I would have to move.”
Her brother laughed, which made them all start laughing. She knew that she had a voice activated recorder and she would get it out when she got home.
She found the recorder easily, everything seemed to be working and there was even a blank tape. She looked around wondering where to put it, when it came to her that since the noise woke her up in her bedroom, she would start there. She sat it on her dresser across the room. She awoke with the alarm Monday morning; she had slept the whole night through. She jumped far into the middle of the room that she could. Then over to the recorder, she had seen that it had recorded something. She knew that she couldn’t wait for her brother She had to listen to it now, she rewound the tape took a deep breath and turned it on. There were sounds alright. Her faced turned red when she realized what the sounds were. Maybe Bill didn’t leave her because of her habits, but because of what she was hearing coming over the tape.
For four nights there was nothing but the regular night noises. She was being to get bored with the whole checking the tapes each day. Thursday night she was sitting straight up in bed again at 3am. Knowing that a loud noise had woke her up. All was quiet, she sat there listening and hearing nothing. She was sure that the recorder had caught that noise because it was so loud. There was no way that she was going to listen to that tape. A call to her brother would be made first thing in the morning. She called her brother and told him, “That it happened again, and that he had to come over and listen to it, she was just too scared this time to do it.”
“I will be there right after work.”
“Great I’ll fix us a little dinner.”
As soon as he walked into the house she handed him the recorder and told him “go into the office and listen to it. And shut the door I don’t want to hear it.” He went into her office and rewound the tape and pushed play. He got a little chuckle at some of the sounds and found out his sister still talked in her sleep, then he heard it, it was a deep growl sound and it was loud! He jumped up and took a step back, and then he heard it again. He then heard his sister moan and ask “What?”
He asked that same question whit a little more detail. “What the hell was that? There was no more on the tape other than his sister turning it off. He listened to the tape 2 more times. After the 3rd playing he knew what the sound was. He listened once more .He couldn’t help himself, he started laughing, the deep belly kind of laugh. He heard his sister calling him and he walked into the living room. He looked at his sister and just starting laughing again. At first she thought that he had snapped because he heard something so evil on the tape. Then the next thought was that was that he heard the sounds that expelled from her well….her buttocks at night. Quick red face. She looked at her brother again, tears were running down his cheeks and his face was beat red and she quickly went back to her first thought that his mind had snapped. He saw his sister look at him like he was crazy and he coughed out, “I’ll tell you while we eat dinner, you are never going to believe what keeps waking you up at night.” They walked to the table and sat down.
“You tell me right this minute of what you heard.”
He told her about the body function noises, then about the deep growl’s he heard. How he had listened to the tape a total of 4 times and he was certain about the sound that keeps waking her up.
“What? Just tell me already!”
“You my dear sister snore and snore loudly.” With that he started laughing again.
“You lie, I do not snore! Well not loud enough to wake me up.”
He played the tape for her, she gave a little scream when she heard the deep growls, and she wanted to run from the room. She stayed and listens to it a few more times. Not all the sounds that she thought were, well you know. Some were light snores that built up into a really ripping snore. She did wake herself up with the sounds of her snoring.
“Wait tell I tell mom and dad about this Sunday at dinner.”
“Yeah they will love this one. “
She locked up and did the dessert dishes and went to bed happy and feeling safe. Sleep came quickly to her this night.
Chapter 4
He waited in her room under her bed in the dark. His long ears standing straight up listening, his nose twitched every now and then. It would wrinkle when the odor hit his nose. He gave a deep growl. He heard her wake and sit up in bed. She laughed and lay back down. He knew that he had lived with this flow odor long enough. He had been planning this for weeks on how to take care of this little problem. Not only were the smells getting to him, but these dust balls are giving him a rash. It was so hard to get a good starch in.
She thought she was so smart by jumping as far away from the bed as she could. He would out smart her. He would be waiting for her in the morning.
The alarm woke her, she stretched, “Opps.” she said at the sound.
She jumped.
She saw too late to stop herself. Her last thoughts were.
“NO, HE CAN’T BE REAL!”
The giant Dust Bunny burped loudly.
“Oh my, not bad manners, just good food!”
