16th
Are You Here For The Scalping?
I can’t sleep because of a relentless tickle in the back of my throat (#pause), so I’m sitting up with the windows wide open, breathing deep sips of some of the summer’s first muggy night air, coughing and moaning about the coughing. And yet this makes you my captive somehow.
I got up to go to the bathroom a few hours ago and noticed light creeping up the stairs from the touch lamp in the foyer. I guess I forgot to turn it off on my way up. I took care of it.
I know I didn’t dream this or remember it from another night. And yet here I am in the hallway, frozen between my room and the bathroom, wondering why it’s on again. My dad cuts the tension with a thunderous snore from behind his closed bedroom door. Unlikely he has anything to do with this, and no one else is home.
I’m not sure in what order I have the following thoughts, as they all sort of come at once (#pause):
- Someone’s in the house and I’m a long lunge from a gun.
- I wonder if Wal*Mart is open at this hour. They sell guns, right? Crazy.
- Did I remember to get cookies at the store? I hope we’re not out of cookies.
- There’s probably no one in the house. I’ve been awake all this time and I haven’t heard the alarm that peeps every time a door opens.
- OHMYGOD I think I left the sliding door open.
I tiptoe halfway down the stairs and turn out the light, then squat for a minute while my eyes adjust to the dark and my breathing settles. My windows are open upstairs and, if memory serves, there’s a back door wide open in the kitchen. And yet it’s so, so quiet.
I slither down the rest of the stairs and pad across the creaky wood floor of the foyer. I stop in a shadow at the doorway to the kitchen, which is dimly lighted by night lights. My heart breaks. I was right, the door is wide open.
A hot breeze wafts in and gives me goosebumps.
It’s so quiet. If anyone’s here, (s)he hasn’t come for the TV.
I hold my breath and cross the kitchen to close the heavy door. If anything’s going to happen, it either should have happened by now or will make for a terrific docudrama someday.
No dice. I kill the lights and bound up the steps, my dad’s snores following me down the hallway. I almost forget about the bathroom.
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