VISITORS IN THE NIGHT...
Far, far away in the land of the Pacific Northwest... (Unless you happen to live there, then it's not so far, far away.)...when the night (or the night eve) of the yearly fall time shift came once again, there was a young maiden (or perhaps a senior lady) who was fast asleep (or trying to be fast asleep) When SUDDENLY...
"Errr...Errr", sang the door chime in a high pitched whine. "Who is at my door at 1AM?", declared the senior lady...(to on one in particular, cause no one else was there.) It's spooky enough that the fierce wind is banging something around on my outside back bedroom wall and that torrents of rain are deluging down. There is a strange brightness to this stormy night. Why? Why is my phone lighting up so much? I don't recall that on past nights. Is there an emergency I don't know about? Is someone trying to contact me? Someone from the next realm? The 6th dimension? Someone past or future? I must have just imagined I heard that annoying electric squeal.
I lie quietly snuggled in the flannel sheets and warm quilt. I should have been asleep an hour ago but something has kept me restless and awake. Strong tea too late at night? I don't think so. Dragons flying in from the east? (No, those are geese returning.) A dry pea secretly placed under my mattress to prove I am a princess? Too many unsettled decisions? I try to relax and remind myself that the Lord is taking care of things.
"Errr...Errr..." The annoying electric whine of the door bell. "Err...Err..." There it is again! It's now 2AM. What is happening? Reluctantly, I push myself out of bed. I need to investigate, but cautiously. I stand by the kitchen door but don't hear or see anything amiss. Sneakily I glance out the front porch door. If anyone is there I don't want them to see me. No one there, though the motion lights from the house across the street are beaming too brightly while their decorative flags whip wildly in the wind. Having checked out my house and glanced out the bedroom window to find nothing abnormal I swallow a Tylenol and munch a couple crackers in hopes of inducing sleep, then climb back into the shelter of my warm bed. I'm gone.
"Errr...Errr..., errrrr... errrrr...Err...Err.. er..er.. Errrr...Errr..." What the hey??? It's 4AM. Yay, I slept 2 hours. But...."Errr...Errr...er..er..e.e.Errrr...." Is there a city wide earthquake warning? Flood? Tornado? Fire? Zombie attack? "Errr...Errr..er..er..e.e.Errr...Errr..." Maybe if I ignore it "it" will stop. Nope. Once again I drag myself out of bed. This time thoroughly perplexed. It must the the door bell, but how do I disengage it? Stop it? Smash it? Annihilate it? Why is it doing this to me? I was sleeping so well.
I followed the annoying screeching as it got louder and louder...to a....small rectangular box plugged into the entrance wall. I've wondered for the past 10 years what it is for. The doorbell hardly works when actual people are pressing it. I reasoned it was a bug killing devise or vampire repellent. It never intruded on me until now so I left it to its own particular life style.
SO! It is the doorbell connection! But who or what is pressing the doorbell so incessantly? And is blatantly keeping on even as I watch. Victoriously, triumphantly, I yank the wretched thing out of the socket. And then...there it was...! Can you hear it? Can you? Blessed silence! Silence never sounded so good. I cast the cursed thing aside and went back to bed in luxurious stillness. At 8AM the silence lingered. Even so at 10AM when life called me to sanely get on with the new day.
I have boldly reinserted the offending devise. So far it is behaving. But what lingering powers are regrouping to assert themselves at some unsuspecting hour? And what brought it on?
I'm still mystified at what cosmic forces (in the far, far away land of the Pacific Northwest...unless you live there. Well, you know...) were at war last night bewailing the end of daylight saving time and fighting to ward off the hours and hours of darkness for the next several months? May the spirits of daylight savings not be at war with the sprites of darkness until the return of spring!
It's just too hard on Gram G.
But it makes a good story. The End.
