The Night Watchman

Where to begin. . . . . .

The other night I was on the phone with a dear friend when I started hearing some strange sounds. It was a cool evening so we had our ceiling vents open and I heard a sound that made my senses go on alert. It sounded as though someone was tapping their fingers on the roof of our trailer. I cautiously got up off the bed from where I'd been laying down and peered up into the open vent half expecting to see someone staring back at me. I flipped the lights off in the bedroom so I could see into the darkness above me a little better and found nothing. I reassured myself it was just the wind that was to blame as it was causing things to blow around.

I continued my conversation with my friend and then my dog, Chloe, came up to me. I was picking up on the vibe that she needed to go outside. Secretly. . . I was not looking forward to going out into the night. I threw on a jacket, grabbed a flashlight and stepped out into the evening air with Chloe. I sent her off to do her business but all she'd do was stand there and stare at me.

It's very dark out here at night and we don't have a lot of room between our trailer and our parked vehicles and I continued hearing noises (most likely caused from the wind) but I let my imagination get the best of me. I would picture somebody peering at me from around the trailer or sneaking up from behind me and the noises began to freak me out. I had the flashlight on the whole time but it seemed right when I would shine it in the direction I wanted to "check" the light would go out! There I was standing beside our trailer, a wide eyed look on my face, a dog staring up at me, and I'm banging the flashlight against the palm of my hand willing it to turn on again all the while thinking this would be an opportune time for somebody to jump me. (I told you. . . . . wild imagination.)

So there I stood, darting the flashlight all around trying to check my surroundings with a dog that wouldn't go to the bathroom. I said forget it and we began our march to the trailer steps when I saw something sitting in the middle of the road, and it seemed to be looking in my direction. I had no idea what it was and when I tried to shine the flashlight on whatever it was the light wouldn't come on. Of course. After furiously clicking the button on the light and holding my breath it finally turned on and I shined it in the direction of the thing I saw. There sitting in the middle of the road was an owl staring straight at me.

That was the icing on the cake for me. I wondered how long he'd been watching me. My eyes were probably mirror images of his big eyes and I hustled Chloe and myself inside.

Whatever Chloe had to do would wait til daylight.