A Thump And A Rattle In The Night

I have always been a little, lets say, nervous when it comes to sounds in the dark. I can't count the number of times I've jerked my husband from a sound sleep with the question, "What was that?" He usually mumbles something like, "A car door slamming" and goes back to sleep quickly, while I lay there with wide eyes and pulse pounding.

I also have always subscribed the the theory of a closed closet door keeps the monsters in (thanks Monsters Inc for trying to shatter that!) and never letting your hand or foot hang over the edge of the bed since that is too tempting a treat for monster. I never fall asleep without pulling at least the sheet up to my ears, keeping most of my person under a cover for monster protection.

It's so very weird that the little rituals I went through as a child are still with me as an adult!

The other night started my first night alone on my husbands 3 night business trip. I was fine. Totally fine. I've done the alone thing so many times, it's not a big deal. As I crawled into bed, I decided to not watch TV before I went to sleep. I usually do, but the remote is broken so that means I'd have to snuggle down, get comfy, watch a rerun of Seinfeld, then break the warm seal of bed covers to turn off the TV. I was too tired for that. I rolled over to the closet side of the bed to turn off the light.

As I was immersed in darkness, I heard it.

Thump! Door knob rattle!

The closet!!! Something in the closet was trying to get out!!!

The light goes back on. The TV goes on. I carefully got up and pressed on the closet door to make sure it was closed and latched tightly. Nothing in the world could make me open the closet door. I just needed to make sure it was secure.

When my nephew J sleeps over, he gets a special bed made up on the floor right beside my bed. One time I could hear him still awake so I went in to check on him. I got down on the floor next to him and asked if he was okay. He looked over at me and said, "There's a cat under your bed."

I don't own a cat. And to my mortification I could not look under the bed. Best case it was a mouse with beady little eyes. Worse case it was monster with glowing red eyes. Either way, I did not check it out. I laughed, ruffled his hair and said he was silly. It was time for sleep.

And, probably, it was better to not look under the bed.

I applied that advise to myself. It was probably better to not look in the closet.