Babies
This morning, 4:12am, sleeping. I woke to a noise at my door.
I have been sleeping on the couch since I cannot sleep in my bed lately, disrupted.
Scratch, scratch, rip, SNAP! A noise at my door.
I awake even more.
My senses are waking up to adrenaline leaking into my bloodstream.
At first I hide under my down comforter that has been living on the couch, I pull it up hard. I am a frightened child in the middle of the night when a monster escapes from the closet. Soon I gain my senses and tell myself that I am a 32, almost 33 year old man. I get up from the couch and leap to the door where I spy out of the peephole.
Nothing. It is dark, I can see a light from across the parking lot from my neighbor’s upstairs apartment.
Still nothing. I am at this point afraid that I may have watched too many horror movies. What is waiting for me outside my door?
I remember that time I watched Silver Bullet when I was 13, terrified of werewolves from years ago. Courage, courage, face your fears, open the door and look. No too scared, werewolves are at my door. Courage you moron you are not 13 anymore. Alright I will try to open the door.
Now i know this happens in the movies, hand shaking, can’t get control of my hands, shake shake.
Alright, now!
I swing the door open and look, nothing. I look over at Casey’s apartment, who moved in to the adjacent building on the floor level. I’m not sure why I looked to her aprartment, maybe for security and a reality check. Nothing, not a light on. Maybe she’s been scratching at my door? No, to early in the morning, besides she has better things to do.
I look down to my doormat, I realize it has been raining all night. I look at the doormat made of bound straw. Gnarled up. Shit werewolves! I knew it, I freeze up!
Step out onto the all weather carpet in my socks. Stand there frozen up, paralyzed, werewolves! My socks a absorbing the moisture from the outdoor carpet. I notice the trim siding from around the door has been pulled off, and the inards or the plastic pulled out a bit and buckling. Is my apartment sinking into the ground? Was there an earthquake? I look around the neighboorhood from my upstairs apartment were my feet are sopping wet, frozen to the deck.
Has the world ended?
It could have, people were shot at the university yesterday in Virginia and I did stay up late two nights ago to watch Moby Dick on PBS the other night.
Ok, now where were those werewolves? At this point I need another excuse to know that the world hadn’t ended and I wasn’t in some purgatory suburbia.
Dammit I need to justify why I have all of this adrenaline in my body! Some kind of reason to….CLAP. CLAP. CLAP. I realize that I am clapping No, banging my hands together very hard because my eyes have met the eyeys of another creature peaking up from my staircase.
Clap again, the thing scurries off down the stairs and I find myself looking over the edge of the railing….I am looking at a baby Racoon.
