So a few weeks ago, we were robbed. The robbing took place outside the house, but on our grounds. Since then I've been paranoid and scared of the possibility of being robbed again. I had been mugged before in Chicago, and it took me about a year to walk home after dark instead of taking a taxi. This time it might take longer. Also I believe I know who did the robbing here, but I am not positive they won't come back for more. Paranoid- I know.
I have started sleeping with my lights on. Actually I originally thought the lights were probably due to falling asleep while reading the GRE test books, but I had to rethink that recently.
It was another dark night. Dark everywhere but my room as I again had fallen asleep with the lights on.
I was going in and out of sleep as the dogs kept barking mad. When I say mad, I mean they can turn a person mad with their barking. They bark at everything- a moth, a leaf falling of the tree, a car driving down the road. I remember thinking at one point 'please God, please let someone kill them, soI can get some sleep.' Suddenly the lights went out.
I looked out on the street and everyone else's houses had lights on. We were the only house in the dark. I grabbed my trusty tai-chi wooden sword and went in search of my sister. I have to explain about the search. The house is a bleeping mansion. First month of living here I kept getting lost. By now I knew my way around, but it didn't make me feel any safer.
Finally I found my sister, who wasn't doing any better than I was on the paranoid front.
After the calmed down, we decided to call the power company.
The phones were dead.
So were our cell phones, cause we forgot to charge them, hehe...yeah. My sister managed to text her boyfriend Joe before her cell phone died, and I didn't even try mine. I knew it was dead. DEAD! The terrible feeling of doom was settling in. We kept hearing noises, like windows being pried open, or someone walking around downstairs. The dogs, for the first time that night were quiet. Even the cat kept looking at us wihtout making any noise.
Then we remembered that one of the bedrooms had a regular phone with a regular phone jack and we called the Power company. After half hour of fighting the automated service we finally got through. Unfortunately they were backed up and we were on our for the next two hours.
Sitting in the dark listening to what at that point in the night felt like a haunted house ( will remember this for Halloween purposes) we were getting even more paranoid to the point of arming ourselves even further. My sister asked that I get her a kitchen knife. I wlaked nto the kitchen brandashing my weapon, in case someone was already there and for some bizzare reason kept repeating words from the Raven. It didn't help that the Raven was being played over and over in my mind like a mantra. 'Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before' I don't know why I kept repeating these words like a broken record, making myself more scarred of the shadows lurking behind every wall, and as my fear of the unknown consumed me I miscalculated and grabbed a butter knife. yeah...
'It's just in case.' I said as I presented my sister with her new weapon. 'In case of what? The robbers want their bread buttered?' asked my sister. But she held on to the knife.
Actually the longer she held onto to the knife, the creepier she got.
Before she got the knife she was happily following behind me when we inspected the mansion for the intruders. Once she got a hold of the knife she bolted in front of me and started to jump from room to room gleefully yelling 'I'm gonna cut you sucka!' (Side note- My sister is a music teacher at a elementary school.)
After she let out a war cry and tried to attack her own shadow, I had to take away her knife.
Satisfied that no one was lurking around the haunted mansion but us, we hunkered down to wait for the Power company.
Suddenly the front door made noise. Someone was trying to get into the house! The Power company people would have knocked and we would have heard their big utility truck drive up. This wasn't someone we were expecting.
The door handle turned and whoever it was was going to be sorry!
It was my sister's boyfriend Joe who had received the SOS that my sister had texted before her phone died. We had forgotten to call him back from the normal phone. I didn't kill him, he is still alive, in Grad School. If you can call that living.
So anyway, now we had three paranoid people, two sleeping dogs and a cat on the lookout.
As it turned out an hour and a half later, the Power Company came through and found a dead possum, who had died while chewing the power lines in our back yard. What made the possum take his own life? Was it money problems? gambling debt, a sex scandal, a divorce? Or perhaps he/she was just fed up with the possum life and decided to retire early into the afterlife.We don't know. We do know that I am going to be sleeping with lights on for a little longer than I had first hoped.
'And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming,
And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted - nevermore!'
I have started sleeping with my lights on. Actually I originally thought the lights were probably due to falling asleep while reading the GRE test books, but I had to rethink that recently.
It was another dark night. Dark everywhere but my room as I again had fallen asleep with the lights on.
I was going in and out of sleep as the dogs kept barking mad. When I say mad, I mean they can turn a person mad with their barking. They bark at everything- a moth, a leaf falling of the tree, a car driving down the road. I remember thinking at one point 'please God, please let someone kill them, soI can get some sleep.' Suddenly the lights went out.
I looked out on the street and everyone else's houses had lights on. We were the only house in the dark. I grabbed my trusty tai-chi wooden sword and went in search of my sister. I have to explain about the search. The house is a bleeping mansion. First month of living here I kept getting lost. By now I knew my way around, but it didn't make me feel any safer.
Finally I found my sister, who wasn't doing any better than I was on the paranoid front.
After the calmed down, we decided to call the power company.
The phones were dead.
So were our cell phones, cause we forgot to charge them, hehe...yeah. My sister managed to text her boyfriend Joe before her cell phone died, and I didn't even try mine. I knew it was dead. DEAD! The terrible feeling of doom was settling in. We kept hearing noises, like windows being pried open, or someone walking around downstairs. The dogs, for the first time that night were quiet. Even the cat kept looking at us wihtout making any noise.
Then we remembered that one of the bedrooms had a regular phone with a regular phone jack and we called the Power company. After half hour of fighting the automated service we finally got through. Unfortunately they were backed up and we were on our for the next two hours.
Sitting in the dark listening to what at that point in the night felt like a haunted house ( will remember this for Halloween purposes) we were getting even more paranoid to the point of arming ourselves even further. My sister asked that I get her a kitchen knife. I wlaked nto the kitchen brandashing my weapon, in case someone was already there and for some bizzare reason kept repeating words from the Raven. It didn't help that the Raven was being played over and over in my mind like a mantra. 'Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before' I don't know why I kept repeating these words like a broken record, making myself more scarred of the shadows lurking behind every wall, and as my fear of the unknown consumed me I miscalculated and grabbed a butter knife. yeah...
'It's just in case.' I said as I presented my sister with her new weapon. 'In case of what? The robbers want their bread buttered?' asked my sister. But she held on to the knife.
Actually the longer she held onto to the knife, the creepier she got.
Before she got the knife she was happily following behind me when we inspected the mansion for the intruders. Once she got a hold of the knife she bolted in front of me and started to jump from room to room gleefully yelling 'I'm gonna cut you sucka!' (Side note- My sister is a music teacher at a elementary school.)
After she let out a war cry and tried to attack her own shadow, I had to take away her knife.
Satisfied that no one was lurking around the haunted mansion but us, we hunkered down to wait for the Power company.
Suddenly the front door made noise. Someone was trying to get into the house! The Power company people would have knocked and we would have heard their big utility truck drive up. This wasn't someone we were expecting.
The door handle turned and whoever it was was going to be sorry!
It was my sister's boyfriend Joe who had received the SOS that my sister had texted before her phone died. We had forgotten to call him back from the normal phone. I didn't kill him, he is still alive, in Grad School. If you can call that living.
So anyway, now we had three paranoid people, two sleeping dogs and a cat on the lookout.
As it turned out an hour and a half later, the Power Company came through and found a dead possum, who had died while chewing the power lines in our back yard. What made the possum take his own life? Was it money problems? gambling debt, a sex scandal, a divorce? Or perhaps he/she was just fed up with the possum life and decided to retire early into the afterlife.We don't know. We do know that I am going to be sleeping with lights on for a little longer than I had first hoped.
'And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming,
And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted - nevermore!'
