"Who's There ?!?"

Originally published 2/96 in "The Silver Valley Voice" - Moonshine Hill Press


“Who’s There?!?”

by Jeffrey Lageson

(c)1995

“Who’s there?” He tries to whisper.
Unfortunately, it almost comes out as a scream in the late night quiet of his house. Normally, he slept soundly. But from time to time he would find himself waking up in a sweat, unsure as to exactly why but aware of “something”. That “something” bothered him every time.

His conscious mind could never quite place what that “something” was. It was as though he didn’t want to remember and his subconscious mind was protecting him from having to face whatever was out there. That is, if anything at all was out there.

Since he was wide awake and full of adrenaline he knew he couldn’t get right back to sleep so he decided to get up and have a snack. His wife remained in oblivious slumber next to him. Both of his dogs awoke as he rose from the bed and judging by their dancing at the door they wanted to go outside.

The wood floor was cold as he staggered about the house. It was still dark so he turned on the outside porch light. In his backyard he thought he saw some motion but decided to write it off as the wind. Both of the dogs went about their business, not seeming to notice anything unusual, coming back inside from the early winter night on his first call. Quickly, they dashed in to the bedroom and snuggled back in close with his wife, not waking her despite pouncing on her with full force.

He caught himself giving the backyard a second look before he turned off the outside light, checking for a sign from something he had no inkling about. Finally, he turned off the light and stepped toward the kitchen, forcing himself to not look back. Even if he wanted to, which he wasn’t sure if he wanted to or not., he could not have forced himself to look.

There was a little juice left so he poured himself a glass, gulping it down quickly. Nothing else appealed to him for a late night snack. He headed back toward the bedroom, his two dogs still awake and snuggled in with his wife but staring at him. Their ears were perked and tails were twitching. He turned the light on next to the bed and grabbed a magazine to read.

His dogs continued to stare at him.
“What?” He asked them.
They both perked up.
“You’ve both already gone and I’m back in bed. So forget it.” Momentarily he wonders if dogs really do understand English.

Uncannily, they both seemed to know what he meant. With sighs of disgust they both put heads down and go to sleep. He reads for a while, not able to go back to sleep. After a short while he looked up and both of his dogs were staring at him again.

“I said no,” he says to them.
They give him “the look”, their heads low while looking sad.
“Not gonna work.”
They slowly lay back down again, their backs to him this time. He shakes his head, laughing at their attitudes. He continues to read, slowly getting the impression he’s being watched. A light passes by his window, a car headlight he thinks.

“Who’s there?” He says to a noise just outside his bedroom door. He begins to get up...
...and finds that it’s morning and he’s overslept again.
His dogs are staring at him, tails wagging and needing to go outside. The magazine he was reading is on the night stand next to the bed, neatly placed as though he had never picked it up to read in the middle of the night.

With an odd sense of deja vu he rises and goes about beginning his morning, taking the dogs to the backdoor, letting them out while scanning the backyard. He wonders why he should feel afraid.