Tom's Visit

It was a hot Fall day, the last hot day of the year. I was relaxing in bed reading a book with the window wide open, hoping for the canyon breeze. All the children were asleep in their beds and Olaf was out playing World of Warcraft. The was a slight breeze but not the full-fledged gale force winds that come whipping through the canyon some nights, but it was cooling off and becoming pleasant. Occasionally I would hear the leaves blow and crinkle in the wind.

Crinkle, crinkle, crinkle. Is that a pattern in the leaves crinkling? Oh, I must be really tired! No, wait, there it is again. Crinkle, crinkle, crinkle. By now I have completely perked up and realized that outside my window there are footsteps tiptoeing through the leaves!

I sit there, frozen. But, I have to do something! I finally muster enough courage to jump out of bed, run down the hall, and tell Olaf about this. I must have looked a little crazy because he instantly asked me what was wrong.

"There's someone in the backyard!"

He jumps into action.

First he runs downstairs. He takes several minutes to open the safe, load the clips, insert the clips into the guns, and finally safely shut and lock the safe so no one else can gain access. The whole time I'm waiting at the top of the stairs, frozen in place. Afraid to move around because in my haste to tell Olaf about the Prowler I hadn't put any clothes on and was still in my underwear. I was too petrified to go back to my room for some clothes and too afraid to move around in case the Prowler became a Peeping Tom and looked through my open windows.

Then Olaf bounded up the stairs and opened the "Junk" cabinet in the kitchen. It's not really junk but it's not kitchen stuff. We have a whole shelf dedicated to flashlights and knives. That's what happens when you live in a house full of boys. After checking almost every single flashlight he finds one that works reasonably well. We will be buying batteries come morning.

Next he runs down the hall to get some clothes on himself. It was a hot night and he was also lounging in his underwear. Moral of this story: Don't come to our house late at night.

Finally, after an eternity, he is ready to contact the Prowler. First he gives me the phone and tells me to dial 911 if anything goes wrong. In my head I'm thinking "What constitutes Wrong?" Then he heads out into the backyard. As he turns the corner towards our bedroom window I hear his voice wafting through the windows.

"I hope you have health insurance because if I see you you're going to need it!" If I wasn't so scared it would be comical, kind of like a Scooby Doo rerun, only in my backyard.

I hear his footsteps through the leaves. Other than that it is silent. The crickets aren't even singing. And then the neighbors car alarm shatters the night air. And then slowly, one by one, the dogs down the street start barking. The dogs finally quiet down and all is silent again.

Obviously the Peeping Tom is now gone. He thought he would be smart and watch Olaf from behind our neighbor's car, but the alarm was extra sensitive and touching the car set the alarm ringing. Then as he tried to escape he set all the watchdogs a barking. It was quite the eventful night. After finally quieting down I still had a hard time going to sleep.