Today I was putting dinner together and cleaning my kitchen and dining room…it was 5:00 and I was expecting Issa home in about half an hour. All was quiet and calm, I had the television on and I was lost in thought when I heard the door open. I glanced at the clock and it was just shortly after 5:00, I looked out the window and saw that his car wasn’t in the driveway…so I yelled “Issa?”
There was no answer but I heard footsteps in the entry hall…it was then that Ally came flying furiously down the stairs from the third floor to the second and at the same time, I heard footsteps coming up the stairs from the first to the second ”Issa?!?!” I was yelling now…
Ally was going crazy, all the fur on her back was standing up and she was guarding the top of the stairs on the second floor with a vicious bark I have rarely, if ever, heard come out of her…Erin was barking wildly as well….so, I bounded up the stairs to the bedroom and locked the door behind me…I heard footsteps going down the stairs beneath me, and then there were footsteps in the entry hall…and then…the door opened and slammed shut. I looked out the window but didn’t see anyone so I sat there with my back against the door for a few minutes, then went and peeked out the window where I saw a person walking by and although Ally and Erin were still sporadically barking, I was certain that the person had left and the danger had subsided…so I slowly crept down the stairs, into the kitchen…where I plucked a small paring knife from the butcher block and laid it on the stairs just behind the wall so that I could use the element of surprise if need be–assuming someone was still in the house…then, I went down the stairs again to the first floor/entry hall with Ally and Erin in tow…
I hooked Ally up to the leash and we crept outside and she followed a scent to the end of the driveway…
I didn’t see anything suspicious, but my heart was still racing…so I went back inside and locked the door, certain I had just narrowly avoided some awful fate…but then I found myself start to wonder if I had imagined the sounds I had heard or if there was some simple explanation that I hadn’t thought of–like it was the maintenance guy…but those ideas were quickly dismissed as I thought to myself that there was no way Ally would have reacted in the way that she did to something I had imagined. And the maintenance staff is quite diligent about ringing the doorbell and yelling “Maintenance!”…
So, what should I do? Call the police? Say someone just walked into my house and was scared off by the dogs??
I thought about the ADT commercial where that normal looking jogger who smiles and waves at the husband as he pulls out of the driveway, turns psycho and scary by pulling a hood over his head and then jump kicks down the door…she drops the dish in the sink and then ADT calls the woman and sends the police and how I always thought that was useless–how were the police going to help? Patrol the neighborhood??
Well, I was lost in thought and the doorbell rang. I almost ignored it–afraid for what was on the other side when I realized that I was being silly, no murderer/rapist/robber is going to ring the doorbell…
I peeked through the blinds and saw my neighbor, so I opened the door…and said “Hi!” she re-introduced herself, and said
“Let me tell you what just happened…”
“Ok?”
“Well, I went to get my mail and found a card from a friend…I opened it and was reading it and walking back…I was so enthralled in the letter that I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going and I just walked into your house and kicked off my shoes in the entry and walked right up your stairs! I didn’t snap out of it until I heard your dog barking halfway up the stairs and realized that I was in the wrong house!”
“Oh my gosh!”
“I was so startled and freaked that I ran out of the house, and ran to my house and I told my husband ‘Al, you won’t believe what I just did!’ and I told him and he told me I better run over here and tell you–I am so sorry, I was in such shock I just didn’t know what to do!”
I told her it was ok and that I was freaked out but I am glad it wasn’t an intruder…and I sincerely appreciated her coming over to tell me…
I will consider this a warning to keep my door locked from now on…this time my distracted neighbor and a funny story…next time someone with a plan??
Hilarious! I’m so glad it was just your neighbor and not some crazy murderer. Tomorrow make her some cookies and take them over to her house, except when you get there, don’t knock or ring the bell- just walk on in and hand her the cookies!
Kate
Nice! It reminds me of my first day of Kindergaten. We had just moved into our new house days before so it was a new and unfamiliar neighborhood and my first day off at school and I was only 5. At that time almost every house on that street was white and I knew that my house was kind of on a hill but apparently, so was my neighbor’s. There was a fancy wrought iron bench on the front porch and I remember sitting down thinking “hmm, this is pretty and it must be new cause I’ve never seen it before.” Then when a really old lady answered the door instead of my mom I immediately started freaking out! Good thing she was a nice neighbor too. Every time after that when I would go over to her house she’d give me cookies. I like neighbors with cookies. Kate has the right idea. LOL
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