That’s the sound I heard at about 11:30pm last night. Those of you who know me know that I go to bed with the chickens. Well, between 9 and 10pm, but still pretty early for most folks I know.
At around 10:30 I had to get up and go into the guest room due to My Parnter’s heavy breathing (in his defense, he is getting over a cold, so he’s having a difficult time). Our guest room is downstairs and our bedroom is upstairs.
I had no sooner gone downstairs, snuggled under the down comforter, and dozed off when I was startled awake by the neighbor’s dog’s barking. After some cursing and flopping around to get comfortable again, I was once again dozing off.
Then I heard it.
Tap, tap, tap…
At first I thought it was the fire dying in the fireplace as it had been popping and settling for a bit.
Tap, tap, tap…
Then Theron starting barking like crazy.
I looked at the clock and saw that it was 11:30 and thought, “Oh no! Something is wrong,” and quickly began imagining which friend and/or neighbor needed our assistance. I also knew they must need it really badly as they all know us and know we go to bed early.
So I peek my head around the corner and try to squint enough to see who’s at the door (I’m blind as a bat without my glasses). I could only see the shadow of someone standing at the door and nothing else.
At this point My Partner gets up and asks from the top of the stairs, “Who is it?”
I begin making my way upstairs to get my robe (here’s TMI: I sleep commando) and my glasses. As I’m about to get out of eye sight, My Partner turns on the stairway lights, illuminating my nakedness for whomever is tapping on our door.
I get my robe and my glasses and head to the door, turning on all the lights on the way, including the porch light. Standing in the side pane windows is a tall (and quite handsome, if I might add) Latino man.
I reach for the door handle and then think better of unlocking and opening the door. So I ask him what he wants.
He mumbles something in a thick accent about his car, the police, Pasadena, and bus fare. I asked him to repeat because I thought maybe I was delirious.
He repeated something about his car, the police, Pasadena, and bus fare.
I snarled, “Get the hell out of here!”
He took a look at my face and high-tailed it out of there. As I watched him leave, I almost opened the door to follow him out and then thought, “What if there’s someone waiting outside for me to open the door?!” So I left it closed, turned off all but the porch light, and watched for about 10 minutes. He didn’t come back, so eventually I went back to bed. Unfortunately I didn’t sleep well after that because the whole incident didn’t make much sense.
First, it was really late. Who knocks on someone’s door and asks for bus fare? When I’m walking on the sidewalk I understand. Outside of restaurants? I get it. In my own home at 11:30pm? No way!
Second, why was he tapping on the window instead of ringing the doorbell or knocking on the door? It was such a soft tap that I almost feel like he didn’t want it to be heard.
Third, why was the neighbor’s dog barking?
The only thing I could come up with was that he was trying to break into our house and was somehow testing things out (like whether we were home, had a dog, a security alarm, etc.).
The next morning, sure enough, there were muddy (it’s been raining here in SoCal) footprints all over our porch, including in front of the windows and along the sides of the house (which explains why the neighbor’s dog was barking!).
It totally freaked me out! To the point that I’m adding onto our home security system and arming it every day from now on. I’m trying not to feel too creeped out but it’s a bit of a challenge. Especially with this dark, wet weather we’ve been having. Very creepy!
Frank Notes 
