It was a normal October afternoon when I arrived home from school to find that something was amiss. The pane of glass above the backdoor was shattered and broken glass was all over the floor. My hair stood on end as I worried if someone was still inside the house. My second thought was that possibly a baseball had crashed through the window and I would find it rolling around on the hardwood floor, a neighborhood kid missing it in the ally behind our house. But it was a school day, and unlikely that a kid would be playing adjacent to our backdoor as we have a very small backyard, and this backdoor is atop a set of stairs and behind a screen door. An intruder had definitely broken the glass and was probably still inside, ready to attack. I called Jeremy, no answer. Do I call the police? I've never called the police....what exactly could the police do that I could not do myself, they would ask me tons of questions and all I could do is say...what...that a pane of glass is broken? I opened the door and looked around. Everything seemed normal, but with a little bit of of a creepy feeling as I wondered if I was alone. I hesitated at the back door, listening for sounds of someone moving. The funny thing about your own house is that you can navigate it at night, in the pitch black without turning on any lights because it is so familiar. Also, we have a 100 year old home with hardwood floors that creak and snap. The sound of walking in any particular room in the house tells you where someone is and which way they are going. I quickly surmised that if someone WAS in the house, I would hear his footfalls and make a quick escape out the back door. (Forgetting that if he were downstairs in the basement, I would not hear him and I could easily trap myself in one of the rooms with no easy way out if he ascended the stairs at just the right time). I tiptoed into the living room, expecting to see everything ransacked, like people do in the movies. The iPad was sitting on the coffee table. The PS3 game controller and console were in their spots, along with the T.V. I peered into the bedrooms and didn't notice anything out of place. Why would someone break in and not take a perfectly good iPad? This was 2010, iPads were state of the art and not many people had one. Had the robber broken in just to smell my underwear? An icky feeling went through me as I felt completely creeped out looking around for signs that someone had been in the house. Someone had wanted in bad enough to break through a window pane, they looked around and then left, that seemed unlikely. Now, do I call the police? "Hello, I'd like to report a broken pane of glass, but nothing is missing, have a nice day!" Seemed like a waste of resources. Finally, Jeremy called me back. He was freaked out. He had been home at lunch until about 1:20, and I had gotten home around 3:40. The intruder was working with such a short window of time that I was very lucky no one was still in the house. Jeremy almost always sets the home security alarm on his keyfob, but for some reason, this one day, he had forgotten to hit the button. Jeremy came home and helped me assess the damage. We cleaned up the glass and patched the back door with cardboard and duct tape. We went to Lowe's to look at new backdoors. We decided that we didn't want a door with such easy access, even if it was original to the house, we wanted a steel door that would make our house a fortress. Doors were expensive. Jeremy had just started a new job and we didn't have an extra $150 that night so we decided to wait until payday. We were so unsettled by the idea that a stranger had been prowling around our home while we were gone, that we could not sleep that night. We kept mulling the thought over and over in our head, why would someone want in and then leave without taking anything.... That's when I saw it!!! (Check back tomorrow, to find out what I saw that changed the entire story!!)
1 Comment
Julie
3/26/2018 07:53:24 am
NELLIE!!!! You're leaving us hanging here!!! I am dying.....and the sniffing your underwear is priceless!!!!! Thanks for the laugh....but I'm not liking getting left hanging....just so you know!!!! LOL
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Mrs. Mitchell
This is my 'slice of life' blog. Archives
March 2020
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