Night Noises

11:30, and I’m lying on the sofa, saying my prayers. The night is dark outside the trailer door, and it’s all quiet, like the world is empty. Then, out of nowhere, there’s a loud smacking clang! – like a large tin can being kicked. My eyes fly open and I freeze in place.

Then the porch light clicks on, the automatic light that detects movement.

And a soft footfall.

I lie there quite still. No further noises; at last I slide off the sofa, ever so silent, ever so slow, and tiptoe to the window through the obstacle course of last year’s camping supplies. Steathily I part the blind to see the porch: no prowler trying to burgle the house. A little reassured, I move to the door and duck under the curtain, scanning the sidewalk – a raccoon does live under the trailer; might’ve been skulking by the garbage.

Nothing.

I creep back to bed, still as mouselike as I can. If there is a prowler after all, best he doesn’t know we’re in the trailer.

On the bed Elizabeth shifts in her sleeping bag. Be quiet! A moment of silence, and she shifts a second time, louder now. Then she is still, and I let out a breath I wasn’t aware of holding.

I seem to hear something padding around the side and back of the trailer, but I’m sleepy now…

“Night Noises” Copyright 2016 by Benita J. Prins