While you were sleeping

 

It’s automatic, when the lights go out my imagination clicks on.  It never fails, suddenly there are creepy things lurking, ready to jump out and get me.  Even in the absence of light there are shapes and shadows, and not just in my mind.  I can see them.  They’re right there.

And should there suddenly be a sound of some kind...KA! POW! I jump out of my skin, my heart pounds, my pulse races.  I’m on high alert.

Usually barefoot, sometimes all it takes to send me over the edge is to step on a sock that I neglected to pick up earlier in the day.  I know it is a sock, I remember it, and yet in that split second, before my brain processes the feel of it, something else brushes against my arm and I let out a little yell.  Arrrggg!

That’s when a familiar but annoyed voice says, “Where’s your flashlight?”

 

“I didn’t want to wake you up.”