Bump In The Night

Bump in the night goes the noise, loud enough to cause Jane to wake up out of a dead sleep. Terrified, that someone was in the apartment with her while she slept, she thought about calling the police. Knowing that she was going to go looking to see what she could find. Maybe a cat had somehow got into her apartment and she would feel foolish if she called the police which would come to find nothing. She laid in her soft bed waiting for the noise to sound again and nothing came for several minutes. Her imagination went wild as she imagined a burglar creeping down the hallway toward her bedroom.

Tiptoe goes his feet very silently as he creeps down the hallway toward her bedroom on silent feet. He had some nasty ideas planted in his head and murder in his heart. Shaking her head, as if to get rid of the image of a stranger taking one step at a time to get toward her, when a noise came from another part of her apartment slightly louder than the last, she picked up the phone to call the police and disturb her neighbors in this quiet night. 

Red and blue light flashed into her bedroom window and as the police were leaving, she heard remarks that she probably imagined the noise in her sleep.  The three policemen that walked through her apartment and woke up a couple of her neighbors that told the police that they didn’t hear anything. It had been a quiet night until the police had woken them up in the middle of the night to be questioned about a situation that had happened in their neighbor’s apartment. None of the neighbors had heard anything, but all agreed that she usually was a quiet neighbor. A nice lady that would help her neighbors if she could.

Bump in the middle of the night goes the noise that no one hears except for her. Jane had a single thought crash through her mind, “You are going crazy!”  and she laughed silently as she knew what she had heard in the middle of the night. She was going to find some way to prove to her neighbors and police that she wasn’t going crazy. She knew what she had heard and she was going to prove it to everyone especially her neighbors and the police.

Her life seemed to return to normal with no more incidents with the police and especially no more bumps in the night. No more feeling scared enough that she wanted to move to another place, she loved living here. The neighbors had been nice to her and made her feel welcome in the apartment house.  The neighborhood had been quiet enough that she could feel safe in her apartment and she could sleep the night away like a baby in a crib. The landlord was nice to her since she paid her rent on time and the apartment was super cheap for a two-bedroom one bath apartment. She could easily afford the rent on her one paycheck and her bills got paid with the other paycheck. Not having a lot left to do anything with, the leftover money went straight into the bank for a rainy day.

Singing in the shower one night, she was surprised by a knock on the shower door and through the steam, she swore she could see the outline of a person standing on the other side. Despite the steamy and hot water running over her body, she felt a chill ran up and down her body with a motion that was increasing in its speed. Trying her best to wipe some of the steam on the glass shower, she couldn’t see anything. She knew without a doubt that no one was out there to see, so she decides to ignore it. Chalk it down to her mind hallucination to the point of exhaustion. She was tired and needed to get to bed to sleep peacefully the night away.

Bump in the night would have to wait until another night to scare her enough to leave because tonight, she was way too tired to care about anything. She had named the ghost, the bump in the night “Oscar” like Oscar the grouch. Having a feeling that the ghost or spirit was a grouchy old man, the name Oscar seemed to fit perfectly. As she sunk deeply into sleep, she whispered three words that even surprised herself “Good Night Oscar!” The soft music that she always had playing off of her radio lulled her into a sleep of Heavens, quiet and safe for the night she let nothing bug her. Oscar could make any noise he wanted, she wasn’t going to get excited about it. She needed a good night's sleep tonight.

She laid there trying to appear that she was asleep, it was two in the morning and the whole place was silent. No one was going bump in the night. Not sure which she saw first, was it the shadow of a person moving quietly around her apartment, or was it the movement when they grabbed hold of a light they almost knocked over. She watched the shadow moving slowly and quietly across her front room to her kitchen where she was hoping that they would get into her refrigerator, she knew the light would show who or what it was. Hearing soft noise coming from her kitchen, she could swear they were making a sandwich to eat. Was it someone in the neighborhood that watched as she carried groceries from her car to come to eat the food she had bought? She had been wondering why her food wasn’t lasting as long as the food in her old apartment had lasted? Silently, she slipped out of her bedroom to see if she could sneak up on the person that was in her kitchen. One step at a time and using a very slow pace that made her want to scream. All she wanted to do was jump the person to find out what was going on.

She crept onward to find out what was happening in her apartment, she kept getting closer to the person she thought was a ghost, what she thought was a bump in the night.  She peeked around the corner to see the dark figure standing in her kitchen and they looked taller than she was.  She stands five foot eight, so as a guess the person stood about six feet. His weight was solid, husky, and near one hundred eighty pounds. He was standing there with his back to her and just looking around at what he could see standing on the counter. Was he going to rob her of small kitchen appliances? Was he going to eat all of her food and rob her blind?

“What is going on here?” she wondered silently to herself. How was she going to get rid of this guy?  What if she turns on the lights to expose herself to him, so he knows she was there.  She would be exposing him to her and she would hear his excuse on why he is in her apartment? She was standing quietly when she heard the second voice coming from somewhere near her front door, “Hurry up before she wakes up. I know she has heard us a few times, and I don’t want to get caught. I don’t know how we would explain to her why we are in her apartment and how we get in here?”

A deep voice came from the kitchen saying, “We would tell the truth. We kept a key when we got kicked out.  I don’t know if she would believe us, but I guess homeless bums have to do what they need to do to get through the day.”  Jane stood there taking it all in and the way she had it figured was these two people had been the old renters who now were stealing things from her to make it easier in their lives. By the sounds of it, they had been stealing food to get by plus things to sell to get a few bucks to get extras they needed.

She flicked on the lights so that everyone knew who was present and she would finally get her answers to the question that she needed answers to. The one by the door got ready to run and the one in the kitchen started to look around for a window to go out.  Jane heard herself say, “Everyone just stay where you are. Who is going to explain to me what is going on here or do I call the police?” She watched as the two strangers stared at her and then she added, “I am going to call the police.” Heading toward the phone, she took some slow steps as if to give them a few more seconds to think their situations through.

As soon as her hand was on the phone, she heard the man’s voice say, “Wait, please! Let’s sit down and I will try to explain what is going on.” Pausing to let everyone find a seat before he continues by saying, “We had been living here for two years when I lost my job. Unemployment had difficulties getting my checks started because my last boss said that I had been warned. To make a long story short, I went out every day to fill out a job application that either I got rejected or didn’t hear anything from the Personnel Manager. We got kicked out and had to live on the street. With no money, no way to get food, we came back here and lived in the empty apartment until the day you moved in.” Taking a deep breath, he continued by saying, “After you moved in, we came here every once in a while to eat and sleep in a warm, safe place.  We will be leaving now if that is ok with you?”

Looking at both of the strangers, she wasn’t too sure what to do. She wanted to be nice and bless them by saying they could stay in her other bedroom.  She wanted to be the mean one by throwing them into jail to get arrested for breaking and entering, as she looked at both of them she noticed how young the girl was standing by the door. Jane looked at her and asked, “How old are you?”

The man answered for her by stating, “I am her father and she is 13 years old. The school hasn’t caught up with us yet.  She goes to school and keeps her nose clean. They don’t even pay any attention to her and they haven’t figured out we are homeless.”  Jane could feel herself melting and she knew that she was going to let them live there with her. Was she being gullible and stupid or was she blessing other people like her Pastor told her to do last Sunday? Tomorrow was Saturday and she could think about it. They could stay with her tonight since the weather outside wasn’t the best, rainy and chilly was not the type of weather for a young girl to be homeless in.