Wednesday, May 15, 2013

I Don't Sleep Alone Anymore

By Greg Meyer

It’s in the middle of the night when I’m jolted out of a deep sleep. I take a second to blink my heavy eyelids and try to clear my foggy mind. Blinking, I glanced at my clock through blurry eyes to read the bright green numbers, 3:30 A.M. Why am I awake? I was having a good dream, too. It was Christmas again, despite it being April, and the trees were decorated in lights.

BARK!

The yelp immediately puts a knot in the pit of my stomach. That bark came from my miniature schnauzer, Patches, and I knew what it meant. Now, I love my dog, but any dog owner will tell you how annoying it is when your dog wakes you up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.

“Patches, shut up and go to sleep,” I mutter.

BARK!

I exhale a sigh and roll my face in my pillow. The worst part about taking my dog out to go potty is that I have to go out with her. We don’t have a fenced in backyard, and I don’t trust my dog to just run off, do her business, and come back to me. The whole thing is just a hassle, and having to take her out in the middle of the night frustrates me to no end.

BARK!

I growl as I toss my pillow aside. Her last bark had a sense of urgency to it, and she’s whining at the door now. That’s it; I have to take her outside. I don’t want an accident in the house, as I’d most assuredly step in it in the morning in my bare feet. I slide out of bed and put my clothes on in the dark. I can tell I’ve put my shirt on backwards, but at this point I don’t care. If all goes well, I’ll only be outside for a few minutes.

I open my bedroom door to Patches, who then hops around my feet in utter excitement. She races to the front door and swivels her head around to make sure I’m following her, anxious that I might not understand her need. It takes a few moments to get the harness on her, my sleepiness not helping my reflexes in settling down a hyperactive dog, and a moment later we’re out the door.

We made our way to the backyard, Patches dragging me around as I shuffle like a zombie learning to walk again. I hoped she’d go somewhere near the front of the house, but these feelings were futile. The back of the yard with the low hanging trees and bushes is undoubtedly her favorite place to explore. Patches buries her nose in the ground as she sniffs for just the perfect spot, and I tap my foot in the grass impatiently waiting for her to make her choice. This process can take anywhere from a quick thirty seconds to an excruciating five minutes, and I’d rather it wasn’t the latter for the sake of sleep.

“Just pick somewhere and get over it,” I plead with a yawn escaping my mouth.

Thankfully, Patches didn’t feel the need to go exploring, and she did her business. At last, now we can go back into the house and back to sleep. Just before she finishes, there’s a soft rustling noise in the bushes. It sounds like the wind at first, but I start to get concerned when I don’t feel the breeze on my skin. Patches, having finished her business, is at attention with her ears perked at the bushes. She lets out a growl, but I’m not seeing anything, which is freaking me out. The last thing I want is for Patches to get into a fight with a wild animal.

“Come on, let’s get back into the house,” I say as I start to tug on her leash.

Patches lunges a bit towards the bush, but I hold fast and keep in place. Then in the darkness, I see something emerge from the foliage. I could barely make out the shape of the creature, but the body was darker than anything around it. Even stranger, the creature seemed to be covered in feathers, but the shape appeared more snakelike than any bird I’ve ever seen. The only spot of color I could see were the eyes, piercing emerald eyes that glowed like small colored lights in the night. The rustling noise started again, but the bushes weren’t moving. The beast made that noise as a promised threat of attack. I could feel the tension in my leash loosen as Patches whimpered in fear.

In a flash I tug on the leash and sprint towards the house as fast as my tired legs can take me. Patches stumbled from the unexpected pull, but she recovered and got back on her paws in an instant. It didn’t take long for Patches to catch up and run past me, a wild look of fear in her eyes. I didn’t look back; I couldn’t. No way did I want to see how close this abomination was to me. We reach the porch and I’m fighting the screen door to get open, fully regretting my procrastinating in getting it fixed. I take a glance to see how close the creature is to us. This creature was doing a weird slithering motion towards us, not as fast as a run but with an unnatural speed. I could see now that what I thought was plumage on the creature now looked like wavy black smoke that moved in motion with the beast. With another desperate yank I finally get the screen door open and the two of us race inside.

I bolt the door and duck down, my heart literally pounding like I’ve had way too many espresso shots. I know that seems silly, but I didn’t want the creature to know where we were. Patches ran under the living room table, dragging her leash behind her. As my rapid breathing returned back to normal until I heard the thing outside loudly sniffing the bottom crack of the front door. My body froze in place as I waited for this creature to lose interest in me, hoping it couldn’t find a way inside my home. After what felt like eternity, the sniffing stopped and the silence of night returned to my home. After a few minutes of silence, Patches emerged from her hiding place and tried coming to me, but the leash was wrapped around the chair legs. I smiled a bit and came to her rescue, untangling the mess and freeing her from her harness. She immediately climbed in my lap and nudged my hand, demanding some comforting pets.

A few minutes later, we returned to my bedroom so I could get back to sleep. Normally I don’t let Patches sleep in the room with me, but after the scare we had, it would seem cruel to leave her out there. She hopped onto the bed, and I crawled back in under the sheets. I looked back at the clock, 3:46 am. Did that really only take fifteen minutes? I sigh and lay on my back, now to work on getting back to sleep and Christmas in April. I shift onto my right side and look through the curtains into my window when I see them. Christmas lights, countless green Christmas lights in the window, more of an emerald color than green.

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