Saturday night, Farmer H went to the auction. It's his routine. I know when he leaves, and about when he'll be back. There has been no weirdness to speak of lately around the Mansion. Until Saturday night, about 8:30.
When you live in a place for a while, you get used to the normal noises. Your FRIG II kicking on. Dumping ice. The furnace or air condition. How an expiring smoke detector chirps. The individual voices of your dogs. The thump of a deer haunch on the porch boards. The scrabble of dog toenails digging in to gain speed for a leap off the front porch.
So I am quite familiar with the sound my dogs (and Copper Jack) make when they're on the other side of the wall, up on the side porch while I'm in my OPC (Old People Chair). The get to wrestling around, and thump against the cedar-shingled outer wall. I hear it all the time.
What I heard Saturday night around 8:30 was not the dogs. It was not outside. It was up in Genius's room, turning over in his bed. Uh huh. I know that sound, too. From when Genius lived here from the time he was 3. It's the sound of springs moving as the mattress is rolled on. Quite distinct. That's what I heard. It was a bit startling, since I haven't been hearing my upstairs noises.
When I DO hear them, I always run through dates in my head. Could this noise have something to do with a family event? Right after Genius went away to college, in August 2013, his room was a hotbed of walking and bed-turning. Almost as if something was looking for him. Same when The Pony left for college. Walking in the hall between those two rooms. And the thumping in their bathroom.
It didn't come to me right away, but later in the evening, I noted that my dad's birthday was November 18. The very next day. There's a picture of him in Genius's room. When The Pony was a toddler, he used to say that his grandpa came to check on him at night. Just to make sure everything was okay. The Pony was only 6 weeks old when my dad passed away. So I knew he couldn't possibly remember him. But maybe was going on the picture in Genius's room, and in the hallway right outside.
Farmer H says I'm crazy. That the bed-turning was just the dogs outside on the porch. As if he has ever sat down there and heard the dogs OR the bed-turning. Even The Pony has heard the bed-turning. It's not even a big deal anymore. I much prefer it to the disco-dancing thumps that used to erupt up there.
It is weird to hear noises when there shouldn't be any, but no more weird than me feeling a cat walking over my bed when there isn't one. Cat, I mean, the bed is always there. But I used to feel Angel walking over the bed after he disappeared and even before that, if he was sleeping out in the back porch I would feel the bedcovers being walked on. Even now, with Lola, I feel it before she jumps up and comes to sleep against my ribs.
ReplyDeleteLess often, I used to feel movement inside the mattress, like there might be a nest of mice or something. There never was anything, but I'd feel movement. Thankfully not for some years now, because that's creepier than a non-cat walking over the bed.
River,
ReplyDeleteOh yeah! I don't want any part of that! I've felt something jab my neck, and reached back to grab Farmer H's hand to catch him in the act, but nothing was there. I can't be hearing and feeling stuff in the bed. No siree, Bob!
Maybe it's Even Steven!!
ReplyDeletefishducky,
ReplyDeleteEven Steven, laying his weary head to rest!