Someone's At The Door

I am asleep, dreaming that I am inside an old gas station trying to go home. My friend's dog, Bosco, is there and so is an older teenage boy. He tells me to go ahead and take the car in the bay, but as I go out there he flips off the lights and it is dark. I hear the dog growling and see his shadow silhouetted on the wall. It looks like a huge German Shepherd, not Bosco, and I am frightened, but I pretend to be bold and tell him to get in the car, which he does. I discover I have to back the car, which is an old 1953 Chevy, backwards and then around a corner because the boy opened the wrong door.

Then the car runs out of gas and dies, but I hear my mother inside, so I leave the car and go back in. I explain to her that I was coming home to babysit, but I didn 't have a ride and she is angry. She says, "Well, you do now. Let's go." I remember I left the dog in the car and it is very hot. I want to go let him out. I open the door to the bay and my mother sees a waterfall in the distance. She really wants to go see it and the boy agrees to take her, but now when I look out the door I see buffalo standing all over the place between us and the waterfall. I remember how dangerous they can be and don't want to go, but my mother taunts me and teases me. I tell her I will wait in the gas station, but the boy's sister arrives and says it will be fine, she will help me. I can't see how that will make any difference with buffalo and now I see we will also have to "go under water," is what I tell her, but she points out we only have to wade through the water.

The boy goes first, followed by my mother and I follow with his sister close behind me, holding my hand. He reaches out to help me step off the step into the bay and onto a large motor sticking up out of the water. Then I step from the motor onto a white contraption and I am surprised at how easily I am balancing and doing this when the girl behind me slips and falls into the water, dragging me with her. The boy and my mother turn and go on. The girl splashes around in what is now a dusky room and dark waist deep water before getting her balance. Then she grabs me by the waist and, holding me from behind begins to push us both forward, telling me to use my hands to help push the water out of our way. It is slow and awkward going and I am trying not to think about water snakes, or angry buffalo when my dog, Chauncey, in real life, really growls and sort of wakes me up.

I hear someone knocking like a child might in that old familiar pattern, boom, boom, duh, boom, boom. I listen as it is repeated, louder and think it must be someone visiting one of the neighbors, but it is persistent and finally I am totally awake. As I walk into the living room I think that this solves the question of whether or not I would hear them when they came to put in my new air conditioner, I have been concerned about someone just walking into my apartment if I am sleeping. I am surprised they are working this late. I think maybe it is a quick and easy thing to do and they just want to get it done, but it is after ten P.M. I hear a voice say, "Alright, open up. Now!" I remember there is a peep hole in the door and look through it. I've never really used one before and it is hard to see anything. All I can see is the shape of a man out there. He yells at me again and I can't quite understand him, but for some insane reason I crack the door open and there is a police officer!

He asks if Joshua somebody is here and I tell him no, but he asks again and takes a step forward. I back up, see my own reflection in the hallway mirror and am startled. The policeman says the man he is looking for is a fugitive and he has a warrant for his arrest. I tell him I live alone that no one else is here and he asks when I moved in. I tell him and he says that this man lived here before. I feel like I ought to look concerned, so I say some crazy thing like, "Oh my..." and look behind me as if I think he will appear in the room. The officer immediately assures me there is nothing to be concerned about and I am aware that this is the response I wanted. He leaves.

Now I have time to wonder at my weird behavior and thoughts and the danger of opening that door without asking who it was. I cannot go back to sleep, so I do the next most logical thing? I take the dog out for a walk!