A TRUE STORY

Have you ever been at home alone in the wee hours when you suddenly realized someone else was in your house? This happened to me, not in a house alone, but with hundreds in the building. Read on.

Last Wednesday night I did not sleep one minute, not the first time in my life for this ridiculous action. I was nursing a bruised right arm caused by a hematoma near the armpit and had trouble getting comfortable. About 6:30 (I later learned) I thought I just might finally drop off to sleep when I began to hear metallic  sounds that were emanating from a source inside the apartment. I became instantly alert without making a sound of my own. Then the bright ceiling light in the second bathroom turned on. I could not see into the bathroom but could see a slender strip of light from ceiling to floor about which there is no doubt. I looked and looked, and listened to the tinkling metal sounds. By instinct I knew the sounds came from keys, not a handful of heavy keys a janitor might wear on a chain, but small completely-flat-on-both-sides keys, such as those manufactured to unlock a box of trinkets. Make-believe keys I call them.

My first suspicion was that Geraldine had come to work earlier than usual and was going to start up the washing machine. But I did not have clothes ready for her to wash; so why was she staying so long in the bathroom with the bright light on? I looked out a window and saw it was still quite dark. Gerry did not arrive on her days here till 8:30 and it was always getting light by then. Now I began to be concerned about the drama playing in my territory. Then the bathroom light went out. I heard nothing. I waited for Act 2, with my eyes glued to my bedroom door. Then it moved. Yes, the door moved. It was ajar about a distance of 15 inches, because I had left a lamp burning in the living room for Gerry's arrival. I also had unlocked the door for her around 6:00 and went back to bed, and hopefully, to sleep. I did not sleep. My thoughts ranged that it was a woman intruder but finally settled on a man. He was quick and silent except for the keys. And he really knew what he was doing. He probably thought the resident here needed a light to sleep by and just forgot to lock her door! Man, if he knew the truth about these presumptions! Anyway, because he almost closed my door but not quite, he allowed a breeze from the windstorm outside my open bedroom window to blow the door fully shut and it made a sound. I could no longer see into the other rooms. I got out of bed in the dark and in silence and went into my bathroom to see the clock there. I got back into bed and when I felt the man had gone, I went into the living room and turned on lights, and into my study, and the second bathroom. I saw nothing amiss. The only thing he could have been tampering with was the safe in the wall. How glad I was he was rewarded with its emptiness! When I checked the closet the safe was in, I found one thing out of place: a can of room deodorant lay on the floor. He probably left in a hurry after the wind closed the door and didn't take time to pick up the can dropped on the floor.

There are so many appointments and such, I haven't had the chance to talk with our director about this. I hope to see her tomorrow afternoon in my apartment. I think the authorities should make a check for fingerprints.