KCMO
After sneaking into a pool for a night swim, me and Joy came back to Carols house, where I was living at the time. The dregs of the night felt cool, and in the dark I discovered that my one and only dangling key was lost. I didn't have a car or any other home, I just had one singular key to Carols door which was attached to a watch chain that lived in my backpack. We stood on the porch, wide eyed and dripping clothes. I checked and rechecked my backpack and decided it really couldn't be there. In fact, I probably had left it on top of my dresser, forgetting to grab it when I left before, I saw Joy take a deep breath and choose not to be mad at me for losing track of the damn key. All the doors were locked.
Luckily we had dry clothes in our bags. We tiptoed to the backyard to change behind the pine trees, and laid out on the grass. Carol had just cut it for the 4th of July party, so it was short. It was a little itchy, but comfortable and I laughed at our life and how typical it was. The moon was out, and it lit up the yard so brightly I knew we wouldn't sleep any time soon. "You doing okay?" I asked Joy. Her allergies were always terrible. "I'm all right." she whispered, "Let's try to get some rest."
I swear it must have been a full moon, because it was like trying to fall asleep with the light turned on. After thirty minutes of tossing and turning, we had enough.
"Hope," Joy whispered, "We're supposed to be leaving in like four hours. I can barely breathe...we HAVE to get inside."
So back we went to the front porch. "Wait here." I told her. "I'll try something." I walked to the sideyard, and saw my blue bike, Crusoe, glistening in the moonlight. It was chained to the fence. Quietly I swung open the gate, and dropped down to crawl behind bushes. I slide past the sharp zebra grass, angling my way through the dog door, and found my feet on the cool garage floor. It was pitch black, and the light switch was inside, so I walked slowly with my arms stretched out in front of me, til I found the steps. Two wooden steps lead to the kitchen door, which also has a dog door. The only problem is Carol kept a tight plastic cover on it at night, so the animals can't get out. It coiud only be taken off from the inside, technically, but my goal was to take it off from the outside. I had done it before, but it was daytime and no one was home to hear it clatter loudly onto the floor. I pulled up the flap, and held it up with my head, while I worked my fingers around the edges to to try to pry it off. "Oh my gosh this isn't real." I whispered to myself. I wanted to kill it. I resisted the urge to kick through it. I could just envision it: the dogs flipping out and barking, and a traumatized, wide eyed Carol, yelling at me in her robe and slippers.
After a solid twenty minutes of tedious frustration, and worked it off and it landed on the kitchen floor with only a soft clatter. I winced and waited for movement. Nothing. Praise god. Turnimg sideways, I slid through the door and onto the linoleum. Popping the cover back on, I heard a quiet whine from behind me. I swung around. There was Toby, waiting expectantly. I could see his glimmering browm eyes in the dark. He was like my watchdog. Sometimes he would sleep outside my door at night, maybe protecting me. I never liked dogs that much, but I grew to like him. "Hi buddy. Go to bed." I patted his soft head and quietly made my way through the living room, and unlocked the door. Joy sighed with relief after waiting for eternity.
At 3:00 am, we hurried into my room and into our sleeping bags in record time, hoping we would really wake up at 6:00 like we were supposed to.
No comments:
Post a Comment