I Walk the Night

Jane peered into the darkness past the window and looked at her watch. She briefly drummed her fingers against the table and picked up her phone for the umpteenth time. Laying it back down rather forcefully, she continued to stare out the window.

“Dammit James, when are you coming home?”

She was dressed in track sweats and running shoes and was bouncing and hyper. She had been waiting for him to get home, in order to take off for her regular nightly run. It was just that with the regular change in daylight, it was getting dark so much earlier.

Yanking the phone back up, she impatiently dialed a number. “James...Hi...When are you going to be home?... Okay, I’m going to go ahead and go out then. I don’t know how long I’ll be, but if I don’t appear after a decent amount of time, send out the National Guard...Okay...We can figure out food after you get home…Byee.”

True to her word, Jane hung up the call and stuffing her phone in her pocket, slipped out the door, and took off at a trot, fluorescent stripes on the sides of her sweats flashing as she stepped and swung her arms. They glowed softly until light hit them when their reflective properties would glow brightly. If she had to run at night, she was going to attempt to be safe.

Down the drive and around the lake drive to the right. Living on the small private lake was a perk she had never expected, but the house had come up for lease when they were looking, and the rent was only slightly more than the apartments they were looking at, so for the difference in privacy, they took the house. Trees thickly lined the road, leaving the distinct impression of being in the woods. Her feet shuffled through the leaves as she ran. The loop around the lake was only a mile point six, so she actually figured she’d be home inside of half an hour, even if she were walking.

Past the pool, past the low point at the spillway, and up the little hill on the other side. There were houses all the way around, up to this point, and their lights spilled out, making it not quite seem so black out. The Homes’ Association had been debating adding street lights, but never reached a consensus on where they were needed or how many should be provided. Jane carried a big club of a flashlight in case she needed it, either as light or as a club. Besides that, it could double as weight as she ran!

On down the east side of the lake, where the houses became less frequent, and up to the house on the hill which marked the drive at the end of the dam. Jane passed the Emerson’s and heard a strange noise. She looked to see if she could pin the source in the dark, readying her flashlight, and saw a large shifting mass in the driveway beside the house. She hit it with her light and all she saw was a dark shape. As she looked, The mass turned its...head, and two bright green spots appeared. They were bright lights in the night and they moved in such a way that she determined that they must be eyes of this creature, but they were located differently than eyes on any animal she knew of, much brighter, and they were coming her way.

Jane backed up a few steps, skipped a few, and ran for home, not noticing anything along the way back around to the house, one dwelling up from the other end of the dam. The lights followed about halfway across the dam then disappeared completely. She was consternated as she reached the drive, but was less so, as she saw that James had arrived home.

She ran in the kitchen door through the garage. “James, that garage door takes too long to close.”

James, who was standing in the kitchen at the stove turned to look at her. “Do what?”

“The garage door. It takes too long to close. Anything could get in there.”

“Anything?”

“Okay, anyone, then. But I was chased tonight.” Jane explained. James, looking at her realized she wasn’t just winded from her run, but there was something else going on in her face.

He put down the spatula and set the skillet off the heat. “Tell me what happened.” He said firmly, a grim look on his face.

“I was doing my usual loop of the lake, and when I rounded the Emersons, there was something digging in their trash, I think.” She paused momentarily. “It had these big, bright green lights, which I guess maybe were its eyes, but they were so bright! It was a big, mass with these green lights and it followed me halfway home, across the dam.” She looked like she was beginning to doubt herself.

“It was probably just a dog.”

Jane impatiently informed him that she “would know what a dog looks like. I should probably call the Emersons and let them know.”

“What are you going to call them about? An alien creature with saucer-plate laser eyes was rooting around in their trash, but you can’t describe it?” James looked incredulous. “I’m sure the police report would be a hit at the station.”

“Ha, ha. Very funny. You think I should leave it alone?” she asked, pouting.

“I think that would be smartest unless you hear of something else being reported.”

“Well then, what say we get ahead with dinner and forget about this?” Jane offered.

Dinner plans were on but Jane couldn’t help but watch out the window for green lights. It was an uneasy night with James carrying on as usual, but Jane watching out at every opportunity. She had to tell him she was still uneasy about being chased earlier in the evening, and that she wanted to find out what it was. James agreed that they could do a little investigating, but no promises and they weren’t going to try to bother anyone else.

“Agreed,” Jane said. And James went to sleep with his arms around her.

Things looked different with the morning light blasting in from the wall of windows making up the side of the house. Jane sat at the island while James fixed breakfast. She sipped her coffee while he whistled something approximating a current song on the radio, and after a time, she spoke up. “You know, large is relative…”

“What?” James asked, not quite hearing her, and definitely not understanding what he heard.

“The green lights. Say they were eyes. Maybe they just seemed big because they seemed so bright in the darkness beside the house. And I didn’t get a really good look once I started running, which was pretty darn fast.” Jane answered as if her thoughts were somewhere else.

James set a plate in front of her. “Are you still thinking about that? Here, eat your breakfast and forget it.”

“But James, it really happened!” She complained. “You sound like you don’t believe me.”

“Oh,” he started, “I’m sure something was there, but we can’t do anything about it today. Let’s just go to work, then come in early this evening to see if it shows up again. You can show me where you found it.”

“Okay, but you’ll have to skip the gym,” Jane insisted.

“That’s cool. We have a mystery to investigate.”

Early in the afternoon, James arrived home. He went ahead and drove the circle of the lake, looking for anything out of order. He stopped outside of the Emerson house and parked at the foot of the driveway. There were no cars in the drive so he took a chance that there wouldn’t be anyone home. Looking around guiltily, he trotted up the hill and checked carefully around the side of the Emerson house.

The flowers next to the house hadn’t been disturbed. He went to the trash enclosure, this was different. It looked like something had gotten into the trash, but he was no expert and he had no idea what it would have been. He realized he had no idea what he was looking for, but he hadn’t found anything that obviously said that something unnatural had gone on here.

When Jane reached home, James suggested they do the loop together. It was still early, and it sounded like a terrific idea.

The pair left the house together, taking up an easy pace, following the same route Jane had the night before. Across the spillway and there was still no incident, Jane would relax because nothing had happened, and then she would remind herself that nothing had happened until she got down to the dam. They ran on around the loop, not speaking, and they ran up on a couple that lived next to the Emerson house, out raking their yard.

“Hello!” James called.

A man from what James was guessing was a retiree couple, straightened up and hailed him back. “Good evening. Getting in your run while there is still light tonight?” His wife also raised up to greet them.

“Did you see me last night?” Jane asked, surprised that they would have seen her in the darkness.

“Oh yes. I recognized your stripes.” The man replied, smiling.

“My stripes, of course. Say, you didn’t see anything else glowing last night did you? Say, green lights?” Jane felt foolish as the words left her mouth.

“Or a large black animal?” James added.

The woman stood painfully from where she knelt on the lawn. “Aaron, you better show them.”

The way she said it made Jane more anxious. All the alien takeover movies started running in her mind where unwitting citizens were taken over…

James answered, “Sounds like a plan.”

Aaron stepped out onto the street and headed back the direction they’d come. He gestured for them to follow, and they did, walking with him.

“Where are we going?” Jane found her voice.

Their guide responded with “Schundleins. Just moved in. Trying to get to know everyone.”

Jane kicked herself for the instant thought of “And take over their bodies!”

He led them to another house and knocked on the door. Waiting just a moment, A light flicked on and a man opened the door. “Can I help you?”

The man who had led them up answered for them. “Edward, I’ve brought some neighbors to see about green lights and a big black animal. I thought they should see you.”

“There hasn’t been a problem I hope?”

Jane spoke up, “I was chased,” and she shrank back.

Schundlein nodded his head. “Give me two minutes and meet me in the backyard.” He closed the door and Aaron gestured to the side of the house, where the sidewalk wound around. James and Jane followed him around to the backyard gate. There, they saw that at the backdoor of the screened porch, stood the neighbor with a large black almost formless creature bearing green lights, eyes, that glowed brightly.

“Here is your animal. Schundlein’s dog. A giant, black Tibetan-Mastiff.”

“But what are the green lights?” James asked.

Schundlein, headed toward the group, with the tall, bulky, fluffy black dog, with bright green lights beside his head. He reached around the animal’s neck and the lights moved. He pulled off a collar with two green lights mounted on it.

Being so close, Jane could make out that the animal was actually a dog. A big, fluffy dog. She sighed and let out a deep breath.

“But why the lights?” James asked.

Schundlein laughed. “It’s all part of having a dog that’s this big and this black. I’ve got to keep track of him somehow, and I’ve got to warn people he’s around. The green lights are less harsh than white.”

“So the mystery is solved, honey,” James said, and in her ear, he whispered, and no aliens.