The Knock

The night was a dark one. Thick clouds hid the moon and stars away. I could hear the howling wind rustling the dried leaves in my back yard. It was a nice ambience while I was doing my math homework, but there was no way I could sleep through those sounds. Luckily, I had my trusty remote controlled box fan set up for nights just like this!

With my day complete and my body ready to slumber, I reached into my desk drawer for the remote, but was troubled to find it missing. Maybe Mom had moved it while she was cleaning? But if she had, where too?

I couldn't ask her at this hour. She would simply rebut me by asking why I took the time to walk all the way down stairs when I could have easily just walked across my bedroom to turn on the fan the "good old fashioned way"? She's a total hypocrite! I never see her washing laundry the "good old fashioned way." She doesn't go to town on a covered wagon. She watches TV every evening. But when I want to turn on my dad-gummed remote control box fan with my remote control for my box fan, I'm shunning the ways of my ancestors?

It was an argument to have another day, but for now I needed to get to sleep so I did turn my box fan on like some sort of caveman. Due to the complicated technology involved, my fan always gives out a loud beep before it enters a new operating mode. Once that glorious beep was out of the way, my box fan whirred to life. I was soundly sleeping within minutes.

Some time later, I was having a terrible nightmare that I was judging the swimsuit competition in a sumo wrestling tournament. As I was trying to tell one of the contestants that they were disqualified for using body paint instead of a regulation swimsuit, a beep from the real world invaded my dream and seemed to help me convince him he had to get off the stage. Something else was wrong, and I woke from my dream.

I could hear the rustling of leaves in a strong wind. My box fan had entered standby mode. Obviously, I reasoned, the remote must be in my bed and I hit a button while tossing and turning. I checked under my pillows, I checked under my blankets, without luck.

My search was interrupted by a sudden knock on my window! My curtain was drawn and it was still completely dark outside. I couldn't see even a silhouette of whomever made the noise. I lay motionless in my bed. If I hadn't been discovered yet, I didn't want to be.

I can't tell if I lay still for a minute or an hour. I only knew that my heart was pounding so hard that it was starting to drown out the sounds of the wind from outside. My mind was just starting to wander into different subjects when again I heard a knock, or maybe it was more of a tapping sound. After, more silence for a few seconds. Just long enough to feel terror starting to grow in me.

Shortly after this, my box fan beeped again, and turned on full blast. I lay there, paralyzed by fear for most of the night. Never hearing another knock, but always expecting it. Eventually, the steady hum of my remote controlled box fan did lull me to sleep.

I next woke to my alarm going off. Time had come for me to get ready for school, and I quickly did. Before walking to the bus stop, I made a trip to my backyard. I was looking for clues as to what had kept me up all night. In the mud below my window, I found what I was looking for. Animal tracks. Big ones. That's when it became clear to me: if I ever wanted to turn on my remote controlled box fan with my remote control, I was going to have to hunt a wild beast the good old fashioned way!