HOME ALONE!

I woke up as the red-winged blackbirds on the Audubon wall-clock my grandson Gavin gave me were chirping to tell me it was 9am.

I rubbed the sleep from my eyes; as my still sleeping mind tried to figure out what was wrong, what was different?

I sat up in bed and listened intently. I heard nothing, the dogs weren’t barking. I couldn’t hear anyone moving around the house. I couldn’t hear anything at all.

Neither of the showers were running. There was no noise in the kitchen. My 2 granddaughters, who live with me part time were not talking, playing, fighting or crying.

My 2 sons, who have moved back home for awhile could not be heard.

My mind was waking up now, so I tried to put it to work.

That’s right, I remembered! P.J. was gone for the week, and he had the dogs with him. Sean is working, so his girls are with their mother.

I’m alone! My mind determined, and the silence confirmed it. I AM THE ONLY ONE IN THE HOUSE!

I felt a little concerned, I wasn’t scared, I was just contemplating the reality that I was alone in my home for the first time in a long time.

I asked myself, when is the last time I woke up in an empty house? I was stumped!

My ex-wife and I had raised 7 kids in this house and 3 others. We only owned one house at a time, but we outgrew our small 2br Cape Cod that I owned when we married, then the duplex we moved up to could not expand as quickly as our family did, so we moved to a ranch house.

The ranch house comfortably held the family, for a while, but we found that the kids kept growing in both size and number, so we moved to the 5-bedroom house I woke up in this morning.

Finally awake, I thought, this is really neat! Should I invite people over? Maybe a poker night!

I came back to my senses. I’m not in high school anymore. I am not “required” to have a party just because I’m alone in the house! But then again, I haven’t had the guys over for cards for quite a while.

There was quite a battle raging in my head. Part of my brain was still working on the math and determined that it has been 35 years since I have awakened alone in my house. Another part of me was still working on the feasibility of a last-minute card game. I should have no problem getting 4 or 5 guys… Another thought was that I should do something right now. Maybe go downstairs in just my shorts to make coffee and breakfast? I can’t do that when the girls are in the house. Oh wait, two of the windows still have no drapes after I recently replaced them. A view of me in my shorts might shock the neighbors.

As I was “over assessing” the situation I heard a noise downstairs. What was that?

A burglar? One of the boys? Am I expecting anyone? Could the house be settling? Wow! for the first time in 35 years I have to figure out what caused a noise in the house. Should I bring my gun downstairs? I’d be embarrassed if it was one of the boys, or one of the other kids dropping something off, but I’ll certainly want to have my gun with me if it’s a burglar!

I went downstairs and searched. I found nothing. I went into the basement and found the same but, as soon as I reached the bottom stair the furnace, right next to me, started up. From the way I reacted I think maybe I should rewrite the sentence about not being scared.

I went through the rest of the day with no problems and alternating thoughts of, WOW it’s really neat to have the house to myself! And I wonder if Sean’s working tomorrow?

Please comment if you liked it, or if you didn’t.

Thanks

Phil