Things That Go Bump in The Night

It was a calm and peaceful night. A man and wife were sleeping sound, the cats were curled up purring at their feet. The wife was enjoying a beautiful dream when she heard a shout and felt the bed shift. It was with heavy eyelids that she opened her eyes in time to see the silhouette of her husband's body soaring overhead. She did not cringe nor scream because she was still unsure if this was part of her dream.

CRASH!! The tap lamp on the bedside table flickered to illuminate the explosion of events. Her husband cleared the edge of her side of the bed, landing into the wicker end table and crushing it beyond recognition. Books slid off the broken table, bouncing into each other on their way down. Pens were flung in many directions. Though in reality it lasted merely seconds, the wife felt that the event was never ending.

Concern swept over her as she tried helping her confused and bewildered husband up onto the bed to check for cuts, scrapes, or her fear: broken bones. Finding the tap lamp on the floor she shed some light on that corner of the room by their bed, to see again the mangled state of her end table and various objects that had rested on the table now all over the floor in heaps.

She did not care about the table though. Her only interest at that hour lay in her husband's health.

He lay with his head in her lap mumbling apologies and sounding sincere. "Never mind about the table, dear, are you hurt?"

"No. I'm fine. I am so sorry! I can fix it." It was obvious he was still in a sort of sleep-like state. The old table had seen its last days, as it was broken beyond repair.

Her husband's back had a scratch and his hand was scraped a little, other than that, he was fine. Tucking him back into bed beside her, she turned off the light, and marveled that he did not sail through the window, which stood directly beside the location of his crash landing.

They slept for the remainder of the night, awoke to a new day, and lived as though nothing out of the ordinary happened the night before. To most, this would be horrifying. To this couple, every night is a new adventure and a mere obstacle they encounter in their life together.

The Crash Site

Location of Window

Beyond Repair

A Replacement

*not the end*