One Summer Night……..

As the title suggests, it was one summer night. Just one like this one today. The only occupants of out two-storey house were me, my wife and my younger brother. My parents were out on a 15 day long tour, and I was the “Man of the House”. Things were going on smoothly, with we three going to work in the morning and coming back home in the evening, cook something, dine and go to sleep. We were enjoying life, since parents were away and we had the total control on the kind of food we could have.

Anyway, as I said, it was just another night as today. After having our dinner and some T.V. shows, we went to sleep. My brother occupied the room on the ground floor, while me and my wife on the first floor. Falling asleep was not a problem due to all the travel we had to do for our jobs. Somewhere along the night, I started dreaming, the details of which, I don’t remember. But I do remember one thing. It ended with a shatter. Literally!! In the dream, someone broke a glass pane near me, and the noise was so loud the I woke up with a start. The room was dark. Except for the slow humming of the air conditioner blower, I could hear no sound. But me sleep was lost, and thinking of that, I let out a sigh. “Did you hear that?”, asked my wife. So she was awake too. “What did you hear"”?, I asked her and she said that it was like someone broke the glass. My hear skipped a beat. his was not good. Either we both had the same dream at the same time, which was highly unlikely, or someone/something had actually broken some glass article on our floor.

My mind went blank. But I couldn’t afford it. As I said earlier, I was the “Man of the House” and needed to take charge of the situation. Lying on the bed I tried to analyze the situation. The first floor windows did not have grills, and the living room, had a glass pane sliding window, the size of a french window. An easy entry point for burglar. By now I made up my mind that there was someone on the first floor. I needed to alert my brother about this. There was no direct communication between bedrooms. We didn’t have my mobile with us in the room. So it was up to me to get out of bed.

And I did that. But I needed a weapon. I don’t normally keep any stick or knife or such things in my room, for the fear of my wife using it on me(And she doesn’t read my blog so I am safe after using this sentence). The best thing I could find was the heavy Maglite torch. I didn’t want to alert the thief, so I did not light the torch. My wife started asking all the unnecessary questions at that very moment, loudly. I asked her to shut up. For once, she complied. With my ear to my bedroom door, I tried to stop my breathe and my heartbeat(though a futile exercise), so as to hear even the slightest sound. And I stood in that position for about 5 minutes. Nothing heard.

Without making even the slightest of the noise, I unlocked the door. Now opening it meant creaking hinges, or even worse, finding someone standing on the opposite side of the door, ready to attack. But eventually I opened it, fearless of the consequences. I was the “Man of the House”. Time to light the torch. And the other bulb in the passageway. But that meant alerting the person, so I had to be quick in searching the other spaces on that floor and then the ground floor. I switched on the light and and searched the other room. No one there. I quickly checked the living room. No one there. I moved fast to go downstairs, and froze in my path.

Flashback : As a wedding gift, I had received a very beautiful wall piece. Being a mechanical engineer, I had mounted it myself on the wall. That this wall piece would become a nightmare one day, I never thought then.

There in the corner of the living room lay the wall piece, with its glass shattered to pieces, after it’s mounting hook had come out of the oversized hole that I had drilled.

I learned a lot of lesson that night. Couple of points may be useful to you.

1. Keep your mobile with you when you sleep.

2. You may be doing the profession related work at your workplace, but don’t try it at your home. At home, you tend to not use the correct formulas applicable for such work.

3. Keep your windows grilled. That way you rule out lot op possibilities.

4. I have come to a conclusion that I should keep something to defend myself, but I still tend to rely on the heavy Maglite torch.

5. Maybe, keep the T.V. on under such circumstances. That way you are assured that the burglar knows that someone is awake.