I put my book down at 10:24 p.m. last evening and decided it was time for me to go to sleep. Joey had already turned out his bedside lamp, so I clicked mine off and snuggled down into my non-lumpy pillow.

Then, “Did you lock the front door?” I asked.

Joey rolled around sleepily and said, “You were the last one outside….”

“OK,” I said, getting out of bed. It was insanely dark so I was walking very carefully so as not to step on Henry, who could be laying on the floor just about anywhere in the house. (He likes to either guard our door or sleep under one of the vents so he can have cold air blow on him all night. He’s such a spoiled little thing.)

“Wow, it’s dark!” I muttered. It was a full moon last night and I was really surprised by how dark the entire house was. Usually it’s a little bit brighter. Perhaps the moon was behind a very large cloud?

I was shuffling along very slowly because I was unnerved by the complete inky blackness of our house. I finally reached the entryway and, just as I was about to turn on the light to look at the door locks–

“BOO!”

Someone grabbed me from behind and shouted. In my sheer panic, I alternated between screaming and yelling repeatedly “I’m afraid, I’m afraid”. (I’m surprisingly articulate when I’m terrified. It’s a new skill.) I soon discovered that I was also smacking my assailant in the hiney, only I was flailing so badly that I was hardly hitting him at all.

“Hey, hey, it’s OK! It’s just me!” Joey soothed. I realized it was he and then I got mad but did stop hitting him in the backside.

“I was super scared. That was mean.” I glared at him in the dark. I stomped over to the light, turned it on (yes, the door was locked), and stormed back to bed.

“I’m sorry…I really thought you saw me! I snuck out of bed ahead of you…” Joey tried to apologize. (No wonder it was so dark in the house, he was blocking all the light!)

Unfortunately by this time, the initial terror had worn off and I was starting to see the humor in the situation. I was even starting to laugh. In order to make Joey feel bad about this for as long as possible, I rolled over and buried my face in my pillow.

Joey took this as a sign that I was in Severe Emotional Distress. He continued apologizing. I continued trying not to laugh. (It really was kind of funny…)

After a few minutes I rolled over, told him I forgave him and we both fell asleep. I did not inform him of the fact that I found his little caper to be amusing. (In fact, he will be finding that out as he reads this post. I couldn’t bring myself to admit it to him last night.)

At 4:30 a.m. I awoke suddenly. Since I was awake I decided to go see what was going on in the bathroom. (It was decidedly less dark this time around.) As I came to the bedroom door, I noticed Joey walking straight into the living room.

So as not to scare him, I whispered, “Hi!”

He completely flipped out. “AAAUGH!” He did this sort of amazing sideways jumping/hop/flail before he turned around, out of breath, and looked at me.

“You scared me!”

“Oh. Sorry, I was just letting you know I was here so I wouldn’t, um, scare you.”

“I guess we’re even then.”

We went back to bed and slept, albeit rather fitfully, until 6:15 a.m. It was quite a night.