The white gloves

When I was about 10 a really big storm went through the northeast corner of my state. It was about 4pm and I was practicing with the community children's choir, an after school program that I actually really enjoyed. We were practicing for a performance tour to all of the nursing homes in town.

I sung in the soprano section, and we were receiving some criticism from our director when someone's mom showed up 30 minutes early to pick them up. Then another mom showed up then someone's grandpa, and another kid's dad. One by one everyone left early, and then my mom showed up. She seemed really worried and told me to hurry up and get in the car. So I grabbed my backpack and went out the door.

When I walked outside everything was DARK. It was like the sun went down at 430pm after spring forward. That just doesn't happen. Apparently it stormed so badly in the hour i was at choir practice that parts of our town had flooded, there was hail so big it busted car windows and damaged homes. The ride home was pretty scary for me at that young age. I had no idea why i was picked up early.

When we turned onto my street, it was flooded. The neighbors were rowing a canoe from one end to the other, and the older kids were trying to ride their bikes through the muddy flood water. We pulled into the driveway and i immediately went inside and put my backpack in my room. My dad was in my room cleaning up glass off the floor and my bed. There was water all over the floor and my bed was soaked on one side. He said the hail busted my bedroom window and the rain poured into my room and the hail melted on the floor and on my bed. My dad wasn't able to replace the window that evening so he got a plastic tarp, the kind you use to cover furniture when you're painting, and folded it into 4 layers and attached it to my window with a staple gun.

We had a movie night and just spent time together as a family that night. It made me feel better about sleeping in my room but i still wanted a light on. It took me a while to fall asleep, but I read a chapter of Little House On The Prairie (i was a weird kid), and that helped me fall asleep. That night I had a dream--at least I thought it was a dream..

I heard a weird shuffling sound outside my window like the sound of a window sliding open and shut, open, shut. I realized I wasn't dreaming but I couldn't move. My eyes were wide open but it was like I was still asleep. I tried moving my legs, raising my arms, even tried rolling off the bed, but my body was stuck. Finally I just used my voice. I mustered enough strength to SCREAM as loud as I could and managed to turn my head toward the window.

All I saw were two hands with white gloves holding the wood frame of the window and moving it up and down trying to jimmy it open. When I screamed a second time, he was gone. I jumped out of my bed and started to run to my parents bedroom, but my legs felt like bricks and it felt like it took forever to get there.

When I was outside of their door I just screamed at my mom that someone was in my window. Fear and panic overwhelmed me as tears stared dripping down my cheeks. My dad went outside to investigate and didnt see anyone. I never knew why they didnt call the police right then.

I ended up sleeping in my moms bed with her and my dad slept on the couch very close to my bedroom. The next morning my dad walked around the house and there were large muddy footprints from the street to my window and back again. The screen to my window was ripped off and tossed into the neighbor's yard. The plastic on my window had a large hole the size of a man's finger right above the window lock. My parents did finally call the police. An officer came to my school to get my statement and just told him what i saw that night. I slept in the living room for months after that.