After spending the day operating on hearts, I met a friend for dinner and a glass of cab, and then headed home to crash.  Thought about editing my novel a little, but my creative juices leaked out and the reservoir was empty.  Hard to be creative when your hands are inside someone’s chest cavity for hours on end.  While driving down the street to my home, I noticed a police car parked about two houses away, so I slowed down to gawk at the neighbors.  Seems he was checking out an empty lot, looking around, but for what?  What could be in that empty lot? A missing body?  If so, why didn’t he have a cadaver dog?  Either way, didn’t look like it was much of an emergency and the neighbor’s house seemed to be quiet, so I drove on and parked in front of my driveway, got out of my car and checked my mailbox.  Unfortunately, no letters from publishers who heard through the grapevine that I was writing, but not finished, and wanted to be the first to pick up my novel and offer me a huge check, sight unseen.

I left my car door open and my stereo blasted away.  I love jamming to classic rock, you know, Zeppelin, CCR, Steppenwolf etc, but also mixed in with good music across all genres depending on my mood.   But in this case, it was Magic Carpet Ride by Steppenwolf and the car rocked and vibrated. I looked down the street before I got in, and was surprised to see the officer waving to me and walking directly toward me.  What did I do?  Perhaps my stereo was too loud and it was bothering the neighbors.   Again.  So, I waited by my car, turned off the stereo – much to my chagrin, and met him.

“Sir, your alarm went off, and since there was no response from you we were dispatched to your location.”

I thought to myself, then why were you two houses away, looking through the front edge of a field?  Why weren’t you walking around my house, looking for bad guys or girls running away or hiding in the bushes?

“Oh, I’m sorry.  Didn’t get the call from the alarm company.”   Turns out, I did, but ignored it because it was an 800 number and I was getting those all day.

“I’m calling in back up and we’re going to search your house to make sure everything’s secure.”

I didn’t see the need for worry here.  Probably was a false alarm.  I had several of those in the past due to the system tuned to ultra – sensitive mode or something.  “I’ll just drive my car into the garage and put my garbage can away first.”

“No, can’t have you do that.  Keep your car in the street here where it is, let me and my partner in, then step back away from the house until we tell you it’s secure.”

“Got it.”

After 15 minutes in the house, I was worried.  Or maybe they were smart and stopped by the refrigerator to help themselves to whatever I had in there.  Probably just beer and some veggies.  I didn’t mind at all, happy to share.  Finally, they emerged from the house through the garage.

“Couldn’t find any window breaks but I saw that the shutters around the main room and master bedroom were pulled ajar. Looks like your house is secure.  Have a good evening.”

“I appreciate you guys coming to check it out.  Hope you have a quiet rest of the evening.”

Once inside, I looked at the alarm memory and it said “Great Room Entry Door.”  So I went to that door and sure enough, it was ajar, just slightly.  I looked outside to the deck, looked ok, so I secured the door and locked it.  I must not have secured and locked the door when I left this morning in a hurry.  Figured that was probably because I had to run out to get the cat before I left and forgot a few important details.  Not unusual when you live alone.  But the cat didn’t look right.  He was not doing his usual jumping and flipping introductions to me.  In fact, he was trying to hide and I finally found him squished into a corner of my closet, shaking a little.  Police probably scared the miniature lion wanna – be.

The bed beckoned me ever closer and I gave in to its spell.  First, I opened the windows in the bedroom to let in that cool breeze that would feel good over my exhausted body.  I lay down on top of the sheets and descended into the depths of sleep, thinking about the “Ladies in white satin, waiting by the door”,  described in Emerson Lake and Palmer’s “Lucky Man”.   Played it twice on the way home and couldn’t get it out of my mind.  Truth is, I didn’t want to get it out of my mind at the moment.  Then the breeze came while I slowly transitioned from wake to light sleep.  A gentle breeze softly brushed my warm lips before caressing my eager nose with a luscious scent of classy perfume.  It woke me up and I looked around.  Where did that perfume smell come from?  It smelled so familiar and pleasant.  So, I jumped out of bed, and searched the house again, looking out the windows of the bedroom, but not wishing to close the windows.  Nobody around. It had been a long day and clearly my mind was playing tricks on me.  I went back to bed and floated off to delirious sleep once again, and thankfully the satin ladies reappeared and peacefulness overcame my overworked cells.

Then several hours later, (to be continued…)

SRCarson