Weekly Writing – August 5 2023

What a relief it was to lie in bed and hear scratching outside her windows. It had been so silent before.
What a relief to hear it coming closer. That meant it wouldn’t leave her – didn’t it?
It tapped not quite in time with the wind, so she couldn’t quite mistake it for the branches of trees that didn’t stand, anyways, so close to her house. It sighed in the silences, as if it were as alone in the dark as she.
She had left the window in the guest bedroom open that night, just by a crack. It would have felt too bold to open her own.
It would have felt like a nightmare to hear something’s bare feet setting down on her floorboards, and feeling like a nightmare might have made it so. But sounds elsewhere in the house? Oh, she had missed those. Would it settle down in the guest bedroom to sleep, warming itself under the quilt she’d laid out fresh? Or would it creep down the hall to join her? It would be less of a nightmare, more of a dream come true, for her to hear the door creak open and a whisper of I couldn’t sleep.
I had a nightmare.
May I stay with you?
Yes. She tucked her legs tight together, her hands under her head. The way she had pretended to sleep as a child when dreams had seemed reluctant to creep close to her and she’d wanted to lure them.
She closed her eyes, opening the window of her heart in welcome to the no-longer-silent night.