Things that go swish in the night

START: The other night…

PAUSE: was it yesterday, the day before or last week? Can't remember for the life of me, but who cares? (Thank goodness don’t force my hand with the drink; I’m not even much of a teetotal – or I’d be killing way more brain cells than I can afford from the looks of it!) Bah! Time – does it matter at all, I ask? (In reality, I suspect that it matters quite a lot, however let’s pretend it doesn’t!) As I always say whenever I'm late which turns out to be often enough (!) I refuse to be bound by the conventions of time. Well, unless I'm fighting tooth and nail to make a deadline or something. It is worth noting that my anti-time-convention-philosophy is at its most fluent in the morning, when my hand menacingly smashes into my alarm clock to push (I say push, but really it’s demolish) the snooze button for the umpteenth time.

RESUME: Anyway… What was I going on about? Aha! Yes. Right, I got home after having coffee with a friend, made myself a nice glass of ice cold water (I seem to be drinking like a fish lately), watched some TV (a Will and Grace re-run; don’t you just lurve Karen?!? Aha ha ha ha ha… with her high pitched voice!) and had a nice revitalising shower. I did some bedtime reading after which my eyes started to glaze over and I started yawing uncontrollably. It was only when I was seriously struggling to put the words on the page into focus and keep my eyes open that I decided that I was exhausted enough to deserve some serious shut eyes.

Not a second after I had turned off my bedside lamp, I got that ominous feeling that something was amiss. Being ever so slightly neurotic, I walked to the bathroom to check whether I had turned the lights off. Yes - I had.

Then I thought maybe I left the water running, so I had to put the lights on to check that none of the taps were gushing out gallons of water in manner of Niagara Falls or similar. Verified that no water was sprouting from the taps. Turned off the lights again. Resignedly, I made my way, downstairs where everything seemed alright. The fridge was closed, lights off, even the front door was locked well. And there were no monsters lurking behind the curtains, or crouched under the sofa.

So what was it, I wondered as I decided to go back upstairs to sleep trying to ignore the nagging feeling that something (hopefully something other than my mind!) was decidedly off.

Less than a split second later I hit the lights on again. I knew it! Hunting in my bag, I confirmed my suspicion. My beloved mobile was missing. Now where did I leave it? I knew that I had it with me in the car when I got home, because I heard my sms alert. After scouring the room (twice!) I knew that I had left my phone in the car, which meant that I had to get dressed (no, I’m not going out in my PJs!), go downstairs, unlock the door, walk all the way round the corner to where my car was parked and reverse the whole process until I was back in bed and hopefully sound asleep.

As soon as I stepped outside, keys in my hand (to make sure I don’t get locked out… again!) a cool gust of wind brushed my hair and gave me goose bumps – very unlikely for a July evening in Malta. My next-door neighbour’s trees were rustling ominously, shadows were flickering in and out of the night, while the wind was whispering strange things in a language I do not speak. Suddenly my suburban neighbourhood seemed totally alien to me. It was as though I was in some fantasy/fiction novel come to life!

I looked around me and proceeded to the car, got my phone and was walking back home when I saw a shooting star streak across the clear velvety sky. I stopped in my tracks and admired the stars shimmering in the moonlight – a sight which was well worth the impromptu midnight stroll. I got home, charged my mobile phone (after warning it never to go wondering off under the car seat all alone at night again!) and had a good night’s sleep.

Oh… and just in case you were wondering, I did make a wish upon seeing the shooting star. I won’t tell what that wish was, but I will tell you if and when it comes true!