Interrupt Sleep

Sleep is an amazing event in my life. My bed is soft and warm. Sleep wraps me in comfort. It erases the stress of the day. Oooh, if I get to dream, especially a good dream, sleep transports me to a whole new world. Sleep is my friend.

One night I am ripped from my warm, comfortable place by a noise that no human could make. Metallic screaming, suppressed hisses, the wildest banshee shrieking compressed into a science fiction writers dream noise.

I tore from my cocoon, with my heart pounding in my chest. A million bad thoughts running through my mind. My nerves on edge. Panic set in. Quickly, I grabbed a flash light to survey my propane tank. To make sure my house wasn’t about to explode. Taking me and my little doggy with it. The propane tank was secure.

The screaming continued, traveling desperately fast through the cold night.

Chico and I surveyed around the house. My overheated breath fogged up my glasses. What is that dreaded noise?

We found nothing out of place. All gas lines leak free. No power lines down. The grinder pump alarm wasn’t on. Nothing.

As I lay back in my cocoon; trying in vain to give a face to this caterwauling that filled my ears, it started to fade. As the minutes ticked by, it became softer, fainter, until it was gone.

Convinced that all was right with my surroundings; I had almost drifted back to sleep with my little doggy curled up at my back, when it hit me. As I was learning to drive, if you left the emergency break on and tried to move, the truck would scream in pain for release. That was what this sound reminded me of. Amplified a thousand times. Was it possible that the conductor of the train had left the break on as he flew down the tracks? Was that the noise I heard? An angry break screaming at the closest human (any human) for release?

Or could the train have connected with a car? Caught in the housing. Sparks flying. Metal tearing. Screaming as train and car became one speeding through the night?

The End