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Footsteps | Nov 10 2005

Just now I heard a sound from the other room. It’s the middle of the day and K is at work, so it can’t be her. K’s cat? Possibly, but this sounded more like footsteps.

My office is off the bedroom, a good sixty feet from the living room, so it’s hard to hear what’s happening in the living room or kitchen. Often K comes home and I don’t realize she’s in the apartment until she approaches the office door.

While writing the previous paragraph, I heard the sound again and stopped typing to listen. Nothing. Silence. I wondered if I might be hearing someone in a neighboring apartment. Can sound travel through walls like that? I decided to type as softly as possible in case the sound returns.

But seriously, what do I do if someone, a burglar, is really out there? This is what I keep asking myself. Do I call out? Do I roll my chair back and forth so the burglar realizes I’m here? Do I stay quiet and hope for the best?

My other thought is a kind of fantasy, one line of possibility followed to its conclusion. In short, I put this piece on Oblivio and update it as the story unfolds. And then, naturally enough, I hear the sound again and it really is a burglar. As the footsteps move into the bedroom, I write something like, “I hear him out there. He’s walking around. I don’t know what to do. What if he has a weapon? Should I call the police? He’s going to hear me dialing the phone.” Then I write my address in the piece and note what time it is and ask my readers to call the police and tell them to read my website. And then after some more scary buildup, it ends with something like, “I think he hears me. I have to type quickly. Tell K I love her. I have to hit the publish key now.” And that’s how it ends, only no one calls the police or does anything because it’s just another one of my stories, and not even a very good one.

*

The real story resolved about halfway through the previous paragraph. The burglar was K. She was told to leave work early because her office walls are being covered in cork. It’s for sound-proofing, part of a company-wide effort to increase productivity. Less sound, more productivity. I’m not making this up. She was in the kitchen putting away groceries while I wrote about her footsteps.