As I opened my front door, I noticed that something was
different. The house across the street
was gone. I guess I must’ve blinked a
hundred times. I looked around and the
rest of the street was the same.
It wasn’t an empty lot with a driveway, either. It was a wooded lot. Am I crazy?
There was no one around to ask.
So I just got in my car and drove to work. Should I call the police? Nah, someone probably already did. It’s odd that there were woods there. If the house was somehow demolished during
the night wouldn’t there be rubble? Even
if everything was cleared away wouldn’t there be an empty space? How did all those trees pop up overnight?
At work, everyone laughed at me. “Was there a pink elephant darting between
the trees?” After my second cup of
coffee, I agreed with everyone. I must
have imagined it. It must have been some
trick my half asleep mind was playing.
Still. I couldn’t
wait to get back home, after work.
Arriving home, I couldn’t believe it. I mean, I believed it, but…but! The house was back. It looked just like it always did.
At supper, I told hubby the story. He said I must have dreamed it. Maybe it was some kind of mind trick like déjà
vu tricks the mind. I didn’t know what
to think, so I didn’t—think.
The next morning as I opened by front door, the house was gone
again. This time I took out my smart phone
and took a picture. “Hrmph! This will show those nay sayers!”
But my co-workers weren’t impressed. They didn’t know what was there before the
woods. “Why didn’t you ask one of the
people in the woods?”
“Huh?” I looked at
the pictures and there were people in
the woods! I never noticed them. They were walking around talking, or
something. Some of them had cameras.
“Oh.”
Later when I showed the pictures to hubby, he thought I was
pulling his leg. “C’mon. You didn’t take this picture here. You took this somewhere else. Is this an early April Fool’s Day joke?”
I didn’t know what was going on. But since I didn’t sleep well that night, I
came up with a plan. I was going to get
up early with hubby. Then I’d show him
the woods across the street where the house used to be. But I couldn’t sleep at all. I was too jazzed. So I got up.
I looked out the window. The
house was across the street, as always.
Well, not “as always” but it was where it belonged.
I made us a big breakfast.
I looked out the window, again.
The house was there. Hubby got up
and we ate breakfast. I didn’t mention
the house but I kept checking the window.
It was still there.
Hubby did say that he was glad the house across the street
kept disappearing because it got me out of bed early enough to make
breakfast. “Wise guy.”
As Hubby kissed me goodbye a van pulled up in front of the
house across the street and dropped off some people. Another van drove up and dropped off some
stuff—equipment, I guess.
I watched (open mouth) as some men climbed up the roof and
dropped a camouflaged tarp over the front of the house. Then some of the other people carried trees
and placed them all over the front yard.
Voila! The house was
gone and replaced with a wooded lot.
I wasn’t going crazy.
But why were they doing it?
I walked over and asked.
They were making a movie.
The homeowners were on vacation and wanted a movie made of how their
parents had built their house, starting with chopping down the trees by hand. It was going to be a surprise for their parents.
“Oh.”
R. Lord
have mercy on me
