In 2003 I was living alone in a large apartment complex. Built in the 1950s? Behind the complex of buildings there was an empty property lot with lots of trees, then beyond it a cemetery. The cemetery had existed before these buildings were built.
Anywhere else I had ever lived, before or since, I have always been comfortable in complete darkness. Never need a small nightlight or any other things on during the night. I always got a kick out of the fact that I could navigate through an entire house in complete darkness, feeling sure of where everything was. Only at this apartment, and only when there were no lights on, I always had a feeling of not being alone. I would feel truly afraid to make one single move without a light on.
The front of my apartment had living room and kitchen, back of the apartment two bedrooms and bath. I use the smaller bedroom as an office. The larger bedroom where I slept was furthest from the kitchen. One summer morning, about an hour before my alarm was to go off, I was woken up by a ticking sound. When I say "woken up" I mean it was loud enough to not be able to fall back asleep through. Unmistakeable sound of a clock ticking the seconds by. Only I didn't have a clock like that in my room (only the plug in digital kind that made no noise).
There was a large wall clock in my kitchen though. One of those school wall clocks, bought at IKEA, large white face and metal rim. But how could I be hearing that if I was in the room farthest from it, with my bedroom door closed?
(My boyfriend used to think it was strange that I would bother to close my bedroom door to sleep, since I lived there alone. "Your whole apartment is your bedroom, basically. Why bother?" But I found, even with my sleeping light on in the bedroom, I still felt like something was going to walk right in the room)
I opened the door to the bedroom, and instantly I couldn't hear the ticking sound anymore. I walked to the kitchen and stood near the clock high up on the wall. The refrigerator was to the right of it and running as normal so I had to strain to hear the clock ticking, even standing right in front of it. Since it was still early, I decide to go get back in bed.
I shut the bedroom door behind me and by the time I cross the room and sit back down on my bed, I hear the ticking again. Just as loud as before. So I sit very still, hold my breath and strain to listen to see if I can figure out where its coming from.
I have a small nightstand on the far side of my bed, with a large lamp and the plug-in clock. The other side of my bed there is a tall dresser with many drawers that I used for clothes. The only thing I had on top of this dresser was a small lamp that was always on. I never set anything else on top of that dresser because my cat would swipe things off in the night, as they do.
I lean closer to the dresser, and I can still hear the ticking. I stand up and decide to lean my ear against the wood on the side of the dresser and I can hear the ticking reverberating through the dresser.
I should mention this furniture set (dresser and nightstand) was my great grandmothers. She was born in the late 1800s and this furniture had been hers since she was a teenager. It passed to my grandmother, to my mother, then to me. I have used this furniture since I was a teenager, and I still use it to this day.
I take my ear away from the ticking dresser and my first reaction was to jiggle the dresser a bit. I put my hands on top of it and try to lean it away from the wall. As soon as I do, the ticking stops. I don't know what made me think of it, but I leaned down to look under the dresser (this is a very old fashioned dresser, it was on legs, so you could easily see the floor underneath.) And I see something shiny.
I reach and grab it. And it's my wristwatch. A silver watch, one of my favorites, that I hadn't worn in a while because I couldn't remember where I had left it. I do have a cat that likes to knock things on the floor, but that has only made me ever vigilant about looking under furniture and tidying up the floors in each room just about every day for whatever she has decided to mess with that day. So that's how I know that watch wasn't under that dresser yesterday.
Funny thing about the watch though is that if you hold it to your ear, it makes no sound. So what was all that ticking???
Submitted June 27, 2017 at 07:50PM by swing_on_my_nuts http://ift.tt/2sXodv0 Thetruthishere
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