We had a pretty good scare the other evening. I usually keep my cellphone right next to my bed just in case there is some emergency that family needs to call me about. A month ago, my stepdaughter, Julie, had called. She'd been completely terrified when someone tried breaking in through her backyard sliding glass door. Her husband was working the night shift at the time, so she was alone with her two kids. The only thing that had "saved" her was an alarm on the door that had gone off and frightened away the guy when he got the door open. She immediately called the cops, but once she did that, she called us. She begged us to let her and the two kids come over to spend the rest of the night. She was just too freaked out to stay at her house.
A couple of weeks later, my wife had left on a business trip to New York, and I had just gotten to sleep when my cellphone went off. It was Julie again, and, just like before, she was freaked out because she was sure she had heard someone walking around the house, and had called the police again. The police had actually found some fresh footprints around the side of the house, but whoever it was apparently never tried to get in. Since her husband was working the night shift again, she pleaded with me to let her and the kids come over to stay the rest of the evening. I have a great relationship with my stepdaughter, so it was no problem to let her do that even though the wife was gone. That's not saying Julie isn't gorgeous - she's drop-dead gorgeous- but she's my stepdaughter and I just never even let my mind go there.
When Julie got to the house with the kids, I could tell she was really shaken. Having this happen to her twice in such a short time frame just made her nerves completely fried. After telling me a little more about what the police had done and said, and about her and her husband agreeing that a full-blown lighted, camera, alarm-system would be purchased and installed the next day ... she asked if it would be o.k. for her and the kids to sleep in the King sized bed with me. I really didn't think anything of the request, since I figured she'd be on one side of the bed and the kids would be between us, and obviously that would be good for all of them after the trauma of the evening. I said that would be no problem.
We all went back to the far corner of the house where our master bedroom was, and I told them I was going to walk around the house and make sure everything was secure before I came back to bed. I'm a little freaked by the lack of security in some areas and have to check every door whenever I have that "feeling". I was also a little thirsty, so I cruised through the kitchen and got myself a drink of some milk, knowing that doing so would also give Julie and the kids time to get situated. After my few minutes pause in the kitchen, I headed back to the master bedroom.
Julie and the kids had gotten into bed and buried themselves under the covers. There was a small nightlight in the master bathroom that gave me enough light to move around by. I put my slippers back in my closet and went over to my side of the bed. I kept some loose sport shorts and a t-shirt on just so I wouldn't make anyone uncomfortable. When I lifted up the bed sheets on my side of the bed, I discovered that Julie was in the middle, facing the kids who were on the other side of her at the other edge of the bed. That meant I'd be lying right next to Julie. I really didn't want to say anything because I felt that anything that I might say would make the whole situation even more awkward, so I just figured I'd climb in and not worry about it. Julie had been the one to situate herself and the kids that way, so that must have been what she felt would make her the most comfortable.