Things That Go Drip In The Night

Oh how I loathe this house of my parents, I think in order to make a noisier house one would have to put in a significant amount of effort. At 5am this morning I was woken by mice eating the muesli bars I have on my bedside table, they rustled around in the packaging and I wondered how they hadn’t knocked the box over. I listened and listened, afraid to turn on the light in-case I was confronted by a giant rat rather than a nice little mouse. After this prolonged listening I discerned that the noise wasn’t coming from the direction of my bed side table, but there’s nothing else in here mice would be interested in and the room is spotless... It was not mice at all but the hot water heater, which is located outside this bedroom. Dad had woken very early for work and the sound I was hearing was the heater doing its job after it had been in use. I guess in the quiet of the night a noise I don’t normally hear is very confusing, what’s worse though is once the unit has been re-filled it drips for a while – very, very annoying.

So that was last night, the night before I was woken at around the same time by a gang of intruders opening and closing all the doors in the house and then repeating the process. I wasn’t scared, possibly still a little too drugged to feel fear. I thought about getting up and confronting the gang but I was warm in my bed and it felt cold out. I then thought, maybe it wasn’t a gang of intruders but that my brother or/and his girlfriend were up to no good, playing tag throughout the house maybe? Eventually I drifted off to sleep again. I later asked mum if she knew what had happened during the night, and she’d heard nothing but informed me that my brother had his window open and often when it’s windy - as it was that morning - the doors rattle, even when closed.

The first night I spent here was better though, no mice or gangs, just my brother and his girlfriend listening to music and talking all night in the next room. Day times are great too with the television up very loud whenever dad is home, I’m genuinely wondering if he has a hearing problem. Maybe I should develop one.