Strange Goings-On

My doorbell rang sometime before four a.m. I lay there for a while, telling myself maybe I dreamed it, but knowing that I didn't. Then I got up and went around turning on outside lights, and saw through the glass door and kitchen window that some of my neighbors had inside as well as outside lights on. I stood in the kitchen, looking out the window while the water for coffee heated. A long bright beam of light shone either to or from the next-door lot, all the way across the street, just for a second, then went out.

So I came into the office and turned on the little lamp, and I sit here listening to the roof ventilator go thump-thump-thump, like a slow heartbeat, and wait for dawn to break.

I'm either going to sleep for most of the day, or call and reschedule my Monday appointments at the clinic, and then sleep for most of two days.