Para Normal

I am pretty sound sleeper. I also have pretty interesting dreams and, at times, I talk about these dreams when I am asleep. My siblings used to entertain themselves by talking to me when I slept and I would talk back, discussing the all the details of my adventures in dreamland. I would dream of ghosts and UFO’s, secret agents and superheroes and about being chased. I still do.

I am a sucker for shows on the history channel about UFO’s. I am fascinated by the shows Ghost Hunters and the Physic Detectives and any other paranormal late night television. I usually fall asleep with these shows on the TV and they invade my dreams. Every now and then Lauren will wake me, in the middle of the night for some reason or another and I always wake with a start, fists clenched arms flailing ready to defend myself from the boogieman.

Last night Lauren heard a wail over the monitor that sounded different. “Bill?” she said not knowing I was asleep. “Did you hear that?”

I sprung up, arms extended ready to karate chop the noise. “What?”

“Calm down.” She said. “It’s no big deal. Do you hear that?”

I listened. I heard a faint cry over the monitor. “It doesn’t sound like Wyatt. Nor Maxfield.”
She went upstairs to check the monitor in Wyatt’s room while I tinkered with the one on my nightstand. I switched the channel, from A to B on the receiver to make sure it was in the correct position. I listened to see if I could here Lauren checking on the kids. She returned to our room and said both kids were sound asleep. We discussed the channel and everything seemed okay.

I rested my head back down on the pillow and said, “Maybe we are picking up someone else’s frequency from the neighborhood, because I did not recognize that cry.” I closed my eyes.

“That was weird.” Lauren said, thirty seconds later as she climbed into bed. “The cry almost seemed other worldly.”

I sat right back up.

“What wrong?” Lauren asked.

“When you woke me up you said “It’s no big deal”, other worldly voices in our house is a big deal. You can’t tell a guy who watches ghost and UFO shows that other worldly voices are no big deal.”