Face in the window

As I mentioned before my father was often gone for extended periods of time with his government job.  This happened to be one of those times when my father was gone.  When he was gone each night one of us girls would sleep with my mom, she wasn’t able to sleep well all on her own so we would take turns.  We lived in a large two story house; the only bedroom down stairs was my parents.  My sisters were already upstairs sleeping and my mother and I were locking up and headed to bed.  Mom was locking the back of the house up and I was to lock the front door.  The front door had a little window in it that was about five inches wide and about 8 inches high, just a little window.  The outside porch light was not on so there was nothing to see on the porch.  I flipped on the foyer light and began to walk toward the door to check the locks when I looked up into the little window only to see a face looking into the house.  I screamed like a crazy woman over and over, I started to run really fast still screaming loud enough to wake the dead.  I was running like mad… in one place.  I wasn’t moving so much as one inch forward or backward, it wasn’t for lack of trying it just wasn’t happening.  My mother came flying around the corner fear written all over her face.  She looks at me screaming and running herself from the look of fear on my face.  She yells, “What is going on”?  I tell her that someone is looking in the little door window so she checks and I am still trying like mad though vainly to run away.  She doesn’t see anything so I turn around to look myself and scream again because they are still there.  My mother busts out laughing and asks if it is the same person as before.  I don’t think it’s funny but I tell her yes.  She starts to laugh so hard she begins to cry.  I start to cry but because I am upset.  When she finally catches her breathe she tells me I am seeing my own reflection, that’s who I am running away from although in vain.  Then I understand what is going on and I fall in the floor laughing, I realize what I must look like running in place fear keeping me from being able to gain forward motion screaming like a raving idiot over my own reflection. 

We lay in the bed for hours that night laughing ourselves silly.  Every time one of us would get it under control the other would lose it again.  I never approached that door again without a laugh and a shake of my head.