Let's Not Meet Again

Drunken Intruder

This occurred when I was 6 or 7, and how I manage to remember this memory is beyond me. Maybe it's just because of how scarring it was to me.

I remember being in the living room of our old childhood home. Some quick background information; we lived, at the time, in a home that was in a sketchier part of our town. Downtown here is where all the historical homes and buildings are, but as a result, over time many slums have developed. My mother brought in around 40k a year, and my dad made a living off of disability received through an accident that corrupted his hips in the military, putting him in a wheelchair. We were able to buy a decent house, and over time remodeled the various interior rooms and, through my mother's promotion, were able to save up enough money to begin renovating the exterior of our house, such as adding a bay window. (This is relevant as our house was one of the nicer ones in the neighborhood, and stood out along with a few others on the neighboring streets.)

So anyways, we were in the living room of our old house. It was set up so that when you walk through the front door, you'd be on the enclosed porch. To the left was a china cabinet which somewhat barricaded two glass-paneled doors that lead into the living room. Straight ahead was the kitchen, which had doorways that led to the dining room, laundry room, and bathroom 1. (The rest of the layout is irrelevant to this story) Me, my sister and my father were in the living room of our home. My mother had just left for work, and it was late at night on a school night, so we were finishing up the current movie on television before going to bed.

I recall having two of our four chocolate Labradors inside of our home while the other two were outside. It was pretty common for them to bark at the wildlife inhabiting the forage that marked our driveway's end. Raccoon's and Opossums always littered the driveway and made their way through the gaps in the fence and would crawl around in our back yard. At this time, about fifteen minutes after my mother had left, they were going insane.

There's also a motion sensor light in the driveway that flickers when a car pulls in or leaves, or when an animal scuttles across the sensory line. I went to our laundry room, the only way to get to the backyard within the house, and saw the light was on. I shrugged it off and let the two dogs inside and then returned to the living room.

Another ten minutes pass and I remember the dogs staring at the bay window. It had enough space behind the curtain for the dogs to jump into it and for two of them to lay down on it. Mocha, our second oldest, clambers up and goes stiff. I'm not talking about she saw a rabbit and got excited, she was abused in her former home and gets very defensive around strangers. I'm the only one who notices it, of course, and I call her over onto the love-seat next to me. All of a sudden, this guy comes sauntering through our front fucking door. No knocking or even thinking twice, he just walks right on in.

My dad can walk, keep this in mind, he just has very bad balance and walks with a limp because he had hip issues, as mentioned earlier, from the marine corps. He grabs his cane and goes through the glass doors and out onto the porch.

I just remember hearing a lot of yelling from my father, who had a bit of a temperamental issue, and then a panicked voice coming from the guy. He leaves without any issue a few minutes later, but lingers outside of our house for a bit before hobbling away into the night.

My dad returns to the living room and suggests we go to bed as it was getting late. My sister, who's five years older than I, of course has always had a bit of 'tude and refuses to sleep without an explanation. He tells us that it was just somebody who was lost and went in the wrong house.

The creepy thing is though, that my bedroom was adjacent to my parents' and my sister's bedroom was down a smaller hallways which was directly across from my parent's bedroom. I can hear most things, unfortunately, through the wall if I really listen close enough. (Let me assure you, a huge blessing around Christmas time but a major downfall near anniversaries. cringe) I hear him on the phone with my mother, and he explained the scenario.

The part that my father failed to mention to us, and I can understand looking back at it as we were very young, was that the man came into our house and was "looking for a job." He mentioned that the guy reaked of liquor and looked very panicked; his eyes were red and large and he had a bit of a nervous twitch. The guy mentioned to my father that, "if he didn't get a job soon, they'd find him." and the guy just kept repeating that phrase.

My father obviously steered him away and said that this was a family residence, not an establishment. After threatening to call the police, in a very temperamental tone may I add, the guy left.

It still creeps me out to this day, and while I never made eye contact with the guy, the fact that he just broke into our house was unsettling. Also, just the mere fact of how my dad described him is creepy beyond repair to me.

If anyone has question's, I'd be happy to answer any and all of them. This story has been talked about by us and brought up several times on several occasions, I just don't really want to make this longer than it already is.

Drunken job-seeker who is possibly a drug addict ; Let's Not Meet.