The Elderly Hand

   I awoke to a hand gently rubbing across my face.  I reached to grab whatever had touched my face, as I opened my eyes.  The moment I opened my eyes I saw a figure of a woman disappearing.  I shrugged it off as a hallucination due to the fact that I was just waking up.

   As I laid there for a second thinking about what in the world just touched my face, I heard the loud barking of my dog, Roxy.  It was loud due to the fact that the windows were open.  She was tied up outside the sun porch door that night, usually she slept in the house. 

   I reached over and shook my husband.  “Mike, Roxy’s barking go see why.”  He reluctantly rose out of bed to see what was going on.  As he entered the sun porch I heard the sound of a woman crying.  I waited to make sure it was not my imagination, and after hearing it a second time followed by a males voice I too got out of bed.  My husband, who at the time was standing in the sun porch heard the two voices as well.

   “Shh.” He motioned for me to be quiet.  He quietly opened the door and walked outside.  Being a coward, I stayed inside and walked to the window to listen.  “I was only trying to get inside to hide, that stupid dog bit me.”  I heard the girl cry out.  The male only mumbled. 

   My husband came walking in the door, still very quietly.  He grabbed his handgun, made sure it was loaded, and slowly crept back outside.  As he comforted Roxy, he listened for the sound of anyone coming closer to our home than they should have.  He was angry that the girl had tried to come in our home in the first place.

   He decided to tell the strangers sitting in our backyard to leave, he handed me the gun and went to speak with them.

   I went to lay down, and after my husband joined me I told him what had woken me.  He said that I was probably only dreaming, but I can still feel the fingers rubbing my face.  I remember the sinking feeling I felt in my stomach when I went to reach for the hand and it disappeared.

   I don’t know what or who it was that woke me, but I do believe I was woken for a reason.  That reason was because someone was trying to break into our home.