el jebel quill
By Ann Ulrich
A very strange set of circumstances took place outside our
trailer over Labor Day weekend. In fact, if we hadn't had guests
staying with us, I'm sure I would have forgotten the incident
the next morning. But when Grandma Ulrich mentioned "the bad
smell" the next day, i remembered I hadn't been dreaming after
all.
It was in the middle of the night. I was roused from a deep sleep by an overwhelming odor, a heavy, warm stench that seemed to conquer the air. My first thought was the cat's litter box, but never before had it reeked so profusely, carried all the way into our bedroom.
As my heavy eyes pulled me toward sleep, I heard a noise outside the window. I don't know what it was. I had never heard a sound like it before. Yet, it was an animal sound... a whine, perhaps. not a cat or dog. not human, yet with a certain inflection that hinted in that direction. I was halfway to Dreamland and didn't rouse myself to peek out the window.
Then the cat pounced upon the window sill, startling me, and I watched her silhouetted body stiffen as she gazed intently at something outside. She stood, fixed in that position, for some time. I was too tired and went back to sleep.
I would have forgotten it all except that Grandma Ulrich had smelled and heard the same thing. She awoke from the couch in our living room and wondered what it was that smelled so horribly. Then she heard the strange whining and had trouble going back to sleep.
But nobody else awoke in our trailer. The incident was not repeated. Whatever was outside our trailer that Sunday night did not come back.