3:00 a.m.

It was slightly past 3 a.m.

I was switching off my mac when I suddenly heard the sounds of a desperate struggle with a doorknob of a locked door. I stiffened.

“Not again,” I thought in dread. Just last week, at about the same time, I heard the disturbing, continuous cries of a female which sent a shiver down my body to my toes. I never knew where it came from, but I have since conveniently attributed it to a neighbour who frequently gets into quarrels with her husband.

This time, the noise sounded real close, like it was right behind me. I took a deep breath and willed myself to turn around and face my door. I did not blink. Vibrations... sounded as though the door was about to break down. I stared at it as the noise continued.

I stepped closer to my door and once I was certain that the noise wasn’t coming from it, I unlocked it and peeped out. Like thunder breaking the silence of the night, the source was unmistakably clear. It came from the door facing mine – my granny’s room.

True enough, I heard S’s voice asking my granny what was going on. Apparently Granny had woken up to go to the bathroom only to discover to her horror that the doorknob was faulty. Her frantic attempts to open it literally shook the whole door, causing the loud noise and vibrations that I heard.

I rushed over with all the keys I grabbed from the household key holder. None fitted.

“Damn! How could it be?” I didn’t believe that the key to the door wasn’t amongst them even though I had tried every single key. So I tried them all over again just to be sure that I hadn’t missed any. It didn’t help that all the while Granny was panicking behind the door and totally ignoring my instruction to leave the doorknob alone. I was glad S was there to calm her down.

The commotion woke Mum up. As I continued trying the rest of the keys, she groggily scoured the kitchen and found a couple more batches of keys.

A gust of thoughts rushed through my mind when I heard the lock click open.
Thank God, the key was there...
Thank God Mum woke up…
Thank God S sleeps with Granny…

And thank God for my weird sleeping pattern…

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(21 December 2008)