Mama in the City

It was a Wednesday at 5 AM back in 2004, and I was alone fast asleep in my apartment with my sleep eye mask on and my ear plugs jammed in. I had gone to bed around 10 PM in preparation for work in the morning and had double checked the lock on my front door before going to sleep. Doing that door knob jiggle jiggle to ensure that it was locked, something that I paid attention to as a single gal living downtown.

That morning was different because I woke to the sound of some pretty sexy sounds that sounded close by. I squinted at the alarm clock, rolling my eyes thinking it must be the couple next door having an early morning encounter. I tried to get back to sleep but kept hearing more and more noises. The scary part was that as I really woke up it sounded like the noises were actually coming from my living room. Eventually I heard the distinct jingle jingle of my keys on the kitchen counter down the hall. I remember hearing them being shuffled along the kitchen counter, and that's when I knew that there was truly someone inside my apartment.

'Hello! Who's there?' * I seriously was thinking my landlord must have come into the wrong apartment by mistake. You know, to get a very early morning start on some apartment repairs. So naive, I know!

When a mans voice spoke back to me, my heart skipped a beat.

'Umm..Sorry. Wrong apartment.' * Is what I heard before a lady giggled back. I sat up in my bed, leaned forward and looked out my bedroom door just in time to see a man and a woman run out of my apartment door. Then I heard the beep beep of the elevator door being held open, and they were gone just like that. My heart started to pound with terror as I got up and out of my bed, creeped towards the open bedroom door and towards the wide open front door. Just to add to the randomness of it all, I found a pair of navy blue men's trousers just outside of my front door.

Two people had just been in my apartment while I was fast asleep, but with no obvious sign of a break in. I wasn't sure what to do and automatically called my boyfriend before even thinking about calling 911. I did a quick scan of my 1 bedroom apartment and noticed that my purse was gone and a book of CDs. Of course I had the ridiculous phone encounter with my boyfriend that was like, 'what's the number for 911?' kind of hilarity.

Nothing ever came of the break in. Two police officers arrived but couldn't do much with no evidence or anything expensive stolen. My locks were changed and a door alarm was installed. The thing was, that early morning break-in gave me post traumatic stress disorder, leaving me freaked out to sleep alone at night. The horrible fear that someone was breaking in while I was sleeping effected me each night. On occasion I found myself waking up screaming out in my sleep, or gasping at shadows.

It all came to an end when I moved in my with my boyfriend and his dog. We moved into one of those downtown buildings with a doorman and secure elevators, and I felt a sense of safety and so I could relax. It wasn't until last night with my husband away on business and I all alone in our apartment, that I started to reminisce about this past experience. Thank goodness I didn't wake up screaming but I did wake up quite a few times because of random night time noises. It took me a long time to fall asleep, despite having that lovely bed all to myself and feeling totally ready to sleep.

Tonight I feel much more relaxed and the thought of sleeping all sprawled out in my bed sounds so appealing. I find it amazing how that one experience tracked me down all these years later.