Quite the Day

Olivia sat at her desk writing. Today she was home alone and taking full advantage of the rare silence.

It was a little too silent for her taste, but she couldn't complain. She certainly could focus a little better in the silence than with the constant interruptions of different family members needing help. (Don't get me wrong, that is good. It’s just that it adds to the distractions that a day can hold.) And of course, her cat constantly wanting her attention added to her daily interruptions. And then there were the scattered buzzes from her phone (A phone. That's one thing she wished that she didn't need in order to keep in regular contact with people), and then there were her many thoughts that ran her all over the house doing random chores while trying to write... she couldn't help herself, if it came to mind, she just needed to do it before she forgot. Simple as that.

Olivia realized that she was distracting herself and began to refocus her thoughts. Where was she? Oh yeah, the boat incident... click, clack, click, clack, click…

The time seemed to be drifting by so quickly as she sat in the silence, the only noise being her typing. She half wondered where her cat, George was, but figured that she shouldn't ruin the productivity by following up on that thought.

She continued on, on the page... click, clack, click, clack, click…

George sauntered into the room and began rubbing against her legs.

"Well hello there. I was wondering where my writing companion was." Olivia commented as she leaned down and began to stroke his back.

CRRREAAAK…

"What was that?" Olivia exclaimed, far less stealthily than she’d intended. It sounded like someone stepping on some squeaky board.

Could there be someone in the house? Or was it just one of their many animals? No, the pets usually make more noise than that when they move about the house.

She didn’t want to rile herself up... but she also didn’t want to ignore it if it actually was something. Wouldn’t that be terrible if it was someone and not something? She stared off into space for a moment… that was a startling thought! A sudden fear gripped her, and she wondered if someone would jump out of the woodwork at her. She bumped the wall.

Thump!

"Shhh, Olivia, don't let them have the advantage over you... whoever or whatever they are." Olivia whispered to herself.

She hadn't heard the front door open to reveal the return of her family. Surely she would have noticed something like that.

She got up, crept into the hallway, and paused. What should be her first plan of action? Well, it seemed to her that the sound had come from the basement... so she supposed that she should go down there.

But... the basement... isn't that where all the scary things happen in the movies or books?

As Olivia got closer to the basement door she realized that the dogs weren't bothered by the sound. That seemed odd to her. Wouldn't they react if there was someone there? Well, whatever it was, it was probably pretty sneaky and could go unnoticed by them for at least a little while longer. After all, the dogs weren't all knowing about what was going on in the house, even though it did seem that way to her most of the time.

Dogs, useless when you need them! She chuckled at her thought.

Ok, back to the problem at hand. Which, at the moment, is… protection. If there was someone down there, she didn't want to just go down there unarmed to be shot or pushed down the stairs or something.

Currently standing in between the laundry room and the kitchen, Olivia looked around, her gaze landing on a can of carpet cleaning spray. After all, it did say to keep away from eyes. It could work like bear spray, right?

She didn't know, and decided not to look it up right now when she should be investigating.

Olivia slowly opened the basement door, and peered around the corner... nothing right there. The tension eased in her shoulders.

Confidence boosted a little, she slowly descended the stairs, making a special effort to avoid the known squeaky steps.

At the base of the stairs, she scanned the musty room before her. She didn't notice anything, but decided that she should actually look everywhere and not just the base of the steps… because that would be a dumb thing to do.

There were many old boxes stacked high around the fringe of the room. Why did they have so many boxes? It made it so hard to see if there was anything down here hiding! And there were also the many tables, puzzles and piles of pantry staples in random places throughout the room.

Olivia also noticed that their lightbulbs needed to be changed out down here. It was so dark you could hardly see past your nose… ok, maybe it was a lot farther than that, but when you think that there’s something there, it doesn’t feel that far at all!

The wallpaper could also use a little help; it was practically falling off the walls in some places. The whole room could, in fact, but that wasn’t her focus right now, so she tried to ignore it and get back to looking behind boxes and such.

She moved through the room, and finding it all clear, she started to breathe again. Having just now realized that she’d been holding her breath, it came as somewhat of a relief. Then her mind went back to wondering what had caused the noise. Surely it wasn't her imagination? She was writing in the house by herself… but that gave her mind no cause for her to make something up. Did it?

Frustrated with herself, she started up the stairs like a defeated mouse. She almost wished that there had been something so that she didn't feel like she was going crazy.

Then she heard it. The heating duct, not three feet from her head. It was making the noise that she had heard earlier.

She erupted with laughter!

That's all it was? She wanted to feel dumb, but couldn't, it was just too funny! Had she really been scared by that? Then she looked down at her hands and saw the cleaning spray. Why had she chosen that? She began to laugh harder.

Beginning to compose herself she finished her way up the stairs, still laughing.

Looking at the dogs laying by the front door on the landing, she said, " I guess you're not quite as useless as I thought that you were."

Shaking her head, she went back to her desk and found George now laying on his bed beside her computer.

Sitting back down, she began to pet him and tell him what she’d just done. While laughing at herself with her quiet companion, she heard another noise. Only this time, it was a lot closer…

Then it happened. Her old wicker chair splintered into a thousand pieces right out from under her.

Olivia let out a high squeal and clutched at her desk to steady herself. However, that didn't work, and she just ended up pulling the desk, computer and cat all down with her.

George jumped up as they landed in a heap, hissed and ran from the room in fright.

Olivia's laughter bubbled up for a good few minutes. It had been quite the day, and she just needed to laugh at herself.

But hearing the front door and realizing that her family were about to discover the state she was in, she quickly crawled out from under the desk and began trying to put things back together. Well, except for the chair… that was for sure a lost cause!

She managed to get her desk, computer, and cat bed back into order before her brother walked in carrying her requested goodies bag.

"What happened here?" Jake asked, looking in bewilderment at the pile of splintered wood on her floor.

"Well… that's a long story… I'm not sure that you want to hear it," Olivia said teasingly.

Jake glared at her.

"You know I want to hear it. Now out with it! Spill the beans! What happened in here? Did you get too excited about what you were writing about and resort to violence until you got it figured out?"

"No! Of course I didn't do it on purpose!" She said indignantly. "Ok, ok, I'll tell you before you go making up other absurd things." She paused to keep him in suspense as long as possible and then went on.

"I was telling George something funny and my chair just broke right out from under me. And before you go making jokes, it’s just very old and gave out. My 100 pounds sitting on it every day has nothing to do with it!" Olivia smirked, looking at her brother’s face as he finished processing what she’d just thrown at him.

"You're something else sis! You know that right? I mean, you come up with the most random things and expect me to believe them and think that it will satisfy my curiosity..." trailing off Jake couldn't hold back any longer, he started to laugh in his deep baritone.

Olivia joined him… this was one story that she would probably have to write down at some point! It was just too good not to put into a story.