Strange Company

The evening had started out as usual, dinner at five, baths and bedtime by eight. Mom read the usual bedtime story before tucking her four rambunctious children into their beds. She lovingly kissed each one of them good night, wishing them sweet dreams before leaving them to their father and his ritual of teasing and story telling.

Soon their dad said his good nights and was attempting to escape the newly formed conversations of his children, as they attempted to keep him prisoner wanting more of his attention. They couldn't get enough of their Dad's humor as he teased each one of them, threatening to steal little toes or noses. Dad kissed his children and answered the last question in a feeble attempt to get away. As he walked back down stairs to join his wife, neither knew that the night was about to become frightening and unbelievable for his oldest two children.

Tilly lay in her bed trying to sleep amongst the chatter of her three younger brothers, Kevin, Brett and Justin, in the next room.

By the sound of the television down stairs, Tilly could judge the time as being about ten o'clock. The news was just getting started. Tilly's mom would already be in bed, as her dad stayed up to watch the news and the late show that came on afterwords.

Just as things were beginning to settle down and each of the boys drifted into sleep, Tilly was disturbed by a high pitched hum. The sound permeated her head driving her crazy with frustration. As she listened to it, she noticed that it would change frequency and pitch, and at times making her teeth vibrate with the sound.

"Hey!" Tilly yelled to her brothers. "Do you hear that?"
"I don't hear nothing," snapped Kevin. "Now go to sleep," he demanded.
"Me neither," echoed the other two voices of her youngest brothers.
"Well, I do," Said Tilly, "and it's driving me crazy."
"Are you sure you can't hear anything?" questioned Tilly.
"No!" Yelled all three boys in unison.
"Get to sleep!" Came the command from down stairs.
"Dad?" Yelled Tilly. "I can't sleep because of the sound."
"What sound?" Questioned Dad, irritated that his four children were still awake.
"Will you come up and listen?" Asked Tilly.

Soon the heavy footsteps of her father could be heard coming up the stairs.
"You kids need to get to sleep, you have been in bed for two hours and you are still up here messing around." Dad was a little perturbed by the foolish behavior of his four children. He would listen to the noise that Tilly claimed to hear then scold them to get to sleep.
"I know four kids that should be asleep by now and not up here messing around!" Scolded Dad.
"I'm not messing around, explained Tilly. "I just can't sleep with that sound."
Her father looked at her rather puzzled and asked, "What sound Tilly, I do not hear anything." You boys hear anything?"
"No!" came the answer, the same one that they had given Tilly when she had asked earlier.
"We were almost a sleep, Dad, and Tilly woke us up," Whined Kevin.

"Alright, you boys go back to sleep while Tilly and I figure out this mystery sound that is keeping her awake."
"Good night Dad, we love you, came the sleepy voice of Kevin.
"Love ya back," Was the answer Dad would always give in response.
"Okay, young lady," He said turning his attention to his daughter. "Let's see if we can find the source of this sound that is disturbing you."
He settled himself next to her on Tilly's small bed to look out the window. They lay side by side, crosswise, and Dad wiped off the moisture that had formed on the glass to get a good look. Together they watched in the dark with intent, but couldn't see anything. Soon, her dad asked her if she could still hear the sound.
Tilly raised her head to focus on the still night air for any sound that she may hear. At first she didn't hear anything and was about to tell her dad that, when again the pulsing sound permeated into her head.
"There!" Shouted Tilly. "Hear it now?"
Her dad sat up and listened. " As a matter of fact, I do hear something, He told her. They both glanced back out the window towards the corn field when suddenly, bright lights rose into the air and raced across the sky then vanished just as fast as they came.
"WOW! Shouted Tilly, "Did you see that?"
"I did," answered her Dad rather confused. He stood up off the bed and started to go back down stairs before his daughter stopped him.
"Dad, What was that,"She asked.
"I-don't-know" came the slow response from her father. " I wouldn't worry about it, it was probably just a farmer working in the field."
"Working in the field? With what, an airplane!"
"Dad, didn't you see the lights go up in the air?"
"No they didn't Tilly, Dad objected. "It just looked that way because we were so far away and it is dark outside. Now go to sleep and don't worry about it." He told her.

Tilly wasn't sure that it was a farmer, but knew not to argue with her dad. She lay the right way on her bed and as she rested her head on the pillow yelled to her dad one last time. "
"Dad?"
"What Tilly?"
"I love you."
"Love you back."
"Hmm" Tilly heard her father say as he walked down the stairs.
"Hmm" She heard him say again as he reached the last stair.

Then the night was silent except for the sleepy voice of Tilly's mom asking what was going on.
"Oh, nothing." Tilly heard her dad tell her. "Tilly thought she heard something outside."

Tilly still felt a little uneasy about what she and her dad had witnessed in the cornfield across the road. She wondered why her dad wasn't as concerned about it as he probably should be. That was certainly strange, she thought. She had never seen anything like it before. Up and down the rows the lights went then just as quickly disappeared into the night sky.

Tilly lay in her bed and listened intently to what her dad was doing downstairs. Maybe he would go to the back door to take a better look, she surmised.
She waited impatiently for the sound of the back door opening, but it never did.

Tilly felt her eye lids get heavy as she fought against the demands of sleep. She was too frightened and uncomfortable about the night occurrences. She just couldn't go to sleep without having any clear answers. Her mind spun wildly as she tried to analyze it all and come up with a logical explanation as to what she and her dad saw. The "farmer in the cornfield" story just wasn't satisfying her curious nature.

But, soon sleep would win and Tilly drifted off into dreamland. The television was turned off as the last of the night show ended and dad also made his way into bed to get some sleep.

Tilly didn't know just how long she lay there when she was waken by the small footsteps moving up and down the stairway. With sleepy logic, she assumed that it was the youngest of the two boys going down stairs to use the bathroom. She suddenly thought she should go with them as she realized that she had to go as well.

All at once, light filled her room, creating instant irritation for Tilly.
"Good grief!" She thought. "How rude is that?" She knew that her brothers would sometimes turn on the overhead light as they went down stairs at night, but this light seemed much brighter than usual.

"Turn off the light! " Tilly moaned half asleep. As she spoke she heard the foot steps moving up the stairs. "Good she thought, they were coming up to turn off the light."

But the light didn't go off and the footsteps now seemed to be moving into her brothers room.

"Shut off the light!" Tilly demanded in a much stronger, wide awake voice. Then she rolled over to face the wall and covered her head with her blankets.

She thought she heard footsteps on the stairs again and was confused. "What are they doing?" She thought with sleepy confusion. "Why won't they just turn off the light?"

Again she heard the sound of small feet going down the stairs, or were they coming up? She wasn't sure, but by the light sound of the footsteps, knew it was the youngest two brothers. Were they coming up or going down? She wasn't sure, and drifted in and out of light sleep as the light still shone in her room as bright as day.

Again, Tilly yelled, "Shut off the stupid light!"

This time she would get an answer. "We can't turn off the light." She would become irritated even further from the answer she received. She was just beginning to argue with her brothers and tell them that they could turn off the light. As well as explain to them that all they had to do was just reach up and pull the string when she remembered that they already knew how to turn of the light. So, why were they telling her that they couldn't turn it off?

Tilly had, had enough and rolled over and sat up ready to fight with her brothers. She didn't understand what game they were playing, but was going to get to the bottom of it. In all the commotion over the light, Tilly had forgotten she had to use the bathroom.

As soon as she sat up, Tilly came face to face with several gray forms standing at the foot of her bed, as well as two beside her bed and several others moving in and out of her brothers room. Fear filled her as she let go of the full bladder, causing warm liquid to spread across the sheets of her bed. Tilly sat frozen with disbelief and fear.