FALSE EVIDENCE APPEARING REAL

About ten years ago, one silent and black night, my kid sister and I were up in the parlour, while others were sleeping, each about her business. Suddenly, around two or three in the morning, someone climbed over the fence quietly from the other compound, landed on the water tank that belonged to our landlord's family at the front of our apartment, came towards our sitting room window and was making for the burglary. I shivered in fear where I sat and motioned for my sister to be quiet. I did not know when I broke the silence and shouted (can't remember clearly if I shouted 'Yeh' or 'Jesus'). My sister screeched, she did not scream, her screech piercing the still morning hush and in the twinkling of an eye was crouched under the sofa.

Our cries woke our parents up. We told them some people were tampering with the window. Dad checked and he saw a rat. He looked at me, shook his head, not knowing what to say.

Everybody went back to sleep. I was so ashamed of myself, because, it was a mere rat that got me imagining what was not. Then I tried to figure it out. It was the rat that jumped from the fence to the tank and then moved towards the burglary trying to find a way inside. But fear accentuated the sounds and made them like human's. Honestly, I thought it were some armed robbers who after jumping over the fence attempted to put their hands inside and threaten with a gun. I was sore afraid. My sister, on a good day, would not find squeeze herself under that chair because the space was small for her, but fear made her do it without thinking.

Another instance was sometimes last year in my house, I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of jiggling metals. Who could be making this kind of noise this hour of the night? I was scared and turned off the light in the room. Later, I discovered it was Rolex, our neighbour's dog. He had a chain on his neck which jiggled each time he stepped, but of course, the sound was much more noticeable at night when everywhere was quiet.