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vulnerable with only the house watching me.
    Sometimes my mind took its own path and wondered if someone was calling to check that I was home. It was a thought I tried dismissed as fast as it came, but with each new call, it was increasingly difficult. Finding the most opportune time to place rodent bodies in my bed, perhaps. The memory made me feel sick.
    As quickly as the urge for tea had come, it passed. Vodka seemed more my speed. I drank in the living room, in the dark, in silence, cursing the house, my life, and myself. Then I drifted back into a world of happy memories not caring if I got lost there forever.
     
    Bit by bit, despite my continuing misgivings and bad dreams, Danny and I fell into a rhythm.  We made friends with the couple who owned the hardware store we were constantly in and out of because of our ongoing restorations—Susan and Doug Daniels, a very nice, normal couple around our age.. Before they moved to Montgomery, they’d lived in Seattle and worked for a software company. They moved here to start a family and be near their own.
    Though the Daniels lived here and owned a business for the last five years all of us were considered outsiders by the locals. Having unfamiliar faces and being instantly labeled as "city" forged an instant connection between us. It wasn’t long before they became like family. They helped with the house in their spare time and we had dinner together weekly.
    One day while Danny was with Doug at a hardware expo and Susan covered the store, I stayed home to finally do some writing. I’d been working on a new book before we moved, but since the move hadn’t written anything. It was the first time I ever had writer’s block and it drove me mad. I blamed it on being busy and settling in, trying not to acknowledge that I’d had no new ideas since I stepped foot in the house.
    I unplugged the phone, so I wouldn’t be interrupted by the onslaught of hang up calls we had since moving in. I sat at my desk with Piper lying on my lap. Staring at the computer screen my mind was completely blank.
    I grabbed my hard copy and settled down on the couch to read what I had last written, trying to get back into the story. As I read, my eyes became heavy and before I knew it I was napping. 
    The sound of the front door opening woke me. Piper bolted awake too, barking frantically. She hopped off the couch, running to see who it was.
    A low male voice said, “Hello Piper,” and she stopped barking. I assumed it was Danny, though why he was whispering was beyond me.   I thought about getting up to see him, but I knew if I did that my nap would be over. My tiredness won, I remained on the couch, eyes closed, hoping to recapture the comfortable sleep I had been enjoying.
    Danny walked past the office, crumpling a paper bag, Piper’s quick steps right behind him. I was tempted to open my eyes, but something stopped me. A little voice inside my head whispered, “What if it’s not Danny? What if it’s someone breaking in? If they see you and you see them, they’ll have to kill you.”
    I dismissed it as irrational.  Of course it was Danny; who else could it be? When Piper jumped back up on the couch with me I relaxed. Had it been a stranger she wouldn't have come back. I slowly drifted back to sleep.
    Sometime later, the front door opened again, but this time it was followed by Danny gently waking me. “Hey you, I thought you were writing today.”
    “I meant to,” I said, stretching “Where did you go?”
    His brows pulled together in a line of concern. “The hardware expo. Remember?”
    “I know that, I meant just now.”
    “I’m not following you.”
    “You came home earlier today.”
    “No, I just got home.”
    “Are you joking?”
    “No… I just walked in the door.”
    “I heard someone come in earlier; I thought it was you. It woke me up.”
    Danny looked at me for a moment to see if I was serious, then he went and checked the house. Soon he came back into the study