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carried the VCR and the movies. Tony, about two feet behind her, carried the television and cords. Karen had taken approximately four steps past the corner of the doorway and was still able to see Tony. He was on the other side of the living room doorway, battling with the cumbersome load in his arms, when he spotted a quick movement out of the corner of his right eye.
    Something had moved right where the television had been. Tony saw that the bean bag bear, which had been facing forward the whole time they were downstairs, was now facing the wall. In the blink of an eye, the bear had spun around. When it did, Tony just happened to catch a glimpse of the movement.
    Realizing what happened, he let out a horrified, “Oh shit!” Karen asked, “What?” Tony was unable to move or speak, and when Karen looked, she noticed the position of the bear herself and screamed, “Oh my God!” They bolted up the stairs and burst into the bedroom, both very much out of breath. After regaining what little composure they had left, they told me what had happened. Then Karen suddenly blurted out in exasperation, “I forgot to turn the video camera on!” We were a little disheartened but knew none of us were going to brave another trip outside that room.
    After recapping the terrifying events of the evening, we simply sat there: three adults scared half out of our wits, one sleeping infant, a large dog, and three cats, all in a small upstairs bedroom. I put the baby down in his cradle and the rest of us sat close on the bed, waiting for our nerves to calm and our heartbeats to return to normal. Karen and I arranged the cushions on the floor with a sheet and blanket while Tony set up the TV and VCR. Ironically, we had rented two horror movies. Lucky for us, the third rental was a comedy, which we unanimously voted to watch! Eventually, we fell asleep.

five

    The next morning, Tony left for work about 6:45. Around 8:00 a.m., Taylor, Karen, and I woke up. We puttered around upstairs, getting ready for the day, and didn’t see anything amiss. We talked about how foolish we had been the night before and laughed about how ridiculous we’d acted. It was embarrassing to think about how we had run around in such a panic.
    Karen got dressed and went downstairs to pack the rest of her things for the flight home. After the activities of the previous night, I was rather shocked when she went downstairs alone, but since she had an early flight back to Buffalo, it left us very little time to get out the door and be on our way. Our experiences from the night before seemed like a distant dream. Daylight is an amazing boost for bravery.
    Since she had forgotten to turn on the video camera, Karen felt confident nothing had been recorded. She began to pack up the recorder without reviewing the tape. Just as she was about to dismantle it, she noticed that the viewfinder had been pulled into an upright position. Although this was not the position she had left it in, she thought maybe Tony had played with it before leaving for work and didn’t give it much thought.
    Curious to see if he had recorded anything, she put her eye to the viewfinder. She was puzzled by her immediate ability to see a portion of the room she was in. She knew that when you could see through the viewfinder, it meant that the camera was in an energy saving stand-by mode that lasted only a few minutes before the camera shut itself off. In other words, someone or something had interacted with the camera only a few minutes before she’d peered into the viewfinder. Thinking the camera had possibly malfunctioned, and not wanting to draw unwarranted conclusions, she packed it up without saying a word.
    En route to the airport, Karen pulled out the camera to film some interesting sights. Kansas and Missouri had had so much rain prior to her arrival that it flooded our whole area, including much of the road to the airport. While filming, she told me what she had noted before leaving the house.