Spooky

This morning I left rather early. After saying goodbye to The Man I went downstairs and put on my shoes and jacket.

I was deep in thought, as I usually am at that time in the morning. Nothing inside my head is moving very fast that early, and I was concentrating fiercely on things like,

Do I have everything I need? Is today really Tuesday? Or is it Wednesday and I'm going to the wrong place? Am I SURE?

It was very quiet. I locked the door and turned my back to it. Immediately it unlocked and opened itself again, apparently all by itself. I jumped out of my skin, whirled around and said,

"WHOOOAH!"

And then I stared at The Man, who was standing in the doorway. I could not understand how he had managed to sneak up on me like that. For a moment I wondered if he was real. Wasn't he upstairs? It was like magic.

"You must have been right behind me!" I said, and my voice quavered a little. "How did you DO that?"

"I called out to you as I came down the stairs," he said. "You didn't seem to hear me."

It was true I hadn't heard a thing. All the little hairs on the back of my neck were still standing up. That was REALLY SPOOKY.

Apparently when I concentrate really hard I go deaf. I didn't know that.