{ Intruder: Part 3 }
Please read part 1 and part 2 first. Thank you.
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As I was getting ready for bed, I couldn’t shake the weird feeling of knowing an unwelcome person had been in our apartment earlier that day.
I decided we must do what I always did back when Funnel worked at his insurance job and was gone a couple nights per week: sleep out in the living room.
Funnel thinks this is incredibly irrational: “If you are worried about someone breaking in, sleeping in the living room makes no sense, because you are out in the open. You have a better chance of protecting yourself if you are in the bedroom – you can lock the door.”
My theory is that if I am in the living room, I can hear someone break in and run into the bedroom and lock the door. If I am already in the bedroom sleeping, I have a less chance of hearing them, and am more likely to be murdered in my sleep. It’s all about being prepared, kids.
Anyway, Funnel won this battle, and we slept in our bedroom, but I made him stick a chair up under the knob of our front door for extra protection.
We made it through the night. No break-ins. No murderers. No more phantom vacuuming.
Once I got to work, I called the apartment office to speak with the girls who work there during the day. I was hoping they could shed some light onto our situation, but they told me the same thing as the night manager: they always log any entries into any apartments in their book, and a note is always left.
I agreed to pay the $50 to have our locks changed, and she told me that I could stop by the office when I got home to pick up my new keys.
But then, a couple of minutes later I got a call that changed everything…
((to be continued)).
. . . . . . . . . .
{ Contest }
Funnel & I thought it would be fun to give away a prize to the person who comes closest to guessing who the vacuuming intruder was. Leave a comment with your guess by midnight on Saturday, and the person closest to the real answer will win. If more than one person are close or correct, we will draw a name out of Funnel’s beanie. Or we will play a round of double-fisted “rock paper scissors” with each of us representing a finalist.
Part 4, which will reveal who the intruder was, will be posted on Easter Sunday, along with the name of the contest winner.
Oh, and the prize is yet to be determined but we’re pretty good at picking out cool stuff, so it will be good. Promise.
April 10th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
the Girls of Michigan(mom myself and cousin courtney) talked it over and we all agree that the introuders were …..Caleb and Amy Ferderick as a joke, to mess with your minds………………………(ohhh that could be kind of scary know we need to hide our keys because our couagous dog smokey joe will not hurt a fly)(sorry Amy and Caleb I was out numbered)
April 10th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
Oh! The story gets even more interesting when there’s a prize invovled!
My best guess is that it was one of your parents. It sounds like something my mom would do. Come over, vacuum and never tell me, leaving me to think I’m crazy. LOL.
April 10th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
You are such a great story teller jen! this is such and odd and funny story anyways. Ok, welll my guess is that it was one of funnel’s friends playing a joke??
I don’t know haha.
April 10th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
oops that last comment was me, I didn’t realize my mom’s e-mail was saved on here.
April 10th, 2009 at 7:37 pm
The rest of the story continues as follows:
The woman on the phone was in tears. It took me a minute to calm her down. Finally, after a go five minutes she was calm enough to tell me why she was calling.
She then told me the story of the woman who lived in the apartment before us. She would vacuum so much that the neighbors would call in the middle of the night because it was disturbing their slumber.
One day the vacuuming stopped. It was soon discovered that the woman had died. Something had short circuited in the vacuum cleaner and electrocuted her to death.
When they started to show the apartment to future residents they would sometimes enter the room only to find vacuuming lines on the carpet as if the lady had just cleaned.
She wanted to tell us when we first moved in, but was told not to. Now she felt so sorry she was once again in tears.
I told her it was ok.
Later that night I told Funnel and we decided it was ok to have a ghost that cleaned for us.
The End.
April 11th, 2009 at 6:57 am
That’s how I’m getting all my clients for my new housekeeping service! First I break in and clean and lock up. Then I come back a couple days later and say “Don’t you love it when you come home and the house is clean? Have that every week with Joe’s Bar and Cleaning!” What do you think? Good idea, no? Hugs and see you Monday!
April 11th, 2009 at 8:40 am
I like brandon’s story! haha. but my guess is that you had a friend that you gave keys to at some point to feed your pets or water your plants while you were out of town and they came and vacuumed your apartment to be nice (or to play a joke) and forgot to tell you. ??!!
April 11th, 2009 at 8:57 am
This is so tough. The prize adds so much pressure. I can only guess that someone got you a gift, a sort of maid/cleaning service…but it still wouldn’t add up with all the clues. I AM SO STUMPED. But I want that prize!
I like the ghost idea too.
Or what if you accidentally left the apartment unlocked, and someone thought they were entering their own apartment, and just walked in like nothing was wrong, and then realized they were in the wrong apt., and they had tracked dirt in or something, so they quickly vacuumed up and left.
Or what if you guys vacuumed and completely forgot about it.
Are we allowed more than one guess?
THIS IS THE BEST BLOG EVER.
April 11th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
i think your mom and dad came home from South Carolina or it’s a joke
April 11th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
I am going to guess that it was one of your parents.
April 11th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
I am going to guess that it was one of your parents.
April 11th, 2009 at 6:23 pm
Oh wow. This is a strange story… my guess is… hmm…
Your parents gave their copy of the key to some close friends or relatives of yours to surprise you with a clean carpet.
Boring, but there it is.
Can’t wait to hear the actual one…
April 12th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
i have no idea but i want to win the prize. my first thought was jimmy but i don’t know why he would clean your place, and then jason but we all know thats not going to happen (we’ve all seen how jason lives). … sooo…idk. i’m guessing parents or it was a ghost like brandon said. one or the other.
April 12th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
I am dying for part 4, and the prize winner! Easter is over, missy!
April 13th, 2009 at 5:58 am
I say it was someone to do with the apartment, and the office girls just had some kind of mix up and forgot to log it in. Maybe something to do with repairs in the apartment or the roof. I say the blame lies with the forgetfulness of the office personnel.
April 13th, 2009 at 10:56 am
okay okay…yes…the office people came in because they were doing repairs (roof or whatever) and made a big fat mess, so they cleaned up and forgot to leave a note!