F is for fox (and frightened)

F for fox, by smallstump

You may or may not have wondered why I was up so late blogging last night. This was because I had to stay late at work to subtitle motorcycle racing at high speed (the motorbikes, the commentary and my subtitling were all high speed). Whenever I have to stay late after a late shift, which would really be late enough even if you finished on time, I find it hard to get settled because I'll always have been doing something a bit stressful and urgent, typing so fast that smoke comes out of my fingers. Once I did leave blood all over the keyboard, actually, but that was I the days when my hands were really bad. No blood now, just smoke.

So that's the state of mind I was in. After blogging, I mooched around on the old internet and then went to bed and read a good Roald Dahl story, which I enjoyed even though it was one I remembered seeing on Tales Of The Unexpected. By this time it was 2.30am and I still couldn't sleep. Graham had slept in the spare room so I wouldn't wake him up when I came in since he had to be out early today, so I was able to put the radio on for a while without fear of disturbing him. So I was lying in bed on my own listening to the radio when I heard this strange screeching noise. I switched the radio off and the noise continued. It sounded a bit like that high-pitched screech cars make as they're driving along and something (I know not what!) is wrong with them, but it was a bit less mechanical. The noise went on and on and on and the cats appeared looking very freaked out and the hid under the bed. I started to worry that the noise was Mrs Nibbles (the rabbit in our back garden that I mentioned the other day) being tortured (horrendously tortured by the sounds of it) by a fox and went to the window to check. The cats followed me, but stayed by my feet and wouldn't jump up on the windowsill. I opened the curtains a smidge and peeked out, just in time to see a very large black creature cannonball across the back garden and crash into our fence. Even once they crashed into our fence the noise did not stop, not even once they had knocked the fence right down and gone into the neighbouring garden. One of my neighbours opened his door and stepped outside and instantly recoiled in horror. What did he see? (I don't know.) He stuck his head back outside and shouted loudly and the noise, which had been a constant screech for a full two minutes or so by now, stopped instantly.

It was just the freakiest thing ever. I can only guess it must have been a fox (or foxes) but the creature I saw seemed far too big and too dark to have been a fox really and it wasn't a typical fox noise, though I know fox noises can be disturbing. I can't think what else it would have been so I am trying to convince myself that is what it was, and not some sort of wolf from a fairy tale or a panther or...something else. Once the noise had stopped, Lola jumped up onto the windowsill and was still there standing guard when I woke up at 5.30 this morning. (Lola is good at knowing when we are in danger and has a proven track record of super-sleuthfulness.)

Anyway, as you can imagine, I didn't exactly settle down for a good night's sleep after that either. F is for freaked out too :(