Saturday, November 15, 2025

Overnight visit

 After school, I moved to another city, went to university, and lived in a rented apartment. Of course, I really missed all my friends and parents, but I especially missed my older sister, whom I love very much. I often had dreams about friends and family, rather wonderful dreams. They asked me for something. Then to eat, then to give something. That night, I had a dream about Alyona (my sister). She was sitting on my bed and very insistently asked me to give her salt. I woke up in the middle of the night. Of course, I was home alone. I didn't have time to really come to my senses when the doorbell rang. I go to the door, look through the peephole — Alyona. I was overjoyed and said loudly:

— I'll open it now, wait!

The door was unlocked with keys, the keys were in the bag. I took the bag, dumped all the things out of it and froze. I guess I just finally woke up and realized the situation. It's two o'clock in the morning. My sister is standing in the doorway. Even if you imagine that she took the last bus, drove for five hours, and then for some reason drove around the city for two hours, it remains completely unclear why she didn't call me, and... she didn't have a bag. Nothing. No suitcase, no backpack, not even a handbag.

I stared at the pile of things in front of me, then picked up my cell phone and dialed Alena's number. Five rings, then a sleepy, dissatisfied voice.:

"Hello?"

"Are you standing outside my door?"

—What?" I'm sleeping, actually!

I went to the door and looked through the peephole with a sinking heart. Alyona is standing there. He's looking right at me. And suddenly, something almost imperceptibly changed in her face. But I couldn't figure out what it was, because I immediately heard a bang—the light bulb above the door had blown out. And then something happened that made me jump away from the door and hide in a corner. Alyona (or someone trying to be like her) began frantically banging on the door and shouting inhuman, bestial screams without words. One minute they sounded plaintive, as if begging me to open up, the next they became threatening and scared me half to death. The phone was still in my hands. "What's going on in there? Are you there? Alyona screamed, but I didn't have the strength to answer her. I pressed myself into a corner and watched the rather flimsy door to my apartment shake. It lasted about ten minutes, after which everything went quiet. None of the neighbors came out to the entrance, as if they hadn't even heard the screams.

I called my sister back, who had already gotten everyone on their feet (I called my mom, friends in my city, and the police), and convinced her that everything was fine with me. Of course, I didn't feel like sleeping, so I went to the kitchen to have tea. But before I could get the cup out, my heart skipped a beat again—the doorbell rang again. At first I didn't want to open it, but then they said:

— Open up, police!

I breathed out a sigh of relief. That's right, my caring sister even managed to get the phone number of our precinct and called there! I went to the door and looked through the peephole. Because of the burnt-out light bulb, nothing was visible—just a vague shadow.

—Uh,— I said. — Thank you for your concern, everything is fine.

"I need to go in and make sure of that," they said urgently from the other side. — Open the door.

—Thank you very much,— I replied as gently as possible, realizing that I wasn't ready to open the door right now, even to the police. "But it's really okay, sorry to bother you, have a nice night."


There was a pause. The man on the other side didn't seem to know what to do.

"All right,— he said in an impatient voice. "Then could you please lend me some salt"?..



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