Alarm

6/14/2001

Alarm:
Big Loud Horn Noise

         Once when I was five, I played a game of checkers with my little brother. We sat at a kid-sized table by the window in our duplex in Florida. The front door was wide open since it was sticky and hot. Dad was making food in the kitchen. Jimmy's face was wondrously blank as he played with all the skill of a 3-yr-old. I was playing to crush him, like all big brothers are supposed to do.

         Suddenly I heard a really loud noise, like someone blasting on a trumpet or leaning on their car's horn. Startled, I looked around quickly. No one in the house had a musical instrument. No alarms were going off here or next door. No cars pulling up into our parking lot. What the heck?

         Furthermore, Jimmy seemed not to have heard it. He kept right on playing. The sound lasted maybe ten seconds. I looked into the kitchen where Dad wasn't reacting, either. "Daddy, what was that noise?" What noise? "That big loud horn noise just now." He glanced around in confusion, What horn noise? "You didn't just hear a big loud horn?!" I asked incredulously (even though 'incredulously' was too big a word for me at age five!). No, I didn't hear anything. Go back to your game. What the rootin' tootin' heck?

         I looked around some more, stealing glances to the kitchen to see if Dad was playing a joke on me. I thought of asking Jimmy except it was obvious he didn't hear anything. He was still clueless as to what game move to make; he hadn't even followed my conversation with Dad. Whatever - I shrugged it off. Maybe I had imagined the noise. I returned to playing checkers with my brother.

         Not two minutes later my Dad called to us in his angry-stern voice, Boys get to your bedroom right now! We didn't know what we had done wrong, but we knew better than to start whining without first doing what we were told. We went into the back of the duplex where Mom shepherded us into our parents' bedroom. We asked her what we had done. She had no answer for us, but we could sense that she was nervous about something.

         After a momentary wait, Dad called from the living room that it was okay now. Mom went first to check on things then signaled that we could come out. The first thing we saw was Dad standing in the middle of the living room wielding a big shovel. He had a huge look of triumph on his face. I contemplated a spanking far worse than any I'd had before.

         But then Dad pointed to the floor beyond the loveseat. There was a big black water moccasin lying on our carpet. The snake had crawled in the open front door and slithered behind the couch towards our kiddie game table. It rested almost at the checkers table where Dad had crushed its puny head with a shovel spade.

         Dad the champion, victorious hunter with spear in hand. He beamed with pride at having fulfilled his role as protector of the household. Mom just smiled and led us away - we could see the dead snake once but it was too icky a situation to let us stay and learn anything beyond the lesson to be careful. I think she was proud of him and wanted us to get a glimpse of danger but not become fearful.

         As for me, I remember the horn sound which no one else had heard. I didn't tell Mom until 20 years later. Dad doesn't remember me asking about a noise; he remembers the kill. Coming immediately before the water moccasin incident, I still cannot dismiss this as the most likely genuine supernatural event in my life so far.