Word Count: 715
Title: Mother was a Sleewalker
Author: Judi Fleischman
Genre: Humor
Judi Fleischman
6520 Spruce Rd.
Quinton, Va. 23141
727 743-0471
[email protected]
'
Mother was a Sleepwalker.
Only those who have lived in a home with a sleepwalker know how difficult it is to get a good
night sleep. Hearing footsteps at 4; 00 am can be unsettling, however, it was easy to track my
mother's movements through the house because she was, what you might call, heavy-footed. On
occasions. she would travel to the kitchen and start cooking. The aroma of food would wake
someone in the house, and it was their responsibility to get her back to bed, and that was touchy.
.
While sleepwalking one night, she tried to go out of the upstairs window. It was freezing.
outside, so when she stuck her leg out, she yelled, and my father woke up and ran to
the window and pulled away from the window. When she woke up, she accused my father of
trying to push her out of the window.
The next morning, she called my brother at his workplace and told him George tried to push
her out of the upstairs window, of course, he was suspicious of her story since he grew up in the
same house. He told Mom, he would come there after work and talk to Dad. She told him to try to
get there as soon as possible before George could push her out of another window. When my
brother arrived at the house that afternoon, he was able to work through the problem, He
convinced my mother that dad was helping her not trying to push her out of the window.
I was ten years old when my cousin, Sandra, came to live with us. Her mother had passed
away and she was only eleven years old, We were remarkably close and went everywhere
together. As we got older, she made other friends since she was a year older and in a higher
grade in school. I remember the night she asked Mom if she could have a sleepover with her
friends. The next Friday, Mom gave the girls the downstairs bedroom which was directly under
the upstairs bedroom. Dad was in the process of repairing the wall in the mall upstairs bedroom,
Fleischman/sleepwalker/2
In order to get a head start, he carried eight boards to the upstairs bedroom two days in advance
It was late, so, my parents went to bed. During the night, my mother started
sleepwalking, Then she spotted the boards lying on the side of the room and began throwing
them out of the window one by one. The girls in the bedroom below heard the boards crashing
down and not knowing where the noise was coming from, they called the police. As soon as all
the boards were gone, Mom went back to bed. When the police arrived, they found a pile of
boards scattered on the ground next to the first-floor bedroom. They told the girls to calm down
they would check around the house and neighborhood.
.
After the officers finished checking, they told the girls they did not see any signs of an attempted
break-in and after patrolling the neighborhood, they felt comfortable that it was safe. One of the
officers asked the girls if they knew who scattered the boards around. Of course, no one knew,
then he said someone must remove the boards as soon as possible before a family member or
visitor gets injured.
In the early 1950s, my parents bought a television. It was an exciting time, everyone was.
accustomed to listening to the radio. Now we could have pictures and sounds together and we
watched everything that aired until midnight when a test pattern appeared. In those days, television
programming ended at midnight and a test pattern came on the screen making a horrible sound.
It was not long before I heard footsteps and then a test pattern sound. My dad was asleep, so I
went downstairs and saw my mother with a jar of peanut butter and a banana watching the test-
pattern. I heard the test pattern until 3 am. The next morning my father went to the kitchen to fix his
breakfast. He saw an empty jar of peanut butter and a banana peeling on the kitchen counter. He
never asked how the two items got there, but I am sure he had an idea.
The End
Title: Mother was a Sleewalker
Author: Judi Fleischman
Genre: Humor
Judi Fleischman
6520 Spruce Rd.
Quinton, Va. 23141
727 743-0471
[email protected]
'
Mother was a Sleepwalker.
Only those who have lived in a home with a sleepwalker know how difficult it is to get a good
night sleep. Hearing footsteps at 4; 00 am can be unsettling, however, it was easy to track my
mother's movements through the house because she was, what you might call, heavy-footed. On
occasions. she would travel to the kitchen and start cooking. The aroma of food would wake
someone in the house, and it was their responsibility to get her back to bed, and that was touchy.
.
While sleepwalking one night, she tried to go out of the upstairs window. It was freezing.
outside, so when she stuck her leg out, she yelled, and my father woke up and ran to
the window and pulled away from the window. When she woke up, she accused my father of
trying to push her out of the window.
The next morning, she called my brother at his workplace and told him George tried to push
her out of the upstairs window, of course, he was suspicious of her story since he grew up in the
same house. He told Mom, he would come there after work and talk to Dad. She told him to try to
get there as soon as possible before George could push her out of another window. When my
brother arrived at the house that afternoon, he was able to work through the problem, He
convinced my mother that dad was helping her not trying to push her out of the window.
I was ten years old when my cousin, Sandra, came to live with us. Her mother had passed
away and she was only eleven years old, We were remarkably close and went everywhere
together. As we got older, she made other friends since she was a year older and in a higher
grade in school. I remember the night she asked Mom if she could have a sleepover with her
friends. The next Friday, Mom gave the girls the downstairs bedroom which was directly under
the upstairs bedroom. Dad was in the process of repairing the wall in the mall upstairs bedroom,
Fleischman/sleepwalker/2
In order to get a head start, he carried eight boards to the upstairs bedroom two days in advance
It was late, so, my parents went to bed. During the night, my mother started
sleepwalking, Then she spotted the boards lying on the side of the room and began throwing
them out of the window one by one. The girls in the bedroom below heard the boards crashing
down and not knowing where the noise was coming from, they called the police. As soon as all
the boards were gone, Mom went back to bed. When the police arrived, they found a pile of
boards scattered on the ground next to the first-floor bedroom. They told the girls to calm down
they would check around the house and neighborhood.
.
After the officers finished checking, they told the girls they did not see any signs of an attempted
break-in and after patrolling the neighborhood, they felt comfortable that it was safe. One of the
officers asked the girls if they knew who scattered the boards around. Of course, no one knew,
then he said someone must remove the boards as soon as possible before a family member or
visitor gets injured.
In the early 1950s, my parents bought a television. It was an exciting time, everyone was.
accustomed to listening to the radio. Now we could have pictures and sounds together and we
watched everything that aired until midnight when a test pattern appeared. In those days, television
programming ended at midnight and a test pattern came on the screen making a horrible sound.
It was not long before I heard footsteps and then a test pattern sound. My dad was asleep, so I
went downstairs and saw my mother with a jar of peanut butter and a banana watching the test-
pattern. I heard the test pattern until 3 am. The next morning my father went to the kitchen to fix his
breakfast. He saw an empty jar of peanut butter and a banana peeling on the kitchen counter. He
never asked how the two items got there, but I am sure he had an idea.
The End
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