Member-only story
One Woman Came Back to Haunt Me
A knock at a door 20 years ago tried to warn me.
You don’t need to go to the ends of the earth, you don’t need to climb Everest to have a great adventure, it’s invariably on our doorstep. — Bear Grylls
After a night out partying with a friend, we stumbled, laughing into her house and were headed to raid the fridge when there was a knock at the door. It was after midnight. We looked at each other with expressions that asked, “What the hell?”
It was a safe neighborhood. Young, drunk and careless we opened the door to find someone’s grandmother standing on the small stoop. Gray-haired and in her late 60s, she wore light blue pants and a white, short-sleeved shirt designed for spring. It was so cold you could see your breath outside. She was shivering in the porch light.
Perceiving no threat and wildly curious, we welcomed her inside. She rushed into the living room like a child playing musical chairs, making a beeline for the least comfortable wooden chair by the lit Christmas tree.
My friend and I looked at each other with, “What the hell is going on?” expressions. Granny knocking on the door in the middle of the night wasn’t on our bingo card.
The woman sat in her chair next to the lit Christmas tree as if it were a source of warmth…
