The cops kicked my door down last night, and how was your night?

I was sleeping soundly in my bed, all safe n’ warm, when my sister and her boyfriend burst into my room yelling, “Someone’s breaking into our house, call 911!” I sprang out of bed, grabbed my cell phone and dialed 911 as my hands were shaking. I could hear a loud banging noise coming from the upstairs. Someone was trying to get in. I told the 911 dispatched, “They’re pounding on the windows, and they’re coming in now!” A loud crash was heard from the basement. My sister and I were both screaming when they said, “Police! Police!” Still unconvinced, my sis asked for the officer’s badge, then my sis’s boyfriend opened my bedroom door and let them in. The cops said, “Where is *______* (insert name of my youngest sister)? I said, “She’s at her boyfriends, what’s going on?” To which they replied, “Your sister was on her cell phone with someone when she said “Oh my God, I’m going to die” and then her phone hung up. Her friend then called the police. We traced her cell phone to this address, how can we find her?”

The next ½ hour was spent frantically searching for her boyfriend’s address in a neighboring town. Her boyfriend, now in jail, has a history of violent and abusive behavior. Also, his friends are somewhat questionable. This, of course, increased our anxiety levels. I called my mom, who immediately left her house. As she was backing out of her driveway, two cop cars pulled up behind her questioning her about my sister’s whereabouts.

Eventually, my other sister tracked down the boyfriend’s address and officers were sent to the house immediately. It turns out that my sister was having a bad dream when she answered her friend’s call and said “Oh my God, I’m going to die.” She honestly does not remember saying any such thing to her friend, or even talking to her. My sis has been known to talk in her sleep and sleep walk, especially when she was younger, but hasn’t any incidents since then. Anyway, needless to say, it took a long time before we all calmed down and were able to sleep.

The lesson here is to make damn sure you have all the contact info of your loved ones plus numbers of close friends to call in case of an emergency. Since we all hate my sister’s boyfriend with the fire of a thousand suns we made no effort to find out where he lived or even his last name.

Also, as I tossed n’ turned trying to sleep after having my front door kicked down by the police, I thought about all the families in Iraq and elsewhere who live with the day-to-day fear that their loved ones could be abducted from their homes and killed during the middle of the night. The horror and helplessness that I felt, even in just believing for a couple of minutes that someone was trying to break into my house, was downright terrifying. I can’t imagine going to bed every night with that fear. Sally’s gonna get herself a gun, or at least a freakin’ can of mace.