{"id":1096,"date":"2024-10-06T03:59:53","date_gmt":"2024-10-06T03:59:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/self-editing.com\/?p=1096"},"modified":"2024-10-06T03:59:53","modified_gmt":"2024-10-06T03:59:53","slug":"intruder-in-the-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/self-editing.com\/?p=1096","title":{"rendered":"Intruder In The House"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Barb woke from a blissful dream of walking down the aisle to marry George Clooney, when she heard a loud noise.<br><em>Thud<\/em><br>There it was again. She was wide awake now. She looked at the clock on the bedside table. 3:15am glared back at her.<br>Maybe it was the cat. No, the cat wasn&#8217;t here. She sighed and turned on the bedside lamp and reached for her robe. As she tied her robe and padded to the bedroom door, she thought she heard voices nearing.<br><em>There&#8217;s someone in the house<\/em>, she thought. She waited, looking around to see what she could use to defend herself. She saw her phone, then remembered she hadn&#8217;t recharged it, and the signal here wasn&#8217;t that great anyway. Doors slam loudly from downstairs. The stairs <em>creek<\/em>, like footsteps coming towards her. She spies an umbrella from behind the door, and grabs that to use as a weapon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Get out!&#8221; She yelled. &#8220;The Police are on their way!&#8221;<br>&#8220;Are you Barb?&#8221; A tall man, dressed in black, complete with balaclava, asked.<br>&#8220;Yes, but &#8211; &#8220;<br>&#8220;No buts!&#8221; He pushed her into a nearby chair. Aiming his gun at her, he said, &#8220;Open the safe!&#8221;<br>&#8220;I don&#8217;t -&#8220;<br>&#8220;What&#8217;s the hold up, Shorty?&#8221; A gruff voice nears, also dressed in black, with a balaclava, carrying a gun.<br>&#8220;She won&#8217;t open the safe.&#8221; Shorty replied.<br>&#8220;Now, I don&#8217;t like to hit a woman,&#8221; The other man warned, as he neared. &#8220;But, I will if I have to. Now, open the safe, and you&#8217;ll be okay.&#8221;<br>&#8220;As I tried to explain to your &#8211; friend here &#8211; I&#8217;m not -&#8220;<br>&#8220;Lady, I don&#8217;t care!&#8221; The other man sighed.<br>&#8220;Monty said it&#8217;s behind the picture of the flower.&#8221; Shorty said, looking around the room. &#8220;There.&#8221; He waved his gun.<br>&#8220;Over the bed. That&#8217;s it!&#8221; He rushed over and threw the painting on the floor, jumped on the bed, and tried to open the<br>safe. &#8220;Hey! Will you look at that!&#8221;<br>&#8220;What? Stop mucking about, and help me tie her up, will you?&#8221;<br>Shorty sighed, jumped off the bed and looked around to find something. He picked up a scarf from the dresser. &#8220;This should do!&#8221;<br>In a moment, the other man had tied Barb&#8217;s hands together. &#8220;Get me another couple!&#8221; He yelled at Shorty.<br>Another moment passed, and her ankles were tied together. &#8220;Sorry lady.&#8221; He said, before tying the last scarf across her mouth, ignoring her cries of protest.<br>Shorty jumped onto the bed again, and opened the safe. &#8220;Ta Da! It wasn&#8217;t even locked! Naughty! Naughty!&#8221; He took a bag from his pocket and filled it with the jewels inside, then slammed the safe shut when he was done.<br>&#8220;Let&#8217;s get out of here!&#8221; The other man said to Shorty, who ran off downstairs. He looked at Barb. &#8220;You say nothing, and you will live!&#8221; Then he too was gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ten minutes later, as Shorty drove them further away, the other man made a call. &#8220;Hey, Boss, job done at 27 Swenson.&#8221;<br>&#8220;It was 37 Swenson, you fool!&#8221; His Boss roared so loudly down the phone, that Shorty laughed.<br>&#8220;What? We got the wrong house?&#8221; The other guy yelled at his Boss. &#8220;But she said her name was BarB!&#8221;<br>&#8220;Fix it!&#8221; His Boss yelled, then rang off.<br>Shorty was still laughing, he almost hit a stray dog crossing the road. &#8220;Sorry, Doggy!&#8221; He called. &#8220;What are we gonna&#8217;<br>do now?&#8221; He asked.<br>&#8220;Shut up and let me think!&#8221; The other guy said. &#8220;Okay, so, we&#8217;ve been at your Gran&#8217;s house in Stokedale all night. All<br>weekend in fact.&#8221;<br>&#8220;But, my Gran lives in Fernlea.&#8221; Shorty corrected him.<br>&#8220;Doesn&#8217;t matter! That&#8217;s where we&#8217;ve been. And that&#8217;s what we tell anyone who asks.&#8221; He ordered. &#8220;Right?&#8221;<br>&#8220;Okay.&#8221; Shorty agreed, and kept driving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">News reports the next day said there had been an aggravated burglary at 27 Swenson Street. The owners were not home,<br>but a house sitter, who shared a name with one of the owners was. She was not seriously hurt, and was assisting Police<br>with their inquiries. The two men were still on the run, at the time of the news report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Barb woke from a blissful dream of walking down the aisle to marry George Clooney, when she heard a loud noise.ThudThere it was again. She was wide awake now. She looked at the clock on the bedside table. 3:15am glared &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/self-editing.com\/?p=1096\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":184,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/self-editing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/self-editing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/self-editing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/self-editing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/184"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/self-editing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1096"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/self-editing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1097,"href":"https:\/\/self-editing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1096\/revisions\/1097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/self-editing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/self-editing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/self-editing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}