Who Is It?

Based on true events

I’ll remember this night forever. I don’t remember exactly how old I was, perhaps 11 or 12. Maybe younger. But my age isn’t important, what is important is that I was not the only one who experienced what happened, so I know it really happened.

During the haying season, my dad would work diligently on getting our hay up before the seasons changed. He would also get asked sometimes to go and help our neighbors with their hay as well. This means he would work all day in our fields, come home for dinner then go back out that evening and work late into the night in the neighbors’ fields. Sometimes he wouldn’t get home until 1:00 in the morning-maybe evening later than that.

Now when I say ‘neighbors’ I mean distant-as most of them were 3 or more miles away. You can’t just peak your head out the window and ask for a cup of sugar, if you catch my meaning.

My parents live about 3 miles outside of our small town, in the upper half of a field with 360 views of all the surrounding mountain ranges. One of the county roads is out their front door, just up the driveway. So, when a vehicle goes by, you see and hear it. There is nothing to obstruct the view. It’s truly a beautiful setting. I have countless photos of the mountains.

One night in July, my dad told my mom that it was probably going to be a late night and to lock the doors.

Since it wasn’t a school night I got to stay up with mom while my brother and sister were in bed. I remember laying on the floor watching Golden Girls while mom was on the couch, trying to wait up for my dad. Thinking maybe he’d be home before we turned in for the night. That was not the case. Mom and I must have both fallen asleep out in the living room, when she woke me up and said, ‘let’s go to bed.’

I remember getting into my bed with my window and blinds open, letting in the moonlight. It was a full moon that night, so it was bright, and you could see for miles it seemed. You could see the mountains, the trees, the county road, down into the fields, and so on. There was no wind, and the dogs were in the laundry room sleeping soundly.

I had just fallen asleep when I heard, KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK at our door. I thought maybe it was dad but then why would he knock instead of just getting the hide-a-key?

I walked over to my bedroom door and opened it to find my mom creeping around the corner, yelling in a whispering tone at my younger brother, who had ran to the door to almost open it before mom stopped him, to get back in bed.

The way the house is set up, all the bedrooms are towards the back of the house and if you were to peak out my and my brothers’ bedrooms, you would see the living room, the kitchen and through to the back door, where the knocking was coming from. The kitchen and living room have three large picture windows facing North and East. So, you can see most of the house. My parents’ bedroom was set a little further back and around the corner so they can’t see what my brother and I see.

My mom creeps around the corner as I stand in my doorway watching her make her way through the hall, the kitchen, then to the back door. My brother is back in his room who’s also watching my mom from his doorway. My baby sister is fast asleep just to my right in our room. My mom calls out, “who is it?” when she opens the door. There is no one there. Not a soul.

Now as I previously stated, it’s a clear night out, the dogs are in the laundry room, and there is no wind. Even if there had been wind, there is nothing that would have made that kind of knocking at our door. And for all if us to have heard it…something was off.

Once my mom saw that no one was there, she closed and locked the door. She made her way back and told me it wasn’t my dad and to get back to bed.

I shut my door and went to my window and looked out, thinking maybe there was going to be someone parked on the road, there were no cars or trucks. There was nothing. I happened to glance at my alarm clock and read the time ‘2:20am’. I crawled back in bed, puzzled and eventually fell back to sleep.

The next morning at breakfast, my parents were at the table, they must have just started talking about the incident, because my mom was trying to convince my dad what she heard and how it couldn’t have been the dogs. I backed my mom by knocking on the table trying to recreate the knocking from last night, telling my dad it sounded just like that. Well, dad insisted it was the dogs and refused to believe us.

The day went on and eventually turned into night. My dad wasn’t going out in the fields that night, so he got to stay home with the family.

‘KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK’ again at the door that night! This time there was no denying that it was the door and again it woke me up. Once more, ‘KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK’.

My door was cracked open and I could see my dad come out of their room and slide passed my door, armed. I poked my head out of my doorway to see mom also poking her head around the hallway corner down at dad. He went through the kitchen only he didn’t go straight to the door like mom the previous night, he went to the window and looked out. He opened the door, and just like the night before, there was nothing, no one.

With the moon still bright and full, dad was brave enough to go outside and walk the deck to check out the surroundings. Again, no wind, no vehicles on the road, and the dogs silent. Eventually he came back inside the house and back to bed.

The next morning, we discussed what happened and what we heard-dad was no longer skeptical. After debunking the possibilities of wind and such, we agreed it was strange and creepy.

The knocking never came after that second night. Nor since. We don’t know what it was. We just knew that it was coming from the door, and it wasn’t a ding-dong ditch situation.

Since then, whenever the scene resembles that July night at my parent’s house, I can’t help but get a little spooked and paranoid; with the full moons placing an unsettling and ere feeling on the back of my neck.