The woman on my porch

When I was a child I shared a room with my older brother. There were two windows in the room, one overlooking the backyard and one opening onto the front porch. It came in handy for my brother to sneak out and meet friends. If you stepped out the window you were on the porch, so anyone on the porch could access it. I was never bothered by that thought because it had never crossed my mind. My bed touched this window while my brother's bed was perpendicular to mine.

Before we had phones or laptops to keep us occupied, on nights when we weren't sleepy we would stay up talking and making up dumb games to pass time.

One night we were playing a game where one of us was a goalkeeper and the other was taking a shot. We would both say at the same time either left, center, or right. If the goalkeeper guessed the same as the shooter, he got a point; otherwise the shooter got a point. We played several rounds.

I don't remember what round we were on, but we did our countdown. My brother, the goalkeeper, said “left.” I, the shooter, said “center.” The voice from outside the porch window said “left.”

My brother and I froze. The shade was down, but a porch light left the room faintly illuminated around its borders. We waited for what seemed like an hour, though it was probably only half a minute, and heard a giggle and a playful knock at the window.

“Let’s go another round, come on boys,” the voice said in a cheerful, playful tone. It sounded like a normal woman's voice, nothing unusual besides where it was coming from and the hour.

My brother and I were seriously freaked out. I was terrified because of how close I was to this woman. All I had to do was lift the shade and I would be face to face with her. My brother slowly moved from his bed to the door without making noise. As he was tiptoeing away, the sound of fingernails running down the window began. It was very slow, from top to bottom. He reached the door, looked back at me, and gestured for me to keep quiet. Once the nails stopped, I heard light footsteps move away from the porch and disappear.

I stayed still until my brother returned. A parent noticed someone turning out of the driveway on foot behind some bushes, then checked the house. We explained what happened. No one was hurt, but everyone stayed awake to make sure the woman did not return.

The shade on that window has never been opened since the incident, and I still avoid sleeping beside it.