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viewsSound the Alarm
By MetaxaCunningham, Saturday, August 7, 2010, 2 commentsIt is late; the house is quiet. All of the windows on the second floor are open to allow the night’s breeze to flow throughout the bedrooms, making it pleasant enough to sleep. I am in a deep sleep, which is good because this has been something that has been eluding me lately. I seem to always be worrying about something; many nights my own thoughts shake me awake. It will be nice to feel rested, but that will have to wait for some other night. I am jolted awake by the most frightening thing you can experience when you are in the vulnerable throes of sleep: the sound of the fire alarm.
I am sitting upright and confused, half-tangled in the bed sheets when I say, “What the hell is that? What is going on?” I repeat myself a couple of times before I realize that what I am hearing is the shrill sound of the smoke-detector, and that there is a possibility that the house is on fire.
Yet, I don’t move. I am a combination of groggy and stunned as I observe my husband pacing around the room before going into the hall. He stops in front of the ironing board, just below the shrieking alarm and starts rifling through the pockets of his work clothes. Does he think his pants are on fire? This strikes me as odd so I shout, “What are you doing? What are you looking for?”
“Shut up! Shut up! I need to turn off this alarm,” he yells as he continues to madly ransack his pants pockets over and over again.
“Okay, but what are you doing with your pants? You’ll have to go downstairs to shut it off.” Just then he gives me the strangest look, grabs his bathrobe from the bedpost and tears down the stairs.
By this time I am out of bed. There doesn’t seem to be any smoke, but I catch the faint scent of the fire-pit from the yard a few doors down. I go and shut the windows facing the backyard, relatively sure that smoke from the fire-pit must have rode the breeze through the windows and agitated the smoke-detector. Most days when I am cooking or even showering without turning the bathroom fan on, I am reminded of our smoke-detector’s sensitivity.
I wonder if my husband found the breaker to shut off the alarm. He’s taking a while, so I grab a chair and climb up to check the smoke-detector. I unhook it only to discover a jumble of wires, no battery to remove, no off button to push. Is there no way to turn this damn thing off?
Suddenly the alarm is appeased; I hear my stepson say, “Dad, don’t look at me like that. Does it look like I was cooking? I came up when I heard the alarm. I went outside to check to see if any other houses were on fire, but it looks fine. Go back to bed.”
As my husband ascends the stairs, I crawl back into bed with a sigh. I ask him, “Did you reset the breaker?”
“What breaker?”
“The one you went downstairs shut off. The one that disables the smoke detectors.”
“I didn’t go down for that. I must have been having some crazy dream when the alarm went off, because I honestly thought I had set an alarm in my pants and it went off early. Then when I couldn’t find it, I went downstairs to find it. Thought I might’ve left it on the kitchen table; don’t ask me why.”
“That is pretty funny,” I said, “I was wondering what you were doing with your pants.”
“No,” he says, “What is really funny is that you sent me downstairs to check to see that everything was okay, and because I don’t have a sense of smell, I probably wouldn’t have noticed the smoke on time anyway.” Neither one of us laugh, as it is more unnerving than it is funny.
That night, my husband returned to sleep almost immediately; whereas, I couldn’t sleep for kicking myself. Why didn’t I go and check on it? Other thoughts of how vulnerable we are as we sleep ran circles in my mind until almost morning. It was three days ago that I heard the sound of the alarm and I haven’t had a peaceful sleep since.
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2 Comments
Wow! Great post and great
Wow! Great post and great topic! It's interesting that your husband was still half-asleep and half-dreaming when the alarm went off--and, of course, a little scary as you had mentioned.
This same type of situation happened to me once too. I was on an overnight shift, taking care of 3 women (two who were slow and needed help getting into wheel chairs, and one who was legally blind). The fire alarm went off, and I was nervous and scared. How would I get all 3 women out in time if there was a fire? And, what in the world was going on? I am also a very heavy sleeper. I didn't even look for the "fire." Half groggy myself, I just scrambled and got the women out of the house first. Then, I went back into the house to search---NOTHING at all! None of the windows were open either. It seemed to just have gone off by itself. I also didn't sleep well for the rest of the week, feeling vigilant and on guard.
But, that feeling has since then passed. I hope that it passes soon for you too. Everyone deserves a good nights sleep:-)
We have a super sensitive
We have a super sensitive alarm too. It goes off whenever we cook, usually late at night cause I also don't sleep well. My husband does similar things. At least you have the peace of knowing stepson was on top of things? Xoxo hope you get some sleep!
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