Spooky Night Visitors

Hello! I hope you are enjoying this beautiful season. I can’t stop looking across the street at a most stunning maple, showing off its lovely burnt redness in the morning sun. Our shagbark hickories have suddenly morphed into such a rich golden color that I can’t help but get outside as often as possible and take in the beauty.

But today I am writing about something completely different than the lovely changing leaves or my usual writing topics.

I hope you enjoy the retelling of our midnight visitors.

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Our family moved into our big old house thirty years ago.

In those years, we have received spooky night visitors looking for hospitality.

These scary outsiders did not receive an invitation nor did they knock on the door, asking for entrance.

No.

Usually, they squeezed their way in when it was dark and we were asleep in our beds.

Our first encounter came less than a month after we moved in. I happened to be out of town, but sometime in the night, our new exchange student, Sylvia, came into our bedroom with the announcement,

There’s a bat in my room!

Of course, Brian and all the kids woke up and started wildly running around trying to find that little black creature.

After looking into all the nooks and crannies, with no success, everyone headed back to their beds. In the morning they all resumed their normal activities, wondering what happened to the wee rascal but not seeing it anywhere.

Until that evening.

I came home. The family was not there and I knew nothing about the bat. But suddenly, he was flying from the dining room through the breakfast nook and straight at me and my friend, CJ, standing in the kitchen. Of course, we screamed and ran out the back door. But I wondered if the fresh night air might entice him outside. So I stepped up and held the door open. Thankfully, that little devil flew right out the door into the night where he belonged. I was so relieved.

If only all the future bats we encountered would be so polite.

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More often this is what would happen:

I’d be sleeping, amid some sweet dream, only to awaken with Brian shaking my arm with the news.

Deane, there’s a bat in our room!

I’d open my eyes and sure enough, that tiny fellow was circling our room…flying around and around above our heads.

I’m rather terrified of bats and my husband is not fond of them either, so we’d jump out of bed and while I hid in the closet, he worked to get the window open and screen off. While the pocket-sized imp circled the room, we’d quickly exit, closing the door behind us, and stuffing a towel under the door so he couldn’t escape.

The logic was that the fresh air movement would entice the bat to soar out into the night (like that first one did) where there were plenty of bugs to eat and comfortable places like tree branches on which to roost.

We are against killing the bats, so we took the “do him no harm” approach.

That system worked pretty well.

Until it didn’t.

One infamous night, when the midnight ruffian appeared, we performed our normal routine. He found our room and started circling frantically. Immediately, my light-sleeper husband woke me with the breaking news. We hopped out of bed and, of course, I dove into the closet while Brian hastily opened the window. We quickly made our escape, closed the door, and stuffed the towel.

Breathing a sigh of relief, we fell asleep in a spare bedroom, fully expecting the bat to be gone when we woke the next morning.

I mean, why would he want to spend the night in an enclosed room when he could be flying and eating freely through the whole dark night?

After a rather fitful night of sleep, we carefully opened the door of our bat’s “confinement center,” and determined that, sure enough, the bat was gone!

After replacing the window we felt relieved and confident all was well.

Until it wasn’t.

It was Saturday morning and Brian had an errand to run. I stayed home, planning to bathe and settle in for a quiet morning.

After he left, I ran my bathwater and stepped in. No need to hurry; it was a relaxing Saturday morning. After finishing, I stood and pulled the towel from the rack right next to me. I heard a squeak, and to my horror, I found that our night visitor had not flown out the window like we expected. Instead, he had spent the night hanging upside down on the back of my towel which was only inches from my head.

I’m sure I surprised him because he squeaked (rather loudly) and took off.

Of course, I screamed and threw the towel into the water while stumbling out of the tub!

I grabbed my robe and tore downstairs, hoping Brian had not yet left.

But, of course, he had.

Then I realized I had forgotten my glasses in the bathroom! I can not think without my glasses but what should I do? That furry little black creature was still in the bathroom! My need for those glasses was too great.

Heading up the back stairs, I began to wonder. Did I drown him when I threw the towel? Was he up and flying around? If he was hiding, how could I find him? And IF I found him what would I do with him???

But I needed my glasses!

So I crept upstairs and poked my head into our little bathroom.

No bat.

I looked in the bathtub. There was the yellow towel I threw in my frenzy.

No bat.

I looked all around the room.

No bat.

Oh boy. Where was that bat?

Dressing quickly I grabbed my phone and called our kids. They were sympathetic and rather humored at my frantic story. One even reminded me,

Remember, Mom, that bat is more afraid of you than you are of him!

Oh, thank you, son.

I sat out on my little balcony until Brian came home.

Of course, when he returned, he found the little guy immediately. He spotted him scrunched up in the corner on top of the bathroom door frame, shivering and asleep.

Being the scaredy cats we were, we called a creature remover guy who came over, and with ZERO fear, placed the open side of a coffee can right in front of our little visitor and gently nudged him in, covering the can with a plastic lid.

Of course, this simple act came with a price.

Whew. Our house finally felt bat-free.

Until it wasn’t…

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Since then we have had many sightings too numerous to record here, each with a story.

Don’t get me started or I’ll have to tell you about the surprise Valentine’s Day bat who decided to come to dinner and flew right through our breakfast nook making one of us drop to the floor! A bat in the winter? That same curious fellow, hovered at the door’s window while we finished our supper! Ahhhh.

Or the little bugger who scuttled in under the kid’s bathroom door while I was in that bathroom! I screamed, of course, and it scuttled right out again and we never saw it again. Ewww! Where did it go?

Or the squeaky one that flew from behind our window air conditioner into the living room, full of a group of our friends!

Or the mischief-maker who flew through our TV room right over Jonathan’s head one night when he was home alone. Shocked and half asleep, Jonathan escaped through a window only to find himself locked out of the house!!

How about the hooligan who settled himself in an open box of photos on the attic stairs so when Hannah took the box to her room, we heard a loud scream!

Oh my, I must stop.

After twenty-five years of dealing with these unexpected visitations, we finally decided to hire Catch’em Critters to come and plug the holes where they were secretly entering our house.

Since then, there have been no. more. bats.

There are times in the night when I hear a strange noise in the hallway or the ceiling fan creaks, I am triggered, ready to jump out of bed and head to the closet. But most of the time now, I wait a minute and then fall asleep, pretty sure that my worst fears are not reality. It’s just a spooky memory playing games with my mind in the dark night.

Until it isn’t…

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Do you have a bat story?

Let me know. As you can tell, I’m quite entertained by such tales.

Thanks for reading to the bottom of this very long tale!

I hope your last week in October is fully and enjoyably spooky-free.