While You Were Sleeping

Foreward

As I've been recounting the dating saga that eventually led to my marriage, I'll admit there have been fuzzy details that I've had to fudge because I simply can't remember exactly what happened. This installment is the exception. Everything in this chapter is completely true. There are some events in life that are so traumatic you can never forget them. This is one of those events.

As the end of the semester approached, I saw less and less of my roommates, partly because I was spending so much time with Jeff, but also partly because they were spending so much time with their significant others. Although Jeff and I stayed out late most nights, by no means was I always the last one home. It was not uncommon for me to be home, in bed, and sleeping before one of the other girls would get back from her night out. I never stayed awake worrying about our safety; we lived in "happy valley"-- what could possibly happen?

One night as I was peacefully slumbering in bed, unconcerned and untroubled, I heard the sound of someone fiddling with something on my desk. In my drowsy subconscious, I assumed it was my roommate borrowing my laptop. I half opened my eyes and saw a dark figure standing just inches from where I lay. My first reaction was irritation that the noise was keeping me up. Why couldn't she be quieter? Any why was she using my computer anyway? She had her own sitting on her desk just a few feet away. I was too tired to address the issue, so I ignored the noise and tried to go back to sleep. After a few minutes, the noise stopped and the figure left the room.

I turned over in my bed, annoyed at the disturbance in my sleep. I was going to have to get up soon enough; I didn't want to lose any precious moments of sleep. I had just about dozed off when my roommate sat straight up in bed and called across the room, "Carly! What was that?" Her voice startled me and within seconds I was awake and alert.

"I don't know! I thought it was you!" It only took moments for my brain to put two and two together. If my roommate had been in bed this whole time, then it wasn't she that was messing around with my desk, which meant it was someone else and.... hey! Where is my computer? I swung my legs over the edge of the bed and stared at the blank spot on my desk that used to house my laptop. "Where's my laptop?" My voice shook in the panic that was quickly setting in.

"Mine's missing too! Someone stole it!" My roommate was practically shouting now and I could tell she was nervous, too. She jumped out of bed and without thinking twice about what she was doing, ran across the apartment and out our unlocked front door. I followed after her, and we quickly scanned the parking lot for the escape vehicle. The complex and parking lot were silent; there was no sign of our thief. As soon as I realized the culprit and our computers were gone, I also realized how dumb we were. What if the person had been there? What did we plan on doing? Beating him up in our pajamas? I think my roommate has this epiphany at the same time, because we made eye contact and without a word bolted back into our apartment where we slammed and locked the door.

Breathing hard, we stood there in the front room, staring wildly at each other in shocked silence. After a few moments, we each found our voices and began babbling at high speeds in incoherent sentences.

"Oh my gosh! I can't believe that just happened!"
"We have to call the police!"
"I can't believe he was standing RIGHT THERE!"
"Do you think the police will be able to get our laptops back?"
"How did he get in? Was the door unlocked?"
"We could have been hurt!"
"Who was it? Was it someone we know?"
"How did he know to come straight to our room?"
"And why didn't he take the stereo, or the guitar, or all the other things here in the front room?"
"All I remember is he was really tall."
"Maybe it wasn't a burglar. Maybe it was someone playing a practical joke on us."
"Carly, Jeff is pretty tall. You don't think he would...?"

We each paused for a moment to consider it. It was a long shot, for sure, and I highly doubted it was true, but it was easier to believe that Jeff would play a trick on us than to believe a stranger had walked into our apartment, came into our bedroom, and stolen our computers while we were sleeping. Besides, it gave me an excuse to call Jeff and I desperately needed some masculine security right now. I quickly dialed his number, ignoring that fact that it was 4 am and if he hadn't played this very unprobable trick on us, he would be fast asleep.

The phone rang 7 or 8 times before he picked up. As soon as I heard the groggy roughness in his voice, I knew our practical joke theory was out the window.

"Carly?"
"Hi." Wow, I felt so stupid. What do I say? Sorry to wake you up, but I thought you might have been robbing our apartment a few minutes ago and I just wanted to call and check.
"Is something wrong?"
"Uh, well, yes... sorta... um... you weren't over here about 20 minutes ago, were you?"
"[pause] No. Why?"
"Because, well.... um.... someone was in our apartment and stole our computers," I blurted.
"What?"
"It's fine, though, sorry to wake you up. Go back to sleep."
"What do you mean someone stole your computers? From your room?"
"Yeah, while we were sleeping. Well, sort of sleeping. I half woke up and saw someone but by the time I woke all the way up he was gone."
"Wait a second. You thought maybe it was ME?"
"Well, no, not really. I just hoped it was, because it's too scary to think what it really was. I'm really sorry I woke you up. I'll see you later."
"I'm coming over."
"Really, Jeff. We're ok. We're going to call the police and--"
"I'll be there in 5 minutes."
[click]

While I had been talking to Jeff, my roommate had called the police. Within a few minutes, Jeff walked in the door, and shortly after the police arrived. Jeff sat on the couch with a comforting arm around my shoulders as the police explained there was very little they could do to track down our stolen items and we should not expect to get them back. The policeman told us that this was not an uncommon happening in college towns as there are lots of apartments which make easy targets and lots of students with expensive electronic equipment. The thief simply walks around a complex at night, testing doors until he finds one unlocked.

I began to run through the list of unrecoverable things on my laptop: my programming final project, all my photos from the past year, the CD that was in the CD drive. But it wasn't until I thought about what could have happened that I broke down in tears. The thought of a stranger in my bedroom while I slept, totally vulnerable and unprotected, was enough to give me nightmares for weeks. What if I had really woken up, not just half-opened my eyes. What would I have done? What would he have done? Was he armed?

Jeff stifled back yawns as he tried to assure me that everything would be ok. Although he appreciated the trauma of the situation, I could tell he thought I was being a tad bit more emotional than was necessary. But he stayed by me until the policeman left. I learned that day that Jeff was something special. Sure we had fun together and got along great and seemed to enjoy similar things, but he was also patient and kind and trustworthy. He was willing to help me through my troubles, even when he didn't understand what they were. He was sensitive of my needs, and put his own priorities behind mine.

From that day forward I was certain of two things:

1. Jeff would be there for me no matter what.
2. I would never again go to bed without checking the lock at least 6 times.