Is that YOU Mel?

[andrea843]

I had just vanquished yet another hydra, the kind that take over your dreams pointing out your mistakes over and over again  and was dozing the peacful sleep of she who has conquered when I heard it.



The distinct sound of an elephant's trumpet call.  Loud and long and plaintive. Eyes snapped open, taking in the darkened surroundings and I lay there quietly a few minutes.  A dream.  Surely.



Then, it came again more jungle sounds, the chit chit chittering of a spider monkey and I think it was a bird of some type with a baleful call that sounded so out of place in suburban Charleston.



I am wide awake now, sitting bolt upright heart pounding, listening, listening into the dark for another tell tale sound.



Again sounds the elephant.  And now I am out of bed, no slippers no robe moving silently up the still darkened hallway intent on the source of the noise.  



I rouse Sinbad the sleeping dog just to have some company and again it sounds louder now, closer.  My God, are there ELEPHANTS in the neighborhood?



Sinbad, doesn't answer.  We move to the glass doors and out them, Sinbad is puzzled but glad of the chance for an after midnight romp and again it sounds, only this time the sound fills me with unresonable dread.



It's coming from inside the house.  There are elephants INSIDE The house.  I consider briefly that I am still dreaming, but a pinch to my own arm assures me that I am wide awake and the chill of Charleston autumn raises goosebumps.  No I am awake, and hearing elephants.



Back inside, I check the TV's in every room, nope.  All off.

Then it sounds again.  Im hesitant to call the police, I mean elephants?! really! but Im starting to get really creeped out.  Perhaps I have finally snapped and long nights in front of the computer screen working on the web site have sapped my sanity?



I settle on the edge of the couch afraid to get too comfortable, what if it's some axe murderer toying with me before dismembering me and depositing body parts in the dumpster at the Piggly Wiggly?



Damn, I shouldnt have had that burrito for dinner, at least I'd be dreaming of Mel Gibson, oblivious to the slinking horror which makes the call of an elephant.



Again it sounds... "What the HELL is that?" I breathe the words, hearing only the sound of my own voice in the still dark living room, quietly puzzled.



Okay, I begin to think to reason, the sleep filled personna replaced by the problem solver.  Of course there are not elephants in the house.  The sound comes at intervals, regular intervals. VERY Regular...



I glance to the computer set on the dining room table now, since I spend so much time on it, at least the kids get to see my back and know that Im alive and well.



On the screen, a pretty jungle setting and meandering across it... an elephant...



Good Grief, someone's changed the *%&^*(#*%& Screen saver to JUNGLE AND TURNED up the sound.



Im going to kill those kids one day, I really am.



Andrea (now living in an elephant free zone)In Charleston

[gennysmom]

I think I would have run from the house screaming!



One of the managers here once told me a story of staying late one night, and hearing faint, but piercing screams coming from one side of the floor, intermittently.  Since he was pretty freaked, he called security.  They came up, heard it, couldn't figure it out.



The culprit, after much sitting, waiting for the sound and following it whenever it happened:



A screen saver from "The Shining"!



What a sight it must have been!