Mystery

I went to bed at my usual time of about 8:30pm on Tuesday night. I've actually been sleeping better since Cordelia doesn't bark all night long. Anyway, at about 1am I awoke to the call of nature. Then I realized that I had left the Christmas tree lights on and made a trip to the living room to turn them off. I ambled back to bed and had just put my head down on the pillow when I heard what sounded like a gun shot in my backyard. KAPOW! I mean it scared the shit out of me! I immediately picked up the phone and called my neighbor. I know, a citified person would have called 911.

Ring-ring. Conversation as follows:

"Did you hear that, too?" asked Mimi.

"Crap, it sounded like a gun shot in one of our backyards!" I exclaimed.

"The dogs aren't barking, though." Mimi said. "Are you by yourself?"

"Yes but I'll look out the back window and see if I see anything out of the ordinary."

"Okay, let me ask Gopa if he heard anything." said Mimi. "He's in here watching tv. He just said didn't hear anything." Gopa looks outside and didn't see anything out of the ordinary. He suggested that we heard a pecan tree limb breaking and/or hitting the roof of one of his many sheds in his backyard.

I flipped on the outside light and peeked out my back window but all was quiet. The deer were still bedded down as usual and I didn't see anybody or any vehicles moving around.

Now I think I've heard enough gun shots in my life to recognize the sound. However, this is one mystery that has me stupified. I checked for broken limbs at daylight but there weren't any in either yard. Sam suggested that somebody was road hunting since we have an abundance of whitetail deer in the neighborhood. I didn't stumble on any kind of blood trail that would indicate that a deer had been shot but why argue with a man.

I would almost admit that I imagined the whole thing but that would mean that Mimi had been sucked into the bizarre vortex with me. At least I'd have someone to share a room with and I'd even let her borrow my crayons.