Who’s at the Door?

By Abe Margel

There was someone outside her door. First she’d heard the footsteps, now someone was knocking. She was scared. Only a month earlier there’d been a home invasion just down the street from her so she wasn’t going to take chances. The knocking persisted. She pressed her age spotted hands against her ears. Now they were ringing her doorbell. The noise penetrated the palms of her hands. Louder and louder; door pounding, bell ringing, door pounding, bell ringing. She crept over to the peephole and peered out. A teenage boy, tall and very thin was standing on her stoop. A stranger. Don’t be fooled. Threats come in different shapes and sizes. 

Her hands still pressed against her ears, she retreated from the entrance hallway to her living room. The racket coming from the house’s front door carried on, more intense, more frantic. Then a doubt crept in. Maybe the boy is genuine. He’ll think I’m an old kook, senile, gaga for not answering the door. What’s the difference between what he thinks? No, you have to be careful. Stay back. It could be a violent hoodlum.

She shuffled over to her kitchen, rummaged around a drawer searching for her address book. I’ll call Steve. He’ll know what to do. But if I bother him at work again he’ll explode. No, I can’t call him. Anyway, where is that cell phone?

She opened another drawer, took out her car keys. Her eyes found the door that led out to the garage but she couldn’t move. She sat down heavily on a kitchen chair. The door ringing slowed down. The pounding slowed down. Then they both ceased. 

The house became hot, very hot. What’s wrong with the air conditioning? It never works well when I need it most. She was tired, so tired. Through the haze in her mind she heard sirens. She closed her eyes as the smoke and flames enveloped her. 

Abe Margel worked in rehabilitation and mental health for thirty years. He is the father of two adult children and lives in Thornhill, Ontario with his wife. His fiction has appeared in Mystery Tribune, BarBar, 7^th – Circle Pyrite, Yellow Mama, Ariel Chart, Uppagus, Academy of the Heart and Mind, etc.