It's 1:45AM...

...and there's a 15-year-old girl in my bedroom. Don't worry, I'm not in the room with her, I'm next door in our office. But I can hear this faint coughing every once and a while and it's kind of eerie. Let me explain.

My Uncle's into violins. Every once and a while, he leaves the town of Remer, Minnesota (population 225) and stays with us here in the cities; usually so he can attend some violin extravaganza or Blue Grass yadda yadda yadda you get the point. Sometimes he sells the violins he builds, too. OK. So, apparently there was this girl who wanted to come with my uncle (from his church) to help him sell his violins and listen to the Blue Grass music. The catch was, she needed somewhere to sleep. My house, although adequately sized, sleeps the amount of people it was designed for: four or five... so now we have my family, my uncle, a cousin, and this girl - all needing a place to sleep. Obviously you can't put all three in the same room, so the girl was given my room.

I was driving home at around 12:30AM when I remembered her. My mind stopped short and I was suddenly annoyed... there was a stranger, not only inhabiting my room, but WRAPPED in my blankets! MY blankets! To make matters worse, I had just received a brand new blanket for my bed. It was dark blue and made of Velux material. For those of you who don't know what that material is, it's the type of blankets they use in hotels... kind of short and furry-ish.... weird, I don't like that description. Nevermind.

12:54PM:
I walk into my house and down the upstairs hall. My door is open. I don't want to peer in in case she's in there peering out, so I quietly start my end-of-the-day grooming... then I find a note.

Jeremy,
You are sleeping in the office tonight. There are some clothes in there already. Goodnight!
Love, Mom

1:04AM:
I walk into our tiny office. Three cushions are laid on the floor with a sleeping bag on top. Some miscellaneous clothes are folded and lay on my pillow. I sigh and put on my pajamas. Climbing into the sleeping bag I find that not only do I have to balance on the cushions so I don't roll off either side, but I'm too LONG for the sleeping bag... I don't fit! Great.

3:30AM
It's pitch black but my bladder is beckoning me to the bathroom. I struggle while trying to pull myself out of the sleeping bag and then accidentally roll off. Dang it! I finally get up and feel my way to the office door. Just as my hand finds the doornob, the knob slowly begins to twist in my hand. I pull my hand away and try to think clearly. Someone is coming into the office. I step to the side as the door opens. Finding myself wedged between the door and the wall, I breath heavily. Then comes a sound... it's a quiet yet distinctively familiar cough. It's her.

What in the heck is she doing?
Is she lost?
Does she think this is the bathroom....?
AGH!........

*Let me confess. The last paragraph is NOT true. All of the story except this part was real, but I was getting bored. My apologies.

Anywho, long story short there was a 15-year-old girl in my room. Some of my friends who know the story refer to her and "15-year-old" and it's kind of become an inside joke...

"Oooh, 15-year-old."



(STORY STARTED MARCH 5, 2005)