Sleepless Nights

Sleepless nights. That's what happens when your soldier is deployed downrange.
Mostly, you can't sleep because that familiar comfortable shape that is usually next to you is not there anymore.
It's also the comfort of knowing you have back-up during the night. Because he's a man. And a soldier. And he's paid to know how to fight. He protects.

On the one month anniversary of his departure, the phone rang at 12:40am. Not my phone. Not MK's phone. Not the landline. Not the skypes on mine or MK's computers. But somebody else's phone rang right outside my bathroom window.

I heard it because all night long my 100 pound dog wouldn't stop going off on barking frenzies. He was keyed up. Kept wanting to go outside. Kept wanting to out back. Basically, just driving me crazy with the barking.

Right before I headed to bed, he went on a barking frenzy and ran at the kitchen door. I shushed him. He'd been doing this off and on for several hours. Kind of like the boy who cried "wolf". I stopped believing him. I did a visual inspection through the windows. All of my exterior lights were on, as usual.

That's when I heard it. I had headed down the hallway to turn on the light in MK's bathroom for a night light. I turned on the light, checked in on my sleeping MK, walked back down the hallway and that's when I heard it. It only rang once and was shut off pretty quickly.

It didn't sound like my ring tone. Plus, I was holding my cell phone in my hand. I went back to MK's room to see if her skype was ringing and to find her phone. Her phone was laying next to her in the bed. The ringing had come from one of the bathrooms.

I was frozen. It took me about five minutes to look up the SB MP phone number and dial them. My phone wouldn't cooperate. My fingers wouldn't cooperate. But, I finally dialed and spoke to desk seargeant and the MP's came very quickly.

The MP's came and walked around my house for almost an hour. The dog continued to bark randomly for several more hours. Mostly because I think he was spooked. MK slept through it all.

Eleven more months until my protector comes home. But, for now, I'll keep this 100 pound deep-throat barking protective dog.