Fear in the night

Last evening our family was in bed by 11:00.  Catherine had to work today and the rest of us had church this morning.  We were tired and ready for bed.

I had just begun to drift off when Catherine came into our room and was very upset.  She told us she had heard knocking on her window and had seen a white light in the yard.  She was also convinced she had heard walking.  Andrew grabbed a bat.  I grabbed another and followed behind.  Andrew determined no one was in the house, and didn't see anyone looking in anywhere else.  I grabbed some flashlights, and we went outside to check out the back yard.  I had noticed the yard was full of lightning bugs, and I'm sure that is what she saw as the white light.  Even I was confused by it when I first saw it.  There was absolutely no indication of anyone having been in the yard.  There was mud underneath her window, but no footprints or indentations of any kind.  I am fairly confident that what she heard was a raccoon or skunk going after the cat shelter and knocked the food bowl off, and that the white lights were the lightning bugs.  I offered to sleep with Catherine in the family room, or even to sleep in her room if she wanted.  Andrew offered to let her sleep with me and he would sleep in her bed.  She was content to go back to her own room and sleep.  I also went back to bed, but Andrew decided to stay up in the family room for a while.  Of course it was an uneventful rest of the night, but there sure were some scary moments.