My daughter Shawne, grand daughter Caitlin, and I drove from Ottawa to the Gatineau’s, a beautiful cottage area in the Canadian province of Quebec. We were on our way to a friends’ cottage for a long weekend. Situated in a lovely area of Quebec with gentle hills and sparkling lakes it is an area famous for its beauty. It had been a lovely sunny day and the view of gentle mountains, sparkling lakes and green pine trees as we whizzed along the highway were a delight. We were on our way to spend a long anticipated holiday weekend with our friend, Beth Ann.

On our arrival we were greeted by Beth Ann and welcomed into a soothing, cool, spacious cottage that embraced us with its calmness. After initial greetings, drinks in hand, we wandered down to the lakeside, and sat on the dock. I had spotted a hammock earlier and I excused myself to tumble into it from which I emerged an hour later having had a rejuvenating sleep.

Then we all went for a refreshing swim in the lake. Followed by a simple but delicious dinner we continued to enjoy the evening, doing dishes and chatting about various things of interest.

Finally, the evening coming to an end, Beth Ann turned to me and said, “I’m giving you the room at the far end of the cottage Grandma, as it’s a little more private in case you want to sleep in. And oh, by the way, I have two cats and they seem to like that room so don’t be startled if they decide to invade it sometime during the night; they are actually quite harmless.”

“Oh, don’t worry;” I replied airily, “I have a cat of my own at home so that won’t be a problem.” With those nonchalant words of wisdom I excused myself and began to get ready for bed. I was tired and the bed looked very inviting. I noticed that the bed was an old fashioned one with a shelf headboard for lamps and books.

I crawled into bed and snuggled down under the beautiful quilts and soft pillows. I looked up through the window to see a beautiful silvery full moon, as I drifted away on a lovely cloud of contentment into a deep sleep.

How long I slept I could not say but for some reason I found myself very much awake and listening intently. My first conscious thought was it must be the cats. No, I argued silently, it’s something else. I became aware of profound silence and yet something had awakened me. Holding my breath I listened with all my might. Ah, there it is, the delicate noise that had awakened me. This was certainly no cat. Definitely not a sound any self-respecting cat would make! This was a scratchy, skittery sort of sound. Could it be perhaps made by tiny claws. It seemed to be coming from the headboard. Yes, the skittish sound was running right across the top of the headboard and seemed to be just above my head so to speak. Oh, oh, now it seems to be running back to the other end. Back and forth, back and forth. Now it’s back and it’s past my head with my head being nestled on the pillow just below the ledge (about the middle of the bed).