More than material things

After sleeping comfortably for about two and a half hours I woke up to the sound of someone creaking along the wood floors as they walked in my house. I could feel my eyes widen, my heart pounding a million beats per second, and the reality that I was not prepared for a robbery. As I tried to stay as still as possible, I thought of all the things in my room that could be useful in an attack. Then it came to me! I had kept my bat from when I played softball, so many years ago, in my close so, I gently removed my blankets, and slowly tiptoed over to my closet door. Thank goodness I had kept it partially open, or it would have made loud commotion when I had opened it. I carefully moved my clothes in search of the bat, but it was nowhere to be found! I frantically searched my whole room. I tore apart every inch of my closet to find the bat, but it was gone.
Earlier that night I remember…an email that said, “The stone wall is in need of repair, please contact us if you want to help. Our phone number is blah blah blah….” I read to myself as I skimmed the newsletter from my school. It was only ten o’clock at night and yet it felt like three in the morning. I had had a very busy day and was ready to go to sleep. My eyes started to flicker shut as I set my computer down on the floor and turned off the light.
It was Friday April 20, 2015. My parents and little sister were away for the weekend at Isabel’s eighth grade field trip to the beach. Faith was finishing up the second semester of her Sophomore year at Averett University. Meaning, I was all alone for the weekend. It had been one of the busiest days of my life. I had worked from 5:00 a.m. until noon, and then headed straight to my basketball game. After a very exiting and emotional game, my friends convinced me to stay for the boy’s game, right after. This meant that I arrived home around 9:45 p.m., giving me just enough time to take a quick shower, check a few things on my computer, and hop in the bed.
One thing that no one had noticed, out of all the people I had encountered that day, was that I was sad. Maybe it was because I was good at disguising it or maybe it was because everyone was just caught up in the many things that were going on at the time. It didn’t bother me that much though, what annoyed me was the fact that I myself couldn’t figure out why I was sad. No matter, I fell right to sleep.
As I went back to the issue at hand, I began to have a panic attack as a heard the footsteps of the stranger get closer to my room. There had to be something else in the room that could protect me. I could not think of anything at all that could help, when the handle of my room started to turn. “WHAT CAN I DO? WHAT CAN I DO!?” I thought to myself. “I will just have to hide here in the closet and when the right time comes jump on the attacker and hope for the best.” I know this was not a very logical idea, but I couldn’t think of a better Idea.
A dark shadow started to slowly creep into the room. It kept getting closer and closer to my bed as if it knew I was sleeping there. Its back was finally facing me. I knew this was the only chance I had to attack, so I did. I jumped out of the closet, and landed on the back of my attacker. I tried to yell at the top of lungs to scare them into thinking I was bigger than I really was. Then the strangest thing happened as I grabbed my opponent. They started to yell too. They were about the same size as me and although I was doing a pretty good job holding them down, they started yelling:

“STOP! STOP! STOP!” It was a girl’s voice. She didn’t sound any older than I. I released my grip and hopped back about 5 feet. When I noticed I was near the light switch I decided to flip the switch and reveal my attacker’s identity. As soon as I flipped the switch I gasped!
“Abbie! I am so sorry! I thought you had broken into my house! It’s one in the morning! What are you doing here?!!”
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. I was being so quiet because I didn’t want you to wake up until I was in your room. I was trying to surprise you.” She said as she sat down on the bed.
“Well you sure did that! Haha. Like I said a minute ago, what were you doing here?
“Well I wanted to be the first one to wish you a happy birthday.”
As those words left her mouth, it all came back to me. It was officially my eighteenth birthday, 1am April 21, 2015. I had not remembered because of all the things that had been going on throughout the week, plus the extra busy Friday. I also knew now why I had felt so sad. I knew that there was something important I was forgetting about, and everyone had forgotten about it, including me. To know that at least one person knew and cared enough to come and surprise me, even though it just about gave me a heart attack, meant more than any gift or paycheck ever could.