Early Wakeup Call

The weather was really windy last night, with gusts up to 70 mph.  The trees were waving back and forth and rubbing against the house.  At one point I thought I saw Dorothy and Toto fly by but it was dark and I couldn’t be sure.

 

Throughout the night would we would occasionally be awoken by shutters banging and other noises.  But it was the beeping I heard at 4 a.m. that got me out of bed.  It sounded like a smoke alarm warning of a low battery. 

When I found the source - a little electronic box - the beeping was becoming more insistent. Sonofagun, I thought, it’s a burglar alarm.  I didn't know we had one of those because we had never used it. 

I was leaning in to take a closer look just as it began to shriek.  Incredibly loudly.  And I’m not talking ringringring-scare-the-burglars kind of loud.  I’m talking air-raid-siren, shatter-your-eardrums, make-your-head-explode of loud.

At this point, Val woke up.

“Here,” I said, “Cover the alarm with a pillow while I investigate.”

I found the alarm control panel and did what guys do – I started pushing buttons randomly.  That didn’t work so I did what guys do – I pushed them again, but harder.  Then I yelled at them.  I may have also used some bad words but I’m not sure.

Meanwhile, the air raid siren continued to shriek.

Eventually, Val made me hold the pillow while she calmly and rationally investigated.  She made sure no doors were open.  She looked for an instruction manual.  She studied the control panel.

Then she did what any intelligent, thoughtful woman would do – she started pushing buttons randomly.  And swearing.  But in French.

Eventually, after an excruciating 20 minutes, the alarm stopped.  Who knows why?  We went back to bed, a little shell-shocked.

Lucca slept through it all.  That dog really is deaf.

The next morning we saw our proprietor, who lives in the attached apartment.  She was very apologetic and explained that she had accidentally set off the alarm and it had taken her a long time to figure out how to disarm it.  She showed us the electronic key that she uses to arm and disarm the alarm remotely.  She offered to let us borrow it so we could check out how it works.

We’re not giving it back until we leave.

KVS

The guilty party