Intruders Upstairs?
How do people with hearing loss hear possible intruders?
Sunday night, 9.40pm, Sue and I got in after a long and busy day, our plans were – bath, eat, stare at TV for a while and then sleep.
While Sue had a bath I wandered round the house drawing curtains etc – which meant I visited each room, which will be important later – and started dinner. Then, while Sue sat on the sofa, I had a quick bath then started dishing up food (warmed up lasagne, for anyone interested).
As I tried to manoeuvre the pasta sauce onto Sue’s plate without splashing red stuff everywhere I clearly heard a soft thud then a floorboard slowly creak and release in the bedroom above. We were alone and I dismissed the sound as the floor cooling from the heat of the two baths of water.
I took Sue’s tray through, we had a brief chat, and I went back to the kitchen only to hear (no offence to non-hearing readers) the unmistakable sound of aluminium clunk and creak at which point I became extremely alarmed.
The only aluminium upstairs was the extending loft ladder which was, or should have been, folded up in the loft with the hatch shut. I’m not a nervous person, I happily wander around fields in the pitch dark and am not troubled by spooky stuff, but those two sounds made me think someone (I didn’t want to imagine more than one person) was creeping around upstairs.
The mind races in times of stress, mine went hyper. My main concern was that Sue was in the room across the hall, unaware, out of eyesight, laughing at something on TV. If I went upstairs without telling her and found intruders she might be at risk if I was overpowered – dramatic I know, but assessing a situation involves considering the extremes.
On the other hand, going into the sitting room and explaining my thoughts would take quite awhile and she was bound to say something loud about someone being upstairs which could provoke and intruder to come downstairs. That sounds like the thinking of an over imaginative mind that’s been exposed to too many crime shows, but I know that cornering any animal provokes panic and panic all too often provokes extremes of reaction.
I also know that arming oneself with the largest carving knife only provides a weapon for the person you’re looking for, and, to my mind, stabbing is unthinkable. And, of course, an intruder in a loft couldn’t be approached with giving away all advantages.
The other possibility I had to consider was that Sue would be very vulnerable if she was involved in sneaking around the house looking for an intruder – she wouldn’t know how loud she was talking or how loud her footsteps were. The other disadvantages I’ll leave to your imagination.
I decided I had to inform Sue of the situation and make us safe, which meant I had to secure us away from anyone who might want to overwhelm us to prevent the police being called. I picked up my phone from the table top, where it had been charging, and walked into the sitting room. Sue looked understandably surprised when I pulled an easy chair over to block the door I’d shut and sat in it -then I updated Sue as I dialled 999.
I told the emergency operator our address, that I hoped I’d be wrong but that there might be intruders upstairs and that Sue was deaf. The operator said I’d taken the correct action, to stay on the line until the police arrived and asked about Sue’s communication needs.
Two police officers (one female, one male) arrived very quickly, smiled at Sue as soon as they saw her, and then I went upstairs with the male officer while the female came up with Sue. Okay, the quick ending – we searched every room, cupboard and corner of the house and found no sign of anything having been disturbed.
The police assured what we’d done was correct and that they were pleased to have come out, and left with friendly smiles. Sue then told me I’d done the correct thing and we tried to finish dinner. But I couldn’t stop feeling anxious about the noises and that I’d wimped out, so I got my Maglite and heavy walking stick from the car and searched the entire house again – and still found I’d imagined the threat. Despite the searches we didn’t sleep over well.
There’s no moral to this tale, for the first time I’d encountered a situation where I couldn’t keep Sue safe without putting her at more risk without taking the action of a nervous old guy. And while I’ve discussed what happened and what I did with Sue I haven’t mentioned my worries about her being at risk to ………. well, crime.