In the Middle of the Night May 28, 2008

Don’t sleep on these new pics!

We woke up in the night to our doorbell buzzing. The control panel is next to the door on street level and we are three floors up and sometimes people buzz all ten apartments trying to get in. We were still asleep and decided that we would ignore the caller, that they would ring again if it was important. We awoke again, Claire first, to noises inside our apartment. I turned on my cell-phone flashlight and put on my glasses and as we sat up two figures entered out room and our eyes were full of a powerful light.
We speak a little survival Italian but in the middle of the night, with two men in uniform making demands behind a submachine gun, we speak nothing. We managed to ask, “Do you have a problem?” but didn’t understand the reply.
We were more confused than afraid when our neighbor Sara came in behind the Carabinierei and told us what happened. She and her boyfriend had gone out and when they returned at two our door was wide open. They knocked and called out but we hadn’t heard them. When we didn’t answer the bell they called the police. Claire and I put on some clothes and joined them in the kitchen. Nothing was missing, our door just hadn’t latched well and had blown open in the night. The police asked to see our id’s and filled out a short report which we signed. While fetching our passports I thought, “well, maybe we go home tonight” (we’re not exactly ‘legal’, and they can send us home whenever they like) but the police left with their submachine gun after we thanked them and our neighbor and we were back in bed five minutes after hearing noises in the night. Our hearts were racing and it took some time to return to sleep and then it was bright morning in our room and while getting ready for work we spoke about the weird dream from the night before.

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