text: Night Caller - By Beulah Lee Harris I looked out at the frigid night and shivered. Not because I was cold, I was wrapped up warmly enough, but because I was afraid of whatever might be lurking in the dark. It was so remote where we lived in the foothills of the mountains. Our nearest neighbors, Greg and Jeanie, were an hour’s slow drive away and the town where I worked was an hour in the other direction. We thought it was a wonderful find, this wooden cabin in the middle of nowhere, a little way up the mountain - our little love nest far away from the rest of the world. ‘Even a hermit can get lonely out here!’ Aaron joked as we looked out at the beauty of the cold rugged landscape that surrounded our new life. ‘It’s going to be great!’ He enthused, as if he had to convince me, but I was sold. I loved the idea of this loneliness together, and it was great. At first. At first even the wood chopping was romantic. How could it not be when we could look forward to snuggling up next to the fireplace with red wine and loving words? I didn’t even mind the long trek to town and back each day. I did the accounts for The Jolly Rooster burger chain. Stupid name. What chicken would be jolly about being served up between two halves of a bun? Aaron worked from home developing his photographs and writing his nature books, although he had to venture into to town too sometimes to use the internet. We could not even use cellphones and relied on a rather unreliable landline. It was the perfect life for us, until it began to change. Aaron had to go back to civilization for a while to meet with his publisher. He was only gone for a week but when he returned something in him had changed. Or perhaps it was me being paranoid. I have always had jealousy issues and although he denied seeing his ex when he was away, I didn’t believe him, no matter how much I wanted to. Things went downhill from there and the remote cabin became just that. A lonely place, a place without love. A place as cold as the snow on the mountain peaks. When Aaron told me that he had been offered the chance to go work for a few months in some God-forsaken place near Afghanistan, I accepted it. Actually, I embraced it with relief. Perhaps the time and distance between us would heal us and we would become what we had been not too long before. I managed fine on my own, having made sure that Aaron did a whole lot of wood chopping before he left. I did have internet at work but Aaron had warned that he would not have access where he was going, so I had no idea if he was alright. I worried, and I missed our fireside nights, missed his arms around me, his laughter, his whispers in my ear. I missed him even more when the calls began. There was nothing, not even the heavy breathing one might expect in a b-rated horror movie. My hellos were met with silence, silence more ominous than it might have seemed if the calls had not happened after dark. The police did not seem to take me seriously and said there was nothing much they could do. ‘Stop calling here!’ I shouted in frustration and anger one night. “I’m not scared of you, I have a shot gun!’ I did too. I kept it loaded near the front door. Still the calls happened and I stopped answering the phone, letting the answering machine get it. The light flashed but there was never a message. I got home from work one afternoon as the sun was already setting over the highest peak. I parked the pickup truck and climbed the steep steps up to our unfenced garden. Feeling a bit achy from flu, I got into bed right away. I was just dozing off when the phone rang. I ignored it but got up anyway and ran a hot bath. I could hear the phone ringing again, but I stayed where I was, luxuriating in the warm scented water. I should have taken the phone off the hook but I never did in case a message ever did get through, a message from Aaron. I was about to heat a can of soup when I heard a noise outside. My heart began to beat a mile a minute and I grabbed the shotgun. The caller...he knew I was there and this time, this time he was coming for me, I knew it. I looked out into the darkness and I saw him! A large shadow rising up the slope, coming into our garden towards the house...towards me! I raised the window and took aim. I shouted, ‘You get away from here!’ Perhaps my voice was lost in the howling wind because he kept coming, so I fired the gun and saw the shadow fall. The police. I had to call the police. I shut the window with trembling hands and exhilarated, I ran to make the call. Now those skeptical police would finally believe me about having a stalker. When I got to the phone, the lights on the machine were blinking red. A message...maybe there would be a message this time. I decided to listen before I made the call to the police. ‘Hi, baby.’ It was Aaron! ‘I miss you so much, and I’m sorry if I scared you with all those calls...I tried to get hold of you so many times but nothing was working. It would ring and I could hear you but you obviously could not hear me, so I never left a message. No point.’ He laughed. ‘I’m back in the country now, so I will be home in a few days, but this is the number of the hotel where I am staying.’ He left the number and rang off. Thank God! Oh, thank God! I began to cry from relief but also from the shock of having just shot the stalker. First things first. I had to call the police. The red light was still flashing...another message. I played it. ‘Hi honey, it’s Jeanie. Thought I’d call because Greg heard on his two-way that there is a huge storm coming in a few hours. It’s going to be a bad one and we might all get snowed in for a while so he’s coming up to your place to drop some supplies off with you. It’s just gone seven so he should be there around eight.’ Oh, my God! No...please no! I ran to the window and could just make out the dark shadow of a man slumped on the ground. I looked at my watch. It was seven minutes after eight. END