The other night I was awakened from a sound sleep by a noise. I didn't actually hear the noise, but I came alert in time to hear the echo of the noise run through the house. I could tell that Nancy was rousted also. She sucked in air, moved slightly, and lay still listening, as I was, for any follow-on sound. Neither of us heard anything, and Nancy was soon fast asleep. I, however, got up to investigate. The clock said 4:35.

Since the alarm did not sound, I was pretty sure that no door or window had been opened or no window broken. I figured the noise, whatever it was, must have originated outside. I checked each window looking into our yard, the neighbor's yards, and the street for some possible source of the sound. I could see nothing and eventually went back to bed.

The next morning at breakfast I asked Nancy if she remembered the noise. She did, and we talked about what it sounded like and the fact that she must have gone back to sleep quickly since she didn't hear me get out of bed. Neither of us had a clue about the source.

That evening, while watching television, Nancy suddenly turned to me and said she solved the mystery of the noise in the night. She had me sit next to her so I could see what she was looking at. Run your mouse over the picture above, and you too will see the solution to the noisy mystery. Those iron shovels were hand made many, many years ago by Nancy's dad. The black plate under the shovels is granite left over from our fire-place upgrade. You can imagine the noise it made when that shovel slipped from its upright position and fell to the granite. Mystery solved. Except now I wonder what caused the shovel to slip!