Invasion

 

August 2, 2021

Facebook account weirdly sabotaged. Discovered that the email attached to the account was not  mine. New account. Hate to lose all that history.

Got the cars inspected. The same guy did them both and didn’t recognize me from one encounter to another, exactly ten minutes apart. 

Upstairs writing when I heard an odd sound. I guessed what it must be before I saw it. When I reached the top of the stairs, I realized a bear was in my house, calmly walking from the kitchen into the dining room. She had torn her way through the screen on the sliding door with the smallest sound possible. She had taken a bite of Maud’s food, and was strolling farther in. The floor was wet from her splashing in the pond. The deepest sensation was incongruity, that big black head against the polished wooden floor–something I had never expected to see. The thoughts in my head were: what if she does not turn and run when I scream at her? What if she can’t remember how to get out and goes rampaging through the house? What if she charges up the stairs and corners me? But she made a swift (almost magical) escape after I bellowed at her. By the time I got to the door only the fleeing form of one of her cubs could be seen. I was shaken, but maybe less than could be expected. I think she was far less dangerous– and the fear of her far less lingering–than if she had been a human thief who got in the same way. I built a wall against the eastern basement window (which she had also torn out again) and splashed it with ammonia. I closed and locked the garden door. I can keep the house cool with fans. I thought of her often through the afternoon, imaging how difficult it must be for her to get a living for herself and two babies. I don’t know how she manages. I also wondered what she thought in those seconds. Did she know she was inside somebody’s house? Did she know it was MY house and she might be able to get away with it? Mischief? Curiosity? Hunger? Only now is Maud making an appearance from wherever a cat hides when there’s a bear in the house.