Can an event have an ‘echo’ before it happens?

Roberta was curled up on the sofa, a blanket over her feet to keep them warm. She took a sip from her mug of hot chocolate.

She had seen the film before but was enjoying it even more the second time around. She was so engrossed that she hardly noticed the scraping of the key in the front door but her conscience pricked her. With one last glance at the TV screen, she pulled the cover off her feet and turned round.

“Mario? Did you have a nice time?”

Her elder brother was allowed to stay out much later than she was, even though she was already in her 20s. She knew that boys were always treated a bit differently anyway. But he had the added bonus of having a fiancée, which meant he could stay out till 10pm without any questions being asked.

When he didn’t answer, she got up, her toes curling up against the cold floor and padded into the kitchen for a bit of a chat. Perhaps he would watch the end of the film with her.

But the room was still dark and silent. There was no one there.

Roberta stood there for a moment, a bit confused. She had heard the lock, then the door. But if it wasn’t Mario, then who?

As she was walking upstairs, the key turned once again in the lock. She stopped, frozen

She returned to her film but somehow it had lost its appeal. She soon decided to go to bed but as she was walking upstairs, the key turned once again in the lock. She stopped, frozen. Every nerve in her body tingled, her eyes glued to the door. Her heart almost stopped when the door handle turned and the door creaked open.

She almost let out a sob of relief when the familiar figure of her brother walked into the hallway.

She was so overcome with the cold chill of relief that she could hardly tell him what had happened. It seemed so foolish once he was actually standing there in the house.

She would probably have forgotten all about it, except for the fact that the same thing happened again. And the next time, she was not the only person who heard the door open.

One evening, Mario was once again out with his fiancée. Roberta was already up in her room, her younger brother Nicholas was fast asleep and her parents were probably asleep. But her father heard the key turn in the lock and the door open and slam shut.

The light went on in the hall below, throwing grotesque shadows up the stairs and across their doorways. The dog sleeping at the end of the bed stirred. Her ears pricked up and she leapt off the bed, slunk down low, her tail flat behind her. She crept to the top of the stairs and growled menacingly.

But there was no one there. Each of them tried to laugh it off. Roberta suggested as cheerfully as she could that Mario must have come home but changed his mind and gone out again. Perhaps, she tried to persuade herself, he only came in to pick something off the hatstand, like a jacket. Maybe he was feeling cold. Yes, that must have been it.

But when he did come home about a quarter of an hour later, he was surprised to see them all still up. He had not been anywhere near the house when they had heard the door open.

It was down to Roberta’s father to find a solution to this intriguing mystery. He struck on the perfect one. It must have been their neighbour. Perhaps he had come home a bit worse for wear and gone into their house instead of his own.

Roberta did not have the heart to point out that the chances of his key being able to open their door was probably very remote...

There is no end to this story. The family still lives in Birkirkara on a fairly busy road. The strange ‘pre-echo’ of Mario coming home did not occur again, but the family never did find any rational explanation...

This is the 16th in a series of short stories The Sunday Times of Malta is running every Sunday. It is taken from The Unexplained Plus (Allied Publications) by Vanessa Macdonald. The first edition was published in 2001 and reprinted twice. It was republished, with added stories, as The Unexplained Plus. The Maltese version of the book, Ta’ Barra Minn Hawn (Klabb Kotba Maltin), is available from all leading bookstores and stationers and from www.bdlbooks.com.