My husband was sitting up in bed when I woke. It was almost too dark to see. ‘What is…’ I started to ask but he quietly hushed me.
‘I heard a noise,’ he whispered. ‘I think there’s someone moving around in the living room.’
‘You’d better go and check,’ I bravely whispered.
He took a deep breath, swung he feet out from under the duvet and… hesitated.
Then he did the strangest thing I have ever seen it my life. He began to growl. Quietly at first. Uncertainly. But he got louder and louder. A wild guttural sound. It was really quite convincing. I was just about to push him towards the door and tell him to stop acting like an idiot when there was a loud bang from downstairs. The intruder had fallen over something. There was more noise and muffled curses while my husband got even more into his roll. Suddenly the back door slammed shut and there was the sound of laboured running from the garden.
We remained in silence for a moment and then my husband finally got up and went to investigate.
I can’t say that I felt proud of him, but it worked.
