Nightwatching

Still huddled with her children in the hidden place, the mother considers how long they can stay there. Her mind is full of questions and doubts, and she imagines her husband chastising her for not grabbing a weapon. She assumes that he would have wanted her to try and escape the house with the children, but they would not make it very far with the snowstorm outside. Then, her mind switches to her father-in-law’s critical tone, telling her that she is “paranoid” and that she is the problem.

In her mental turmoil, a traumatic memory from college resurfaces. Once, while alone in her dorm room, her college boyfriend opened the door and grabbed her in order to hug her. She was so taken aback that she collapsed on the floor and curled into a ball. Afterward, she enrolled in a self-defense class that mainly focused on teaching women to scream and make noise if attacked. The instructor told her that she was too small to fight back and that she should work to scream more effectively. Her dynamic with her boyfriend was never the same after the incident, and he always said things like, “Don’t you think you’re overreacting? Being dramatic over nothing?” (75) Since then, the mother has always been self-conscious about her reaction to fear.

In the present, the mother considers the fact that women are often questioned or even blamed for the violence done to them, as when they are accused of being out too late or dressing too provocatively. She resolves that if the intruder reaches the safe room, she will do more than scream. Now, she and her daughter need to relieve themselves, so she removes her son’s diaper for them to use. Since the pandemic began, her son has been wetting the bed regularly. Feeling better after solving one problem, the mother drifts to sleep, and the Corner appears in her dreams.

The mother feels guilty for falling asleep while the intruder is still inside the house. She reassures the children that she is okay and praises them for their bravery. Knowing that they cannot remain in the hiding place forever, the mother begins thinking through the possibility of escape. It is Thursday, and officials have canceled school due to the snowstorm. The Corner is now in her daughter’s room, opening her armoire. The mother surmises that he is looking for likely hiding places. She feels that if he checks the attic or the basement, she might be able to trap him. However, the locks are flimsy and easily breakable. The mother changes her focus to surveying her home from her mind as if she were floating above it. She traces the path from her driveway through the fields that lead away from the house and surmises that the route would be too difficult to navigate in the snowstorm. However, she remembers that beyond the graveyard, there is a trail through the woods.

Just past her historic home lies a neighborhood full of modern homes that she can access from the forest path. The mother once noticed that the path appeared to be well-trodden, though they never saw anyone on it, and even when the leaves dropped in the fall, the path remained clean. Her daughter joked that ghosts kept the path clean, but she reminded her children that ghosts aren’t real. Later, her son began having nightmares about ghosts inviting him to walk through the home. In winter, her husband noticed that the path looked as though someone or something had cleared the snow, so he installed a game camera. When they reviewed the footage, they saw deer traversing the path.

In the present, the mother plans to escape the house and use the path to find help in the neighborhood. She mentally lists all the ways that her plan could go wrong and instead stays where she is, hopeful that the man will leave. Knowing that school is canceled the following day, the mother planned for a weekend at home alone with the children. If they go missing, no one will notice until Monday, and she wonders if the Corner knows this. As she wrestles with the idea of escaping, the Corner moves down the stairs, and she sees his yellow eyes.

Seeing the yellow eyes triggers a memory of when the mother was 10 years old. Right after her own mother died, the discolorations began appearing on her face. While on a hiking field trip with her class, she lagged and came face-to-face with an emaciated, disfigured mountain lion. Too frightened to scream, she began singing a song as she walked away from the creature, but it followed her. Still singing loudly, she bumped into her group and told them that a mountain lion was pursuing her. When she turned around, it had vanished, and her classmates teased her for imagining it. She described its crooked face as being malformed due to having two sets of teeth, but they didn’t believe her. Her father doubted her story, but years later, he sent her a news story in which people discovered a mountain lion with two sets of teeth.

Emerging from her memory, the mother now realizes that the Corner man is sitting on the stairs. He is wearing a black t-shirt printed with a skull and two yellow eyes. Something about the shirt is familiar, but she cannot quite make the connection. She realizes that the man moved down the staircase without making much noise, and she perceives that he is trying to hide. Earlier, he said aloud, “This place crawls when it's empty, […] There are voices, noises, and none’s there” (104). She knows that he is aware that they are nearby, and he is waiting for them to make a move. She holds the children tightly, knowing that she has no other option but to remain still.

The mother wakes up, angry with herself for falling asleep again. She can hear the man moving around the house, and he returns to the office. He picks up her husband’s guitar, reminding her of when her husband held their children. She can tell that the Corner knows how to play because he tunes the instrument before playing it. The Corner begins playing a nursery rhyme tune and taunts them again by calling them “little pigs.” He threatens to force them out of hiding by setting the house on fire. She shudders when he uses the phrase “easy-pleasy” (109) because this is a phrase that she has only heard her son use. He heard the phrase on a television show and delighted in reciting it repeatedly using variations on the rhyme. While the Corner continues viciously detailing how he will smoke them out, the mother wracks her brain to remember how they are connected to this man. He cryptically says that if they come out of hiding, he will leave her son alone because he’s not there for him. He adds that it’s the mother’s fault that this is happening and accuses her of having “blood on [her] hands” (110). Suddenly, the Corner has an audible revelation that there is an attic and races off to look for them. As he thunders through the house, she suddenly realizes that she knows him.

The intruder is the manager of a local sandwich shop that the mother and her family patronized in the past. She remembers their visit vividly because they had to eat outside, and the manager visited their table. The manager thanked them for dining there, citing the recent difficulties with the COVID-19 pandemic; however, he gave special attention to her daughter, calling her a “princess” and a “heartbreaker.” Inappropriately, he noticed that her daughter’s strap was sliding down and gently moved the strap back onto her shoulder. Before he left the table, her son asked for crayons and used the “easy-pleasy” phrase. The mother found the manager’s attention concerning, but as usual, her husband dismissed her worries as irrational. He even tried to convince her that she imagined the man touching her daughter’s shoulder. She avoided discussing the incident further, knowing that it would lead to an argument.

Her daughter asked her father to explain what “heartbreaker” means, and he rationalized that the term can be a compliment. The mother told her husband that she can’t understand why he is allowed to get angry with the UPS man but dismisses her irritation with the café manager. The manager returned to their table with a large slice of cake, which he said was free since their children were so well-behaved. Noticing their daughter’s excitement over the cake, he said, “Cake for a cupcake” (125). Though she loves sweets, the mother refuses to eat the cake, and later, at home, she throws away the leftovers and lies to her children, saying that she ate it all.

Now, the mother and her daughter comfort the screaming son, pleading with him to be silent. The Corner is making so much noise upstairs that he doesn’t hear the boy’s scream. Terrified by the man’s threats to burn down the house, the daughter panics as the mother remembers the café manager sliding their receipt, which indicated her husband’s name, into his pocket. With the Corner in the attic, the mother knows that she has time to escape and seek help. She tells the children to remain in hiding while she goes for help. As she moves towards the panel, they wrap themselves around her, and she must forcefully push them away. Her burst of violence surprises her and pains her deeply, and she can see on their faces that she has scared and hurt them.

After the children secure the panel, the mother staggers to get her bearings. Dizzy from sitting for so long in the dark, she almost topples over. She grabs her mother-in-law’s fur coat, a gift from her husband. She peels off her sweat-soaked robe and t-shirt and wraps herself in the coat’s warmth. She whispers to the children through the vent that she loves them, quickly unlatches the door, and steps out into the cold. Briefly frozen by the bracing temperatures and the knowledge that once she closes the door, she will be locked out, the mother convinces herself this is her only choice.