THE FIFTH DIMENSION
July 8, 2002

Last week was strange. Like most Americans, I celebrated the Fourth of July with friends during the middle of the week, throwing my normal routines and schedules off kilter. Unfortunately, I had to work Friday, but the holiday wasn't totally spent in vain wishing for more. I was able to attend a few cook-outs, watch 2 or 3 fireworks shoot into the night sky, and relax as any good person should do during a holiday.

After work on Friday, I drove home in lighter than normal traffic, popped open a Bud, and switched on the television. I didn't know what I would find, but I soon clicked the changer up to channel 64, rested the remote on the coffee table, and sprawled out on the couch to soak in hours and hours of "Twilight Zone" episodes. I'm normally not a geek of this sort, but I enjoy the stories and strangeness of each episode. Honestly though, I didn't plan on watching the Sci-Fi Channel marathon, but it didn't take long for the Fifth Dimension to lure me into its grasp. Plus, my roommate was gone for the weekend and I had reign of the TV all to myself.

I watched favorites such as "Eye of the Beholder" and "The Howling Man." However, 1 AM rolled around before I knew it and my eyes-lids grew heavy. I slowly made my way to bed, and curled up to my pillow and fell fast asleep.
 

Around 10 AM the next morning, I awoke to the sound of a key turning and attempting to open my front door. My initial reaction? My roommate was coming home VERY late from a night on the town with friends. After about 30 seconds of the noise there was silence. The door never opened and I never heard my roommate walk into the room below. I found it quite strange, but I assumed he would knock on the door if he had left his key inside. I waited a few minutes, but a knock never came and the doorbell never rang. I sluggishly rolled out of bed, curious as to what had become of the person at my front door. I looked out of the window and noticed my roommate's car was still gone, so whoever was at my door was not someone who belonged in my house.

I went downstairs to investigate. Had the door knob jiggled at 10 PM rather than 10 AM, I might not have made may way to the entrance so lazily and regardlessly. However, I was cautious enough to peer out of the windows before boldly opening the door to some stranger. I opened the blinds and peered out to the front porch. No one was there. I opened the door and walked a few feet out into the yard and noticed a lady walking out of my north-side neighbor's condo to a vehicle in front of the unit. Strangely enough, she was wearing only a t-shirt and panties. I knew my neighbor was liberal, but I thought she was going too far having her girlfriends exit the house with only a stitch of clothing on. I turned and walked back into my house as I shook my head and wondered if I was slowing entering one of the many Twilight Zone episodes I had viewed only hours before. Two strange occurrences had just happened in front of me in less than five minutes -- occurances that never happen on my boring street.

I shook off the non-sense and sat down in front of the TV again. I was still groggy and wasn't willing to fully wake-up just yet. I flipped on the TV and surfed channels without ever finding something to watch. Suddenly, a loud stomp came from upstairs, startling me. I knew no one was in the house. There were only two entrances, and I had checked the top floor minutes before opening the front door. My first thought was someone had climbed the fence in the back and broke into my room through the window. I rushed out back and looked up at my windows, but there were no signs of tampering. I went back inside to investigate. Before I even got to the stairs, an alarm began to sound, but I couldn't determine where its origin. I assumed it was my roommate's radio-alarm that was never turned off before he left the day before.

I ascended the stairs and searched the rooms on the second floor of my house. Apparently, the stomp and the alarm came from my south-side neighbor as I heard more rustling on the opposite side of the wall. Satisfied with my mediocre detective work, I went back down stairs to make some coffee in hopes to fully energize my mind. When I made it to the living room, I heard a group of people talking loudly outside. I opened my door to see what the situation was, only to be greeted by my neighbors' worried faces. The neighbor living a few doors down informed me that the lady who lived next to me (my south-side neighbor) was missing from her house. Someone had noticed her front door wide open with water pouring out into her living and dining rooms from her bathroom. They called into the house for her, but no one answered. Had someone broken into her house after failing to gain entrance into mine? The weird morning was turning even stranger as time passed.

One neighbor was on the phone while others waited patiently for the police to arrive and investigate. While standing there, I asked the group if they had checked the woods to the north of the property for her. I realized there was a possibility that the lady emerging from my north-side neighbor's house earlier was actually my south-side neighbor looking for help. Two of the older male neighbors ran to the north side of the property to look for her, and there she was -- healthy, albeit lost. She was wandering aimlessly in the grassy field, clueless of her surroundings and her state of mind. Luckily, the police had arrived by this time, and one officer walked her to her unit.

In no time, three other police cruisers arrived on the scene, as well as an ambulance and a large fire truck void of cute firemen. Neighbors poured out of their respective condos and watched with curiosity. I was immediately reminded of the Twilight Zone episode "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street" in which neighbors began fighting amongst themselves due to fear and anxiety. Were my normally peaceful neighbors going to begin pointing blaming fingers? Were we going to turn into some fearful mob and crash rocks into windows and rampage the small street dividing our buildings? Other than the small pebble I tossed into the flower bed, no rocks were thrown and no words of hate were exchanged.

I sat on my front porch watching the scene intently. Actually I got bored of the scene and went in to my house and showered and called a friend of mine. Nothing was happening outside, and no one needed a statement from me or an officer would have flagged me down before left. I came out later and watched the paramedics walk my neighbor to the ambulance and the police officers depart. All was quiet again and life returned to "normal."

I still don't know the whole story as to why my neighbor tried to get into my house (if that was indeed her). I still don't know why she was walking around with little clothing on her body. And I still don't know why the paramedics had to cart her away. I just hope she is fine.

Twilight Zone announcer/writer Rod Sterling never arrived on our "set" that morning smoking one of his infamous cigarettes and billowing a prophetic summary of our hopeless situation. But if he had, he might have said something like this:

"The cast of characters: neighbors -- old and young alike. The date: July 6, 2002 -- only two days after America's birthday. A young woman is missing from her housing unit and slips briefly into another realm, pulling her closest neighbors with her. On that day, while much of the world was cooking breakfast or reading the morning paper, the rising sun brought more than needed warmth and light to this small section of Earth, it also brought this small group of people closer to a place rarely visited. That dimension? The Twilight Zone."