NIGHT'S COMPANIONShe stood in the kitchen doorway and imagined that she could see a blob of shadow in the darkness next to the refrigerator, something that seemed to move and shift and was much darker than the surrounding night that spilled into the room from the slightly open kitchen window. She dared not turn on the light, for that would make the darkness palpable, this shape whose terrible dimensions she could only imagine. She walked out of the kitchen and into her bedroom and tried to listen to any unusual sounds, but there was nothing, only the ticking of a clock on the dresser. Far in the distance, she heard a car turn off of a paved road and onto a graveled dirt road. She could hear the crunch of tiny rocks and imagined herself caught beneath the car's wheels. She was a stranger in
