Hello?

Last night, a voice woke me up.

"Hello?"

It was a child's voice - a girl. I was very clear and distinct. It woke me up immediately. Only one of my girls talks in her sleep, and when she does, it's very mumbled. This voice I heard was not mumbled at all. I went through each child's voice in my head, trying to match the voice I just heard with one of them, and realized I couldn't. This was a stranger's voice.

I then lay there in bed and tried to estimate where the sound came. It sounded very much like it came from downstairs, perhaps in the foyer, perhaps in the family room.

Then I thought, why didn't the dogs bark? It would seem that if a voice came out of nowhere, especially one they didn't recognize, they would be going crazy. Did they even hear it? Why wouldn't they if I heard it?

I lay awake for a few minutes to see if I would hear something again, then eventually fell back asleep.