Suspense: It Only Tries Once

Seven years sleeping in the car and you learn what matters. Hide anything worth taking. Park where cameras can see you. Lock every entrance. Then check them again. People ask why I check twice. I don't. I check three times. I check three times. (check three times) The first is for thieves. The second is for me. I never explain the third. Before midnight, the seatbelt goes through the passenger handle. Pull it tight. Click. The driver's side gets the same treatment. Pull it tight. Click. Then I put the camera beside my pillow and leave the reflective vest where it can be seen. There's a reason for that. Whatever walks around the car after two doesn't touch the side with the vest. Not anymore. Pull it tight... click it twice... don't look outside. don't look outside. (don't look outside) At three seventeen, I wake up. Not from a sound. From pressure. The passenger belt is stretched so hard the buckle is trembling. Someone is pulling the handle from outside. Once. Twice. Then... the driver's handle moves. Once. Twice. I keep my eyes under the hat. Because there's another thing seven years taught me. If somebody tries to enter your car, you call the police. If every handle moves at exactly the same time... you pretend you're asleep. The pulling stops. I wait. Five minutes. Maybe ten. Then I hear the camera beside my head. Beep. Recording started. I didn't touch it. I don't move. The camera records for forty-seven seconds. Beep. Recording stopped. Then something underneath the car knocks three times. (knock... knock... knock...) I count to one hundred before I move. At sunrise, everything looks normal. Both belts are attached. Every entrance is locked. Nothing missing. I check the recording. Forty-seven seconds of the car... from outside. My car. My parking space. My hat visible through the driver's window. Whoever held the camera walked completely around me. Then the recording stops beside the passenger side. I watch it again. That's when I notice something. The passenger belt isn't attached in the recording. The handle is free. I look at the passenger side. The belt is attached now. Pulled tight. Clicked into place. From inside the car. I don't remember doing that. Pull it tight... click it twice... don't look outside. don't look outside. (don't look outside) Then the passenger handle moves. Once. From the inside.