Primal Surge
The chirps started a little after 2 am. They were spaced about 15 seconds apart. I recognized it as the sound that smoke alarms emit when batteries need replacing. The chirps were coming from the living room but it was hard to pinpoint as the sound seamed muffled. As much as I wanted to go back to sleep, I found myself waiting every 15 seconds for the next chirp, hoping it would stop of its own accord. When I got to the living room Ingrid was pointing to a round plastic smoke alarm 12 feet up the side of one wall slightly above a built-in cabinet that extended 3 feet out from the wall. I first tried standing on a chair but when failing to even reach the top of the cabinet, it became clear that it would require retrieving a ladder from the garage. Keeping this a short story prevents me from including a description of the current state of our garage. After 15 minutes and a rather punishing experience, I positioned the 5-foot-high ladder at the base of the cabinet and climbed up