If you watch horror films or thrillers, you must be familiar with the following scenes. A young girl is being stalked by thugs on her way home deep in the night. A child is home alone on a tempestuous evening when a hooded figure comes and knocks on the door.

You would never relish the prospect of being in such a scenario, but weeks ago I found myself in one.

A high school student, every day I get home around 10 pm and go to bed by 11. Lying in bed, I can hear all kinds of noises creeping in from the dark. I am a light sleeper.

For days on end weeks ago, I stared at my bedroom door, for almost every night after I retired to bed, some weird noises found their way in from outside. It sounded as if someone was hitting the wall or shuffling around the corridor. After some time, the noises ceased. I thought someone must be trying our front door. I thought he might break into our home after I went to sleep. So horrified was I that I stayed wide awake, motionless in bed.

Even though the noises stopped coming back later in the night, I could not fall asleep for a long time. Therefore, I ended up suffering from insomnia. The same experience recurred almost every night for weeks. The next day at school, it was quite a struggle to stay alert.

Where did the noises come from? What was it that went bump in the night? Was it a phantom out there? I am not exaggerating, but gradually I found myself going insane. I started to dread dark and night. I wished everything were just a Halloween prank. Fan of horror films as I am, I did not like it when a spine-chilling drama was playing out in my real life.

I did not believe I could be tortured by the horror any longer. One day, curiosity finally got the better of me. At dinner, I shared my nocturnal fears with Mother. Mother laughed them off before she gave me a surprising explanation.

Upstairs in the tower block resides an elderly man with his two grandsons. His son unemployed, fighting often breaks out between son and wife. Luckily, most days the couple are not home. It is the grandad who looks after the two kids.

Life is not easy for the family. To augment the family income, every night the elderly man offers to take out the trash left outside every other home in the building. He scavenges recyclable stuff, such as paper, metal and plastic, from the trash bags, and trades it at the scrapyard for cash.

As difficult as life is for the family, the two grandsons are good-mannered and capable. They do a lot of household chores. They can even shop and cook for the family if the occasion arises.

Mother’s account took the load off my mind right away. After that, the noises outside my home stopped troubling me. They have become part of my normal night. Now I sleep very well with them, as if they did not exist.

These days when Mother puts out our trash, she often leaves some fruit or cartons of milk by the trash bag. We hope the family will be living an easier life. When I run into the grandpa on the staircase, I often acknowledge him by smiling.