Bedtime
It’s dark. You know, that sort of dark where you can’t see anything in front of you, not even your own hand. The sort of dark where all sorts of images and dangers tend to crop up in your imagination. You start to imagine the shadows around you moving on their own volition. A creeping sort of horror invades your thoughts as you begin to imagine uninvited guests occupying your room with you. A thought strikes you. What if my TV turns on by itself? What if the alarm clock starts changing stations on its own? Maybe my books will suddenly fly off the shelves in a suicidal rage? These thoughts haunt you, depriving you of any sleep. Slowly wasting away any sanity left to you. A thin ray of hope shines in the darkness as you see another person turn on the hallway light in order to see where they are going.
And then it is just as promptly extinguished as they turn the light back off, drowning you in the shadows. Your attention is soon drawn to the movie you knew you shouldn’t have seen that day. Of course, there was no danger in the moment. It was 12 in the afternoon; friends in a semi-dark movie theater surrounded you, eating their popcorn. Who or what could possibly come at you in light of those circumstances? But alas, you knew that eventually you’d be going to bed.
You knew that sooner or later you’d have to stop stalling and turn out the lights. Suddenly a low, guttural roar nearly deafens you. Common sense or perhaps denial brings you to the conclusion that it was merely a car passing by your house at roughly 120 kilometers per hour. You curse softly with a laugh. Mocking yourself for your paranoia, your fear. But then it subtly and slowly returns. You begin to realize you need to get up at seven in the morning and try desperately to shut your fears away. But you can’t.
You know you’ll wake up in the safety of the bright morning sun, bleary-eyed and feeling foolish for your juvenile reservations the previous night. Or will you? That’s the question. “Dare I close my eyes when all around me there are things that go bump in the night? Dare I feign ignorance to my trepidation?” Finally you submit to your body’s objections. You cash in your chips. Did you make the right choice?
Will you wake up tomorrow morning?