I oscillated between awake and asleep. I’d had a dream I was sorry not to have finished but a major headache woke me up. Medicine achieved. I willed myself to return to the mysterious dream and even slid my eye mask back down, but the closest I got was a vague state of mind. I was aware my alarm was due to chime in less than an hour, but dream-brain had lines of poetry on repeat that I was trying not to forget before I fell back asleep. Or woke up. I’m not sure which. The darkness and the severe lack of sleep from the past five days overrode that little voice in my head saying wasn’t it was time to get up? Isn’t it time to get up? Waking up is more important than figuring out the dream.
*phone chirps with text message*
*pulls off eye mask to blaze of sunlight*
*clock reads 8:40*
*panic*
My alarm clock betrayed me.
My phone’s screen said the alarm was going off (had been going off) since 6:21am, but I never heard it. I’m usually at work by 8:30 and here I was still in bed at 8:40. The panic of reality obliterated any lingering traces of anything besides MOVE FASTER NOW and with two extra hours of sleep, man, did I move.
Abigail Mumford 