IN THE STILL OF THE NIGHT

The room was dark, as it should be. The quietness of sleep requires it be so. To be dormant means to sleep, to rest and perhaps not to dream.

But sleep doesn’t always mean you rest well, or that your mind is not active. It just means you are no longer mainstreaming your thoughts, thoughts that you have control over.

As you mind runs randomly, you follow yourself through its course.

And so, as I lay there, in the middle of the night, darkness surrounding me, my eyes began to open slowly, as I peeked through them, wondering where I was. Maybe I was still in my dream, maybe just leaving it for the first time.

I looked over to my right, as I lay on my back. Suddenly, something caught my eye! There standing over Ellen was a figure! I knew that Michael, #2 Son was away at college, so it couldn’t be him. Was I in the midst of a home invasion? Suddenly, my mind came alive, as I rolled to my right and jumped up, letting out a yell: “HEY!!!” ready to take on the intruder, when suddenly a hand gripped me.

The stillness in the room was shattered only by the reality of what I knew. No one other than TLW (The Little Woman) and I were in the room! I had just experienced an illusion induced by myself, and my half awakened brain.

The funny thing is that I felt no fear, only a need to rid an intruder from my sanctuary, an unknown danger that I thought lurked within striking distance. My wife’s life was in danger and I needed to act!

I think the only danger in that room was my brain! The fact that I could conjure up someone from shadows and shapes of background made me think that perhaps I’m not all there. I’m sure anyone of my kids or TLW will concur with that theory, as well as my four sisters.

It was, without a doubt, the most interesting experience I’ve had in a long time!