Lucid Waking

Archive for April, 2009

A Book

        It occurred to her, in the early morning hours, that perhaps the most unexplainable situation was the most possible. She got up and wrote her epiphany in her journal. As her head went back down upon the pillow, her mind reminded her that it was entirely possible then, that Jack had indeed killed the man and was just pretending that he didn’t. It was just a hunch, but she was sure he was guilty. She whisked off the covers again and wrote this new thought down. Then she thought angrily that if she continued like this through the night, she would never get any sleep and she needed to sleep if she was going to get to the bottom of the case.
        It was only a silly little book, but it kept her thinking throughout the day. She relished every page of the one thousand leafed wonder, but her obsession of figuring out its puzzle was making her tired. She wanted to know the answer, but every chapter she read brought her back to square one. She hated and loved the book at the same time. It was enjoyable, but it was driving her crazy, keeping her up, and ostracizing her from any social activities she might have been doing. Her life slipped away from her until one rainy evening when she had flipped the final page of the book.
        She had been wrong, of course, Jack didn’t do it—his wife did—but it wasn’t finding out that she was wrong that disappointed her. The book was finally finished and the marathon-like climax and resolution had left her wasted and empty. She had nothing to keep her occupied and her mind rewound the last scenes in a flurry of fleeting memories. She tried to hold on to the mystery, but once read the book had no secrets and became meaningless.
She stood up, but not having anything else to do, she sat down again. The phone rang and she picked it up, favoring the human voice on the other end.
        “Shall we go to tea tomorrow?” her friend said cheerfully.
        “Yes.”

Good Morning

        Sunlight streamed into the un-aesthetically messy room over Coke cans, dirty laundry, and wrinkled pieces homework. One toe of a large foot stuck out into the light as if checking its temperature to see if it was warm enough. A small-stature girl walked into the room boldly and headed toward the spot where the foot was hanging off the bed and out of the covers. She was still in her pajamas, but her hair had been stuffed into a towel. Wet tendrils stuck to the back of her neck as she turned her head to search for the Kleenex box. Finding it and grabbing a tissue, she brushed it gently over the protruding appendage. The foot shot back under the cover like a turtle that sensed danger and was quickly followed by a little moan from the opposite side of the bed. A dark brown head that had fallen off the pillow moved forward and under the fluffy headrest so that it bulged upward and made the boy look like a headless, armed caterpillar.
        “Wake up,” the girl said loudly, moving towards the pillow.
        A stifled grumble came in reply and the lump under the covers shrunk and rose.
        “Fine, but it’s 7 o’clock,” she said. She promptly turned and left and she was out the door and half way down the stairs to breakfast when a reply rang out of his room through the open door quite clearly:
        “You were supposed to wake me at six!”
        Several bangs and booms later along with a shower and crash of drawers, the boy was dressed and down in the kitchen to scrap up his breakfast to go. The girl leaned against the doorway, a little smug, but patient as her brother ran around dodging chairs and the table like a puppy runs after its tail.
        “By the way, a letter came from Dad,” she said. “He’s going to have to stay in Beta Space a little longer than he thought.”
        “Where’s mom?” the boy replied through a piece of toast he stuffed in his mouth as he reached for his backpack. His sister moved out of the way as he flew out of the kitchen and she followed him to the front door.
        “I don’t know if she came home.”
        At those words, a white car entered the driveway and as it gently floated down to the ground, a very tired woman got out, still wearing her scrubs. The boy smiled but ran past her; the girl stopped for a quick kiss before running after her brother.
        “Sorry,” the woman yelled after them, but she knew they wouldn’t stop as the yellow bus floated into the bus stop while they were still a quarter of a block away.

Report on Artidae totalus

Specimen: Artidae totalus

This species Artidae totalus is best known for its strange behavior. While their digestive, reproductive, respiratory, and skeletal systems are the same as other mammals, they seem to function fully with less sleep than other creatures in their genus. Their mental capacity is astounding as they can create works of art seemingly at the same time. They are very rare, as they cannot run very fast or fight very well and are often eaten. Their sole advantage is that they have very creative camouflage and can adapt to many situations.

Artidae totalus mostly eat Raman, or other instant foods, although not exclusively. Often their muscles are more limber than many in the Artidae family except for the Artidae dancerus, with which they are equal. They have exceptionally good hearing, proprioception, and visual senses. They have been known to stare at blank pages for hours at a time, which is a strange habit whose significance is yet to be explained. Experiments have shown that they can also make sense of random black dots and lines on a piece of paper.

These creatures are often hard to find as they are never sitting still unless it is in the wee hours of the morning when they can be found staring at various objects in their habitat. These creatures have been seen with various energy drinks and Coke products. They associate with others, but not for long periods of time. They meet and associate with many others of their kind, but often only a few for short periods of time. Most often they have interesting fashion and own a pea coat.

Further research needs to be done to determine whether or not these creatures can be tamed, although when we catch one, it is difficult to keep.