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Thursday, March 25, 2010

The Aftermath Of A Slumber

When my brother and I were in middle school we’d a routine that we followed every weekday. At 4 pm we would reach home from school, rummage the kitchen shelves and find something to eat. We would then read a book or play some games which ultimately ended in fights. By then our mother would return from work and would watch my little drama where I played the role of the ‘suffering little sister’. One look at my tear-stained face and my mother would berate my brother for making me cry. Thus life was not very rough being the younger sister.

One day after having some snacks, instead of the after school routine that we followed, I fell asleep. I think even my brother went to sleep after playing alone for a while. How boring life was then, only with one channel on television and no one else around to play with!

I think in my sleep I dreamt of all the colorful things a little girl would have in her life. Beautiful dolls, a kitchen play set and of course some friends with whom I could share all those toys.

As we were alone at home for almost two hours we were supposed to lock the gate and doors of the house. Except for one window all the others remained closed. On that fateful day we forgot to keep even that one window open.

As I slept on dreaming, my brother too was taking a nap in the other room. Time ticked away. My mother usually returned by a quarter to six. Poor Mummy she came at the right time, knocked on the gate, of course we did not hear. She might have rattled the gate for quite some time because soon our immediate neighbors were out watching her. Dear mother got so scared and she was close to tears when she didn’t hear from us. Then one of our neighbors suggested that he would jump over the compound wall and check whether any of the windows were open. A locked grill enclosed our verandah, so no one could reach the main door.

At this time my mother was tormented with all sorts of wild thoughts. She thought someone must have broken in or something terrible had happened to us; I think she even had much worse things on her mind(suicide!Ohh). So our kindly neighbor jumped in, walked around the house to see if any of the windows were open. Then another neighbor called from his house to our phone. Can you believe it? The phone went on ringing and my ears remained shut all throughout.

It might have been more than thirty minutes since the commotion had started and fortunately my dear brother woke up. He realized that something was wrong and went and opened the door. He was stunned to see all the neighbors standing there with our mother.

“Where is Susan?” Is she alright?” asked my Mom.

“Yes, she’s fine. She’s sleeping in her room,” answered my brother as he unlocked the grill door and the gate. I think he wanted to know what our neighbor was doing in our compound but thought the better of it and decided to wait till everyone left.

‘Where is Susan?’ I think I heard it through telepathy. I instantly woke up and felt that something was wrong and walked towards the door. Wow! I saw around six to seven people staring at me and honestly I was worried about my looks. I looked like an idiot who was gawking at everyone with disheveled hair and sleepy eyes. All I wanted to do was to close the door at their face.

My mother thanked all of our helpful neighbors and came in and then all hell broke loose. She scolded us for our irresponsible behavior, and the embarrassment we caused to her. There was a second dose of it when our father returned.

Dear readers please don’t get the wrong notion that after this incident I turned out to be an insomniac. No, I think in the future one more time such an incident was repeated when I was in high school. What could I do? I think, Nyx, the goddess of sleep was sufficiently blessing me then.

I still feel embarrassed when I think of twelve pair of eyes staring at me as though I committed a terrible crime. Ironically I’m writing this in the early hours as I find that in my later years Nyx has almost abandoned me for some other souls and I firmly believe that one of them is my husband who is snoring blissfully on the other side of the door.

Susan

7 comments:

  1. lol. funny yet scary story...i can imagine how your mom felt...whew.

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  2. I love this Susan! It made me laugh--and yet I could feel your mother's anxiety! It reminded me of the time I was standing on my front porch talking to someone who had come to the door, and my four year old accidentally locked the door--with us outside and his newborn baby brother inside!! We finally had to go through a window which had been left open a crack. I laugh now, but it wasn't funny then!

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  3. i know exactly how your mom felt!! yet, now since it's way in the past, it's a great and wonderful story. thank you for sharing!

    warm smiles,

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  4. Hi Susan
    Gosh, what a story!
    I enjoyed reading it but can just imagine how your mom felt, terrifed I'm sure!
    Thank you for sharing.

    Margie :)

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  5. Dear Susan,

    Do you want me to write the following part of the story, with Bahrain as location?

    In similar terms, I remember, panickly driving my car at 120 kmph from office to home to realise that my beautiful wife and handsome son were sleeping with Air Conditioner on (and hence could not hear either my continuous telephone ring or calling bell or our neighbour's "wake-up calls"!!). I had to "force shutdown" the building's main power to make my telephone bell audible to them!!

    Rest, as you guessed right, is history!!

    Best Regards,
    Renjith

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  6. :) That was a great read! I could visualise it all!

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  7. I've been that mother. What a terrible feeling it is to imagine what must have happened to the children. I think only mothers get it. Anyway, I'm glad you were fine...of course if you hadn't been, we wouldn't have got to read this story.

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I am someone who loves almost everything that is related to art-be it writing, painting, crafts, music, dance; Yes,anything that can enliven my spirit. I am originally from Kerala,India. Currently I live in the US.

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