Tag: sleep

The Sheep Who Leaped from Sleep

The door of the diner burst open and the frenzied man who burst in with it cried, “It’s raining sheep!”

Just as he spoke, two diners in the diner heard a gentle rustling crash in the hedges just outside the windows next to their booth. They stared through the glass. The startled black head of a sheep stared back at them.

People rushed to the windows. Some rushed past the man at the door.

Outside the sky was covered in banks of fluffy white clouds that were breaking off and dropping to the ground. But they weren’t clouds. They were sheep. Dozens of sheep. Falling from the sky.

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Zone of Eternal Sleep

“There’s nowhere on Earth,” Sam said, her voice low and slow, as if she were dragging the sounds out of her mouth.

“Did you try the moon?” Lee’s voice sounded about the same.

Sam winced. “Sorry, I can go—“

“No.” Lee sighed. “It’s my turn.”

Sam managed a small smile, her eyes half-lidded, as she rocked the groaning baby in her arms.

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The Eye in My Ceiling

I thought it was a reflection at first. Not the moon. Some streetlight or something, from outside, getting past my curtains. I was too lazy, too sleepy to get up and deal with it. But I do remember thinking it was strange.

Isn’t the light too bright to be a reflection? I thought, peeking up at the ceiling.

I do remember resisting the urge to rub my eyes. I wanted to take a closer look.

Did I just see something floating in the light?

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The Waking of J

And then he woke up.

He huffed out a breath and gasped.  He was covered in sweat, even though the room was cool.  His eyes were still shut, but he felt the wetness gathered at the rims of his eyelids.  He squeezed and a tear rolled down from the corner of his eye and wet the outer rim of his ear.

Right away, he calmed.  The intensity of whatever emotion he’d been feeling that brought him to tears just vanished.

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The Everyday God Who Wished To Sleep

A tale was once told among the ancestors of the people who live at the base of the great mountain to the north, from which a waterfall plummets into a river that winds across the land.  The people who now live in that rich and lovely place still remember the tale of how and why their ancestors’ hearts once grew still and frigid.  And they still remember what part the everyday gods played in the tale.

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The Incident of the Imp

A kid…in a costume. It had to be.

Still, it was frightening. To think I almost hit the poor little guy.

Maybe it was a good thing that the costume was so good, so convincing. The sickly yellow glow-in-the-dark contacts. The pro-quality fang fixtures. That tail that almost looked as if it were whipping back and forth on its own. I thought it was some animal I’d almost hit. That would have been bad enough. If I’d known it was a kid, I might have panicked and lost control of the car. Maybe I would have hit him.

But Halloween was days ago. Was some kid having his last hurrah? Loved his costume so much, he decided to keep wearing it?

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Subway to Yesterday

  Recognition I snapped awake at the sound of subdued screaming music spilling from the headphones of the teen who had just settled down on the seat next to me.  I glanced over at her, and she flicked her gaze in my direction, as if daring me to say something.  But I was preoccupied by […]

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