A half hearted historic adventure written years ago, on napping. I'm so easily inspired.
Half awake and half asleep is like drifting slightly. I imagine it would be something like a person who has been floating around the sea crashed and thrashed by the slipping and slapping waves, then the person gets dragged towards the shore towards the foam and the curl. Half the body on the shore and the legs and feet and waist are being licked and flicked by the waves coming in. Then the person wakes up grogilly. Huh what the person mutters and stummers, but water slips into the persons mouth, sea water and sand. The person gets the sensation of being in between two different things. Top body, arms, neck, torso, face hair, lips, ears, are against the grit and sand, somewhat damp and drying. Then the person realises that the person's legs are being washed by the foam, it makes a soft sound when it breaks on you. Like a million tiny pebbles the size of ants being thrown on you.
But being asleep isn't exactly like drowning and being thrown around by waves. So to be more accuarate about it its like a mermaid being dragged to shore. Mermaids enjoy the sea right? Probably just a sleeping mermaid caught by an underwater current. When the mermaid wakes up it'll probably say, this is interesting and then dive right back.
Even if I open my eyes completely it would still take a while for things to get focused. For the moment that pillow looks like a cracker in negative tin tone. I turn around and close my eyes again, I don't even notice that I've fallen back asleep, when I wake up again I'm almost surprised. Eyes still closed it feels like a deepish grey colour has enveloped you and surrounded you completely. I realise after about two seconds the sound of a dog barking, it comes back muffled and filtered, like the surrounding colour has sort of absorbed the essence of a sound. This is the only time when a sound can actually lose substance. In a way it sounds distant and far away. But if you hear a phone ringing from the next house it still has substance, it penetrates the surroundings with complete clarity all it loses is its amplitude. When listening to a phone ringing all I can think is who the fuck is gonna answer that. Its just a matter of simple distance. And waiting for Who The Fuck to answer the phone.
The dog bark feels like it came from somewhere else, somewhere relatively nearby but this place has colour and clarity and canines. This place has only grey blank barks with no dog to bark it. I close my eyes again and slip into sleep again with anybody noticing, even I don't notice. I roll in and out again and again. I wake up again and the dog is still barking, I keep my mind focused on the dog and it becomes less and less far away and less and less empty. The sound of someone cooking comes into. I stay on the bed eyes closed stretching. I have to physically force myself to open up my eyes and sit up.
*
Everything is black, convinced that my dream is reality I sit up the phone rings. In my room Who The Fuck is me this time. I groan and huh in my own mind and after a few seconds of the slit eyed view the colour comes swimming and swirling in. Imagine yourself watching something. In front of you you can see a pipe and then the water pours and and it swoams and furls and curls and foams and floods and fills. Swish Swish Swash until your whole view becomes drenched. That is how the colour comes in, then I recognise things and for half a second I think: this is a dream. Then I realise you have a job, I pick up the phone. The person on the other line asks if I am okay. I say yes. I rub my eyes. Ah this is it then, I think, this is a sleeping hangover....
The person on the other lines continues the conversation. I grunt and say yes while nodding at the same time. A nap now? Yes.
*
