dreams
Whenever I am awake while my mother
is sleeping, I find it expedient to be in another room, or
preferably several miles away; so that by mass or distance her
bloodcurdling screams are attenuated before they assault my
ears.
You see, my mother experiences
night terrors. As
that wikipedia link will tell you, night terrors are much like
nightmares, only they infiltrate our world from the darker places
beyond, inspiring my mother to spring awake from a dead sleep,
shrieking, and then as quickly fall back into slumber; leaving
bystanders wondering if medical attention should be summoned first
for their shattered ear drums, or for the stab wounds my mother had
to have acquired to produce such screams.
If you talk to her before she returns to sleep, she will babble
what can only be described as a
mad tale; of exploding
cats and malevolent figures, of the cosmic horrors which lurk
outside our mortal sight and wait unsleeping, ranks of eyes
unblinking and filthy dripping chitinous claws, for the portent
that will herald the End of Days, and plunge this plane into
night unceasing.
Once it was about house painters. For some reason.
So yeah, I've become a heavy sleeper.