Her Interrupted Night

There were enough clocks in the bedroom for her to know the time 10 times over, but she refused to focus on any of the dozen of them for fear of waking up her brain. Even so she felt herself coming into consciousness and the eyelid crack allowed her to see only black from the window beside her bed. But what had jarred Monika awake?

It was the disconcerting, weird whistling coming from the outside which continued unrelentingly. Monika turned one side to the other in her bed and covered her head to drown out the annoying whiny whistling. Then it subtly faded only to return with increased volume and at a higher pitch.  She wanted to sleep so much that her feet finally hit the floor, and she bravely looking at the clock glowing in front of her. To her dismay it was 12:20 AM.

Monika made her way through the dark living room and on to the rec room where she was sure she would find the whistling villain. She had to get rid of the whistler or she could not return to her dreams which she so much wanted to finish. She lifted the roll-up screen door onto the back deck, pulled apart the insulated fabric doors just as she was hit with a full body slam of cold north wind whipping around the corner of her Sportster Toy Hauler RV.

Monika was angry that she couldn’t punch out the whistling offender because she wanted to knock the snot out of the whiny fiend for interrupting her night and her dream. But that’s hard to do to the elusive wind.

“Hmmm, so much for my first week in my new home on wheels that allows wind to whistle around it,” she muttered to herself. Monika shuffled in her monkey slippers back to the bedroom. She turned the glowing clock upside down so it would not taunt her with its glow. She rearranged her bed to make it inviting to fall asleep then rolled on in with high expectations. 

She was relieved at the discovery and hoped for no more surprises -- but there was more to the story and let’s not forget the wind because there was something else which was going to interrupt this night. As Monika pulled the covers up over her head, the whiny high-pitched whistling gale outside penetrated the crocheted blanket she was gripping over her ears. 

Sleep was impossible. She psyched herself down into relaxing to the pendulum swing and tic toc. Her subconsciousness began recalling the dream she’d abandoned earlier. Maybe she could pretend to sleep and the dream would return.

"….. the inmates of the prison had just pulled an unbelievable crawl through more feet than they wanted to think of in the sewer pipe. Now for the next daring feat was the monkey swing from the light pole on the north side of the prison to the chain link fence – the only spot where there was no concertina razor wire on top. Now freedom was in reach of the two escapees. The first one made the leap successfully and took off on a dead run into the nearby woods while the other prisoner made a daring ………."

…… at least that’s what she imagined the dream to have continued as but sleep would not come. Then Monika’s chime clock struck 1 and evaporated any relaxing molecules that were created in her body. Once again, she rolled out of bed and once again her feet hit the floor in pursuit of the off button on her chime clock. “Darn clock, you’re not going to keep shuffling me from consciousness to something resembling sleep!”

As she reached behind the clock base to flip the switch off, the RV started wobbling in rhyme with the persistent wind outside and Monika lost her balance and fell against the bed. Another blast sent the chime clock to the floor barely missing Monika leaning against the bed. 

She got up from her tumble and stared out the window into the darkness just as the swing on her front porch was body slammed with a gust of high velocity wind and went crashing off the porch to the ground below. “What have I gotten myself into deciding to live in an RV?” she muttered under her breath. She was learning something veteran RV owners already knew -- the wind whistles and the RV wobble wiggles.

The third time was the charm Monika firmly believed, so she once again rolled into bed and piled pillows over her head to somehow shield her from other falling things. She closed her eyes and tried fervently to fall into unconscious sleep. Her body twitched as her muscles relaxed ……….

…….daring leap onto the fence his colleague had successfully reached. By this time the first prisoner disappeared into the dense woods and fell into a bush exhausted trying to catch his breath. Then he peered out of his hiding place because his partner in crime should be outside the fence by now but that is not what he saw. There were guards everywhere and the “prisoner loose” alert lights were flashing all around the prison.  “Oh no, what am I to do now because Junior had directions to their safe house.  I’ve gotta get …"

……. Her eyes popped open in an instant not even knowing if she had been awake or asleep as a crash of thunder hit the Sportster and a flash of lightning lit up the bedroom like broad daylight. And right on the heels of that, the RV swayed and the third clock met it’s fate on the floor.  Then the pendulum clock rang out 2 dongs for the 2 o’clock hour. Reflexively, Monika pushed off the pillow and grabbed the pendulums and tied them together with one of her hair ties, effectively shutting down the fourth clock.

“I can’t do this anymore ….. my flight to Dallas leaves at 7 for the interview for my new job” she screamed to herself. “I have to get some sleep, and I want to know what happens at the prison in my dreams.”

Monika flopped her body across the bed thinking she might fall asleep by “mistake” as it were. The wind died down and so did the whistling and wobbling. There were still gusts from time to time, but they were not constant. She made sure the remaining four functioning clocks would not have the chance to attack her. The other four were decorative only and served no earthly use.

But there was one timepiece she had forgotten – her phone and she had also forgotten the alarm she had set on it a week ago to get up and turn the water faucet off outside that was watering her lawn. Soon Monika, once again felt the calm of sleep enveloping her – maybe, maybe this time…….

"…….. Spike decided he needed to proceed with his now very unknown flight before the prison guards started tracking him. He felt so bad about Junior because they had both invested a lot in this escape plan and it was going to be successful but now that success was in question. He felt his way along an overgrown pathway through the woods. He knew there was a small creek that he would have to cross in order to continue parallel to the highway but away from anyone able to discover him. Then he heard a siren coming close ……."

…. or maybe it wasn’t a siren at all but rather Monika’s vibrating then shrieking phone as the 3 o’clock alarm began sounding that she had set a week ago and had forgotten it. “Oh, no will this nightmare every stop?” she cried into the bed covers. She shut the silly alarm off without looking at the phone hoping to keep some semblance of relaxation in her brain. The rain continued but at least the wind gust became fewer and farther between so falling objects were not falling any more. The remaining three clocks now hopefully would behave themselves.

Her eyes became heavy and by now she was exhausted from her rowdy night, so she felt sleep was imminent and soon expected to pick up where the conscious dreaming had stopped. She certainly felt like she was in her own dream and she was tag teaming the story line but in reality, she didn’t know if she was awake or asleep. But this time was different because Monika really ………

"……… and closer so Spike ran across the low creek bed and entered the dense woods on the other side. There was so much underbrush that walking was difficult in the dark of the night, but he stumbled on and made progress. He could still hear the roar of the traffic, so he knew he was on the route he had tracked out with Junior. Then in an instant …………"

…….. “pound, pound, pound” was a harsh knock on the door which caused Monika to bounce off her bed to her feet again but this time she was brought back to consciousness because she had fallen briefly asleep.Her eyes squinted trying to make sense of this crazy night. She stumbled slowed down the two steps to the living area as the pounding on the door started again.

“Who’s there?” yelled Monika, “what the hell, its 4 o’clock in the morning!”

“Open the door, ma’am we are with the Sheriff’s office,” called out a male voice. Monika slowly opened the door a crack. 

“Ma’am, did you know that we are under a flash flood warning and you are in a very low area?” questioned the Officer. “There are also tornado warnings in the area.”

“No, I didn’t but this is my first storm in an RV and it’s been somethin’ else,” replied Monika sleepily. “But I think I’ll be ok, I just need to get back to bed and find some sleep.” She slammed the door firmly and locked it then headed upstairs just as the nail broke loose from the wall and the fifth clock slid down and hit the floor. Monika didn’t even care and let it lay there in a heap, not realizing it was the clock with the alarm for her early morning flight to Dallas. For the umpteenth time she rolled into her bed, covered up and released herself into the fate of the remainder of this interrupted night to catch the last scene of the dream.

"….. Spike was thrown to the ground, handcuffed and shackled with ankle irons. He’d failed and now his prison term would probably be doubled at least. He knew this as he hung his head on the walk back to the 4-wheeler where he was tied unmercifully tight to the all-terrain vehicle."

Two hours later, the rosy horizon started lighting up and when another hour passed, Monika still lay fast asleep in her bed, totally unaware. The batteries of the clock that fell were knocked out when the clock hit the floor, so the alarm did not go off. Monika also had another alarm set on her phone, but when the electricity went out it did not charge so the phone alarm never sounded. So not only was her night ruined, but her day also lay in shambles as well as a job promotion she’d waited patiently for the past five years. We don’t know when she woke up except late morning the neighbor reported that she heard a penetrating scream of panic that said it all.