I am awake

by Sam Oborne

I am laying on my side in bed. I am on my right side. I am leaning on my elbow. My face is pressed against my palm. It is early in the morning and I can hear people moving around in the house. Behind me in the bed is my wife. She is laying on her back and her mouth is a little open. She is snoring.

The bed is actually an airbed. It was hard last night, but now it has sagged, so the bed is really the floor. The floor is hard, in a different way to how the bed should be hard. Not a good hard.

I hear my wife roll onto her side. She stops snoring.

The people moving around in the house are our friends. They are married too. One of them is half Portugese, or something. The other one is from Surrey. The hard floor we are on is their hard floor.

I hear my wife moving a little. Her lips make a sticky sound when she opens her mouth. Outside, a bus goes past. I move onto my front and lean on both my elbows. I press my face into the mattress, which is really the carpet.

One of our friends is in the kitchen. I think it is the one who is a little Portugese. It sounds like he is putting cereal into a bowl and then putting milk onto the cereal. I lift my head up and move onto my left side. Now I am facing my wife. She has her eyes closed but I don't think she is asleep. I lift my hand and poke her in the stomach. She doesn't move. I poke her again.

The person moving around the house who could be our friend who is a little Portugese is now eating the cereal. I can hear the crunch.

I poke my wife again. She opens her eyes. She tells me to stop it. I ask her if she thinks we should get up. She just looks at me. I say that our friends are up. She shuts her eyes. I move onto my back and look at the ceiling. The ceiling is white. Our friend who is a little Portugese opens the front door of the house. Our friend who is from Surrey kisses him goodbye. He leaves the house.

Outside, a car alarm goes off. My wife is snoring again. I close my eyes.

Sam Oborne is from Kent. His blog is here.