my rocket

In bed with my eyes closed for what seemed like hours, I was on the brink of sleep. Someone dragged something across the floor above me. Out in the hall someone else threw their garbage down the shute.

'I'm at their mercy', I thought. 'Awake.'

'Maybe if you didn't eat all that chocolate...', I scolded myself. 'Or maybe if you took that pill.'

I saw my workday at the end of this road called night, getting closer. The last thing I remember is wondering if we were in the thick of the summer. There was an urgency there - is it more than half over, or is it still just the middle?

The next night, as I drifted off, in my half-dream state, thoughts floated by soft as cloud. Out of nowhere I saw a rocket coming at me, head on, slicing through the sky. I was instantly awake, listening to the air conditioner buckling and creaking under the weight of the edematous summer.