A sleepy man in a sleepless land

I'm twelve years old as I drift down the Finley River in Southwest Missouri. I sit in an old inner-tube, wearing a Star Wars T-Shirt and a bathing suit and some old Chuck Taylor Converse Tennis Shoes on my feet because sometimes the bottom of the river will hide broken glass in it's murky waters.

The day is warm and I'm drowsy as I float along, absently kicking my feet gently just beneath the surface of the water. I pick each foot up, one at a time, and watch the water drip and pour off of them returning again to the river. The waterfall ahead, next to where a mill once stood, rumbles noisily in the distance.

Something looks different about the edge of the falls on this day... where the river should continue beyond the waterfall is a green wall covered with white dresser-drawer knobs, that covers my entire field of vision. "What the heck is that doing there?" I say aloud as I draw nearer.

The inner-tube glides along and instead of going over the falls, it bumps up against the big green wall, again and again and again. I reach up for one of the dresser knobs, and pull myself up out of the water. I reach up, hand over hand and start to climb. I position each foot carefully on a knob and begin climbing up the giant wall that reaches into the sky. Above me, a hawk circles endlessly and calls out to no one in particular.

I realize that I'm now hanging about thirty-five feet above the water and just as I'm about to continue my ascent, the phone begins to ring. After the second ring, I open my eyes and roll over on the bed...the clock reads 3:37...which means I have been asleep for only seven minutes. Funny, it seemed like much longer. I pick up the phone..."Hello," I say. "No, I don't know where Jared is at the moment...I'll find out...Hold on."

"JARED!" I yell. "What?" He queries. "Phone call!" I yell. "Who is it?" He asks. "Who is it?" I ask.
I am informed that it is Robert. "It's Robert," I yell. "I don't want to talk to him..." Jared answers. "He's busy" I lie. Click goes the phone.

I look at the clock which reads 3:39. I roll over. I close my eyes.

The wall is blue now and the river is green. The hawk is now a toucan and Sherry is standing on the inner-tube, balancing on it like a surf board. I am now only ten feet above the water. "Great!" I think. "Now I have to climb all that way back up! Stupid Phone call. Stupid Robert!"

"What are you doing?" Sherry asks, still inner-tube surfing. "Climbing" I answer... "Duh" I think.
"How are you balancing like that?" I ask. "I've known how to do this since I was a kid" she answers, very matter-of-factly. "My Dad taught me!"
"Oh" I answer.

There is a knocking in the distance. I think it is either Sherry or the toucan, but I'm not sure. Knock Knock Knock and then suddenly, the doorbell rings. "Jared" I yell. "Get the door!"
Jared answers "I'm not supposed to get the door when you're asleep!" "Shoot!" I think..."He's right!"

I get up off the bed and trudge down the stairs in my socks, jeans and Royals Baseball T-Shirt.
The sun is awfully bright for a not sunny day. I open the door and Dustin's friends, Ron and John are standing there.
"Is Dustin home?" they ask in unison. "No, he's at a friend's house" I answer. They shrug and straggle off of the porch and down the steps. No wasted small-talk there. I lock the door and head back upstairs. I look at the clock which reads 3:59.

"Where did you get the boat?" I yell to Sherry from my perch, high above. "My Dad built it" she says. I'm starting to wonder how her Dad could build a boat in the time that it took me to go answer the door, but then I think "It's a dream, Dave...go with it." I'm marveling at this amazing boat that Sherry's Dad has built and then I start to wonder Sherry has done with my inner-tube.

"Why are you still up there?" Sherry asks. "I don't know" I answer, but I'm thinking that I really want to get a closer look at this hawk/toucan. I look up at the sky but don't see him. "Where did the bird go?" I ask. "Which one?" Sherry asks..."The owl?"
"Yeah," I answer, thinking that she obviously doesn't know her birds. "He's down here, my Dad is fixing him some eggs." Sherry says.

As I climb down I begin to think about the moral implications of an owl eating eggs, when the phone rings. I open one eye and then the other. It is now 4:11 according to the clock. I pick up the phone and a cheery, robotic voice informs me to STAY ON THE LINE FOR AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE... I do. They try to tell me I need to have my van serviced soon. I hang up. I shut my eyes. I groan and fall asleep.

The owl is sitting at the table inside the large galley of the ship. Sherry's Dad is dishing out some scrambled eggs to him and he sits holding a fork and a knife in each claw. He licks his beak and begins too cut the eggs and then stops. "Hey, do you have any orange juice?" The owl asks. Sherry's Dad silently crosses to the refrigerator an gets a carton of juice out for the owl. Who knew that owls drank orange juice? I think to myself as I watch.

The boat begins to shake violently and I discover that it is only me shaking. Everything else is perfectly still. I awake to find Socks on the end of the bed, scratching violently at her neck. "Dog" I say to her..."This better be real good!" The clock says 4:23...I have it set to go off at 4:30.
I get up, plug in the iron and turn it on. Get out some clothes for work and go to get a drink of water.

Once again, nap time is foiled by the efforts of everyone and everything other than me. I may never again return to the Finley River of my dreams...and I'll never know if the Owl drank his orange juice or finished his eggs; or just how exactly Sherry's Dad got into the boat building business.

-David