1 – The Great Robbery of Sweet Six O’clock Sleep

A bird whistles in the distance, melodious beauty cuts through the heavy veil of sleep.  Senses alert, the freezer in the living room hums to life.  A series of mechanical whirls fill the silence of the house.  They said the thing would be silent that first day at the showroom.  The humming continues, the sound low but hardly silent…score for the sales man.  The humming cuts off five minutes later, the silence is surprising…welcome.  Once again, the bird living in the tree right outside the house whistles…or was he still whistling?

Sleep beckons, that sweet delicious wave of sleep only found at six in the morning.  A glance at the clock—that square-faced, faux-gold piece that is now twenty-five years old, still faithfully counting away the minutes— shows that it’s twenty-five minutes until six-thirty.  Eyes close, stubborn will clings to the comfort of warm blankets.  Nose buried in the wool-rich blankets, fingers clutching tight to the edges, contentment fills as once again I’m caught in the magical world between awake and dreams.

A heavy weight drops on my legs, and a sigh escapes.  Four paws trail a massage up my back, and loud purring fills the quiet.  Suki, the cat, is awake…

When the purring doesn’t work, she proceeds to dig her paws into the blankets.

Step, step, dig, dig…Suki’s purring volume increases…wake up, wake up.

Suki steps a rhythm on my back.

I hold the blankets closer.  A peek at the clock, and it’s only six fifteen…not time yet.  Ignoring Suki’s vicious alarm clock, I close my eyes and desperately cling to that sweet sleep.  How was that dream going again…?

Ah yes—

A heavy weight drops on my head, enough to grab me away from sweet bliss.  I push the covers away and raise my head slightly.  Suki sits on the floor, her dark irises round and large in the morning light.  Her gaze is expectant.  She thinks she’s won with her hit and run…I smirk.

My head finds the pillow again, this time I turn away from her, and make sure to cover my head well with the blankets.  The faithful clock says it is six twenty-five.  I’m getting my five minutes in.

My nose is cold.  The temperatures are their usual low this early in August.  The thought of a shower is not appealing.  Closing my eyes, I seek that delicious sleep again…five minutes and then I will wake up.

Two minutes in, the blankets are warm again…the dreams right on the fringe.

Suki jumps on me, again.  Her purr is soothing, her weight on my arm friendly.  She lulls me further into sleep…and then, she’s pawing at the blankets covering my head.  Her claws sink into the heavy blanket and the tips meet skin, I sit up in a hurry and she jumps off fast.

She sits on the floor…smirking at me.

My blankets are thrown aside, the warmth sucked away by the frigid room temperature.  There’s no getting that back now. Damn minx has won this round.

I glance at the clock and scowl, Suki won at six twenty-seven.  She meows, the sound of it urgent.  She’s hungry and wants food, now.  I feel robbed of three delicious minutes of sleep.  Giving a loud yawn in answer, I get up and chuckle when Suki leads the way to the kitchen.

***

This is Day One of the writing challenge…came up with this in fifteen minutes.  I think it went ok.  Will see how it goes tomorrow. ^_^