I am distracted by the idea of ghouls in the bath, of serpentine creatures seeping up through the plug hole and devouring my children. I need help. I can’t sleep. It’s ridiculous I know. I’ts about the blanket. I know how silly that sounds. It’s a throw, not a blanket, what is the difference-where you put it? IDK. It’s all the same.
He has been ill so I have slept on the couch, whole nights under its soft, warm comfort. But sometimes I wake in the night and it’s like there is someone lying next to me. An arm thrown over me, a leg along side mine. I don’t move. Horrified, there is someone there. But when I finally do move, there is only me and the blanket and the couch. And then I can’t sleep.
I look at it during the day, examine it. It is just a blanket, there is nothing special.
I nestle under it each evening to watch the television. But some nights it just feels more ‘aware’. One night I spilled something on it and I swear it jumped sideways. Or did I throw it? It’s the way it slips off me or doesn’t slip off me when it should. I can’t explain it.
When I lie in bed at night, I picture it stretching itself out on my couch. The thing is, it never seems to be in quite the position I left it. I get up in the night and try to catch it out. I folded it neatly one night, and got up at 3am to see if it had moved. It hadn’t. Well at least not in a big way. It had sorted of slipped as if it had just folded itself back into position. I know it can’t be the case. Its not real.
I am getting paranoid, I think the blanket is real, I think there are sea serpents down the plug hole, the kitchen is going to be covered in mould every morning when I wake up. I need more sleep.
And tonight I am tired and I need to go to bed. I brush my teeth, put the children to bed. I am so tired.
I take one last look out through the door that leads into the lounge, into the darkness. And there on the couch is the blanket. I daren’t switch the light on. It is there in the darkness sitting on my couch. It is sitting there as if it is a person. It is somehow draped over the cushion and it looks like it has a head. Like a shrouded body. I need more sleep.
I go to bed. I can’t get it off my mind. I can’t sleep. I get up again and peek through the door. It is still sitting there.
I go back to bed.
No I can’t sleep. Just knowing it is sitting there. I know it’s not real. It’s a blanket, it’s a throw, it is some kind of blanket throw combination which doesn’t matter.
I am bewildered, tired. I can’t sleep just knowing it is sitting there, human like, with form and shape.
I get up, go out into the lounge. I don’t switch on the light. Why don’t I switch on the light? I make my way through the murky darkness. I reach out my hand to smooth it down in the darkness and as I do…
It turns to face me.
A Tuesday Latte 