Sarah's Somniloquies

I roll over.

Sarah: Babe, are there any more nighttime things we were supposed to be doing?

John: Nope, we’re done for tonight.

Sarah: Ok, good.

Sarah wakes me up suddenly out of a deep sleep.

Sarah: Are you gonna party?

John: Hmm?

Sarah: I was talking to Brin.

Sarah wakes up abruptly.

Sarah: What am I missing?

John: I don’t know. What are you thinking of?

Sarah: Mostly her toys and stuff.

Sarah wakes up from a dead sleep when she hears me roll over.

Sarah: Please be careful, please be careful, please be careful.

John: Careful about what?

Sarah: Oh, well. Just the bunches of flowers. That’s all.

Sarah: Carry on. Carry on.

Sarah: Hey hey hey hey Brin.

John: It’s just me, babe.

Sarah: Oh, it’s just you.

I get back into bed.

Sarah: Hey babe, can you grab your baby on the other side of the room?

John: Um, Brin is sleeping in her room in the crib.

Sarah, after a pause: Are you sure there are no other babies over there?

John: Pretty sure.

Sarah sits up in bed and starts pulling at the covers on my side of the bed.

John: What are you doing?

Sarah: Let go.

John: What?

Sarah: Let go!

John: (giggling) Uh, those are tucked under the mattress at the foot of the bed.

Sarah: Oh, I thought those were Brinley’s.

Sarah startles me awake by sleep-talking.

Sarah: Slippity-skooto.

John: Huh?

Sarah: Piskooto.

John: What?

Sarah, frustrated: IT’S GOOD THOUGH.

John: What was?

Sarah, singsongy: I dunno.

John: Huh?

Sarah: The food!

John: What did you have?

Sarah: Whatever the heck I wanted.

I open my phone to write this goodness down.

Sarah: What are you doing?

John: Um, checking on something.

Sarah, angrily: Well quit it and let me sleep!

Sarah: Do you know if we’re missing any of those shiny, pointy things?

John: What shiny, pointy things?

Sarah: You know, the sawzall blades.

John: No, I don’t think so. Why?

Sarah: Cuz lately the cats have been stealing our stuff.

She giggles.

Sarah: Cats are funny.

Sarah: Tons of containers.

John: Huh?

Sarah: Tons of containers holding stuff.

John: Like what?

Sarah: I don’t know!

John: Were they big containers?

Sarah: Oh no, they were little ones.

She rolls over and pulls up her covers with a hrumph.

Sarah: What do we have to do to get a…

John: Get a what?

Sarah: Give me a minute to think of the word.

Sarah, after an agonizingly long time: A gutter dump.

John: I’m not sure. What do you think?

Sarah, despairingly: I don’t know.

Sarah snaps awake, mumbling.

Sarah: Shings.

John: Huh?

Sarah: Shooting.

John: Shooting what?

Sarah: Shooting those little… um… thumb tacks on the frames.

John: You’re talking about picture frames?

Sarah: Yeah.

John: Why?

Sarah: Babe, I don’t ask questions.

Sarah rolls over, giggling.

John: What’s so funny?

Sarah: I was thinking about that time we were up on the mountain.

John: Oh yeah? What was funny about it?

Sarah, after some thought: It was a photo resizing thing.

John: Uh…

Sarah: Sometimes you’ve just got to laugh even when you don’t know what you’re laughing at.

John: So very true.

Sarah: The plants.

John: Huh?

Sarah: The plants were in the room.

Sarah: It was a problem.

John: What was?

Sarah: With the… (long silence) It was a problem with the little air filling pump thingy. Don’t make me talk any more.

Sarah rolls over.

Sarah: Am I supposed to be remembering the pots?

John: The pots?

Sarah: No! Am I supposed to be ordering some?

John: Try to remember.

Sarah: (long silence) Ummmmm… I don’t know. It’s all so different.

I get into bed.

Sarah: Go ahead and throw some water on the walls.

John: Which walls?

Sarah: Oh, you know the ones.

Sarah: That’s disgusting.

John: What is?

Sarah: The picture.

John: What picture?

Sarah: In my miiiiiind!

John: Why is it so disgusting?

Long silence of a minute.

Sarah, sadly: There’s no way for me to show you.

She rolls over and is asleep.

Sarah turns over.

Sarah: It was about the ice cream.

John: What about the ice cream?

Sarah, with pleasure: It’s for me! To eat!

Sarah sits up all of a sudden and starts feverishly examining her fingers and bracelets.

John: What’s the matter?

Sarah: Well some of them are longer on the right than on the left, and she said that’s not good.

John: Well that IS a problem. What are you going to do about it?

Sarah: Sell them and buy some candy and buy some drugs.

She turns over and is asleep within seconds.

Sarah: I can’t really see it.

John: See what?

Sarah: The color.

John: Which one?

Sarah: You know, the slithle-bithle color.

John: Silver?

Sarah: No, more like red or yellow.

John: Why is that, do you think?

Sarah: Well… ah… I think because the strip is too thin. (makes hand motion)

John: Can I help with that?

Sarah: No! (despondently)

She rolls over and is dead to the world.

Sarah rolls over, perplexed.

Sarah: Babe! I forgot.

John: Forgot about what?

Sarah: Forgot about the… um… (incoherent rambling)… the little ticking machine thingy.

Sarah sits bolt upright, head cocked as if listening.

John: What did you hear?

Sarah: No, I was trying to remember… There was that place with all those… rooms, people, friends (incoherent fast-talk). You know.

John: A hotel?

Sarah: No!

Sarah: (after a minute) Don’t make me think.

I am reading in bed. As I turn a page Sarah rolls over with a broad grin.

John: What’s so funny?

Sarah: Oh it’s just the sound of the… uh… the…

John: Pages?

Her grin widens.

Sarah: Yeah, just the sound of ’em.

Sarah: Stop saying that.

John: Stop saying what?

Sarah: Well… I’ve been thinking. Sometimes before… uh… Sometimes before you go to bed you say… Wait, what is it you say?

I get into bed.

Sarah: It’s pretty stinkin’ funny.

John: What’s that?

Sarah: All I said was that it’s pretty stinkin’ funny.

Sarah rolls over with an annoyed look on her face.

Sarah: Who’s Jonesie?

John: Huh?

Sarah: Who’s Jonesie?

John: Jonesie?

Sarah: Yeah.

John: I don’t know. Why?

Sarah: Because you were talking about Jonesie with someone outside the window. That’s weird.

Sarah wakes up.

Sarah: Luke wears one?

John: Huh?

Sarah: Luke wears one?

John: Excuse me?

Sarah, frustrated: LUKE… WEARS… ONE?

John: Oh. Ok.

Sarah: How about Paige Morgan?

John: Huh?

Sarah: Oh I was just thinking about the… kids at work.