Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Shake the Rattle

I haven’t been sleeping well. Our bed has a metal headboard with a design full of loops and swoosh-like thingies. At one place, where metal connects with metal, it’s been rattling a bit. Whenever I turned over in my sleep (a common occurrence, apparently), the headboard would rattle and wake me up.

For many months, I woke up several times a night.

But then I’d go right back to sleep. And then I’d wake up again. Then back to sleep. Up. Sleep. Up. Sleep. I tightened screws and did everything I could think of, but nothing worked. (Of course, the rattling never bothered my wife so she slept fine.)

Last night, the rattling was insane right from the beginning and I couldn’t fall asleep. It didn’t help that I was already upset over a run-in with an adult trying to keep teens away from my book. So I reached up, grabbed one of the loops, grit my teeth, and shook the heck out of the thing.

And the rattling stopped. No more rattle! Woo-hoo!!!

When I woke up this morning, it was my first time opening my eyes since shaking the headboard. But the best part of all were the dreams. It had been a long time since I could recall any of my dreams. And I love dreaming! Especially the dreams you get on a good night’s sleep.

A mob of librarians carried me through the library on their shoulders. They were showing me all the places they decided to shelve Thirteen Reasons Why. Teen fiction. Adult fiction. Poetry. Self-help. Travel(?). History(?!?!). They finally set me down in front of the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly. In my favorite column, “The Pop of King” by Stephen King, Uncle Stevie spent the entire page rejoicing in his latest literary discovery.

Guess whose book he was talking about!

I love dreaming so much...

4 comments:

K. M. Walton said...

#1 it sucks when all you want to do is sleep and something is preventing that

#2 small-minded adults suck even more

#3 The Pop of King 100% doesn't suck. It makes my heart jump when I see it in Entertainment Weekly. It is such a nugget of reading joy, isn't it?

Suzanne Young said...

So you get dreams where Stephen King is discussing your book, and I get dreams with Ed McMahon casting me on a Variety Show? That is completely UNFAIR!

Jay Asher said...

K.M., I totally agree with all three points. And I've always thought, of all the living authors, Mr. King is who I'd most like to hang out with. (Anyone got any connections?)

Suzanne, I don't know what you're talking about. Ed McMahon's very cool. He's even making a comeback! I saw a commercial recently where he's rapping. Rapping! I've never seen Mr. King do that.

Kelly H-Y said...

Oh, that would be totally aggravating ... glad you got it fixed and were able to dream freely! That was one awesome dream!