You’ve Got to Run Without Sleep
The most striking thing about that morning was definitely the sky. It was a deep blue, the kind that you only see on postcards. The morning air rested on me like cotton, lightly touching every bit of exposed skin. The street in front of me was empty. There were no kids waiting for the bus or adults taking out the garbage. I watched the silence for a few moments and then started walking.
When I reached the intersection in front of the school I stopped. There were no cars jostling for position or students clogging up the sidewalks. I looked around for a few seconds, stifling the urge to call out, and then continued. I stopped in front of the main entrance and hesitantly tugged at the door handle. I sighed as it opened smoothly in front of me. Throughout the entire walk I had been holding out hope that the school would be locked, burned down, or simply gone. Anything to give me the day off. But it was open, and so I went inside.
My footsteps echoed in the empty hallways. I walked in the exact middle, making sure to stay away from the lockers that lined both sides. I eyed them warily, afraid that someone would suddenly burst out from one and attack me. Or maybe they would all jump out at once. Or maybe they were all following me, just out of sight, giggling and snickering at this wonderfully elaborate joke. I stopped outside of my first classroom and stared at the closed door. This time I could not resist the urge and called out in a tentative voice. The only response I received was my own echo. I pushed the door open quickly and went to my seat.
The bell rang at the appropriate time but the teacher never appeared. I stared straight ahead at the blackboard. It had been wiped clean after the last class, but patterns and words were still barely visible in the dust that remained. I studied it closely, straining my eyes and causing sweat to appear on my brow. I lost myself in the chalk dust. My body jerked violently when the bell rang to signal the end of the period. I stood up and walked to my next class.
Each class was the same. Empty rooms filled with silence. I attended each of them in turn and then found myself once again standing outside the main entrance of the building. I noticed that there were no birds chirping in the trees or squirrels running across the baseball field in front of me. I blinked and the sun shifted slightly in the sky. I coughed quietly and decided to walk downtown instead of going home. The sky was still a brilliant blue and the air still smelled like morning. I was halfway to the main drag when a car alarm started going off a few blocks away. I was at an intersection when I heard it, and I looked down the street in the direction of the intrusion. The trees that lined the road at regular intervals made it look uninviting. I shrugged uneasily and continued walking towards my original destination.
The alarm continued going off as I walked, following me. It always seemed to be two or three streets off to my right. Sometimes it warbled and changed pitch, sounding like an ambulance passing quickly on a sticky day. I envisioned the scene of the accident. Suddenly I saw motion out of the corner of my eye. I turned quickly to look but there was nothing. I took a moment to look at my surroundings. I could feel eyes glaring at me from every building, and the hair on my arms began to prickle and rise.
The world around me was a void filled to the brim with silence. It swallowed and consumed every noise that I made. The silence pressed into me, a tangible weight on my skin, and it seeped into my nose and ears and mouth and pressed on the membrane of my eyes. My eyes began to water. I blinked rapidly and it dissipated. I started walking faster.
I reached Main Street. The stoplights changed colors quickly, much faster than usual, but the pattern remained correct. Each direction received its fair share of green lights. I smiled and the car alarm finally stopped. All of the stores seemed to be open, although there was no one inside. I casually strolled down the sidewalk, not sure what I was looking for but knowing that I would recognize it when I saw it. I peered in the front window of each shop in turn, eventually stopping in front of the burger joint that the popular kids frequented. The tables and chairs were all perfectly arranged. It looked dangerous and inviting. I turned my back on it and faced the road.
I looked up at the sun, allowing it to burn into my retinas. It had not moved in the sky since I left my house that morning. I noticed motion again to my left. I continued staring at the sun for just a few moments longer, pretending that I had not noticed, and then I snapped my head to look. A golden retriever stared back at me from the end of the block. My heart began to thump rapidly against my ribcage. We stared at each other in silence. The sun dimmed slightly as a cloud passed in front of it. After a few moments it turned and trotted down a side street, looking at me intensely until it disappeared behind the corner. The sun reappeared and so I followed.
When I turned the corner I expected it to snarl and leap at me, or to find the entire town waiting to snarl and leap at me, but instead I found an empty street. The dog was not in view. I trotted along the dotted yellow line, swinging my head left and right to look down each side street as I passed. Nothing but silent trees and identical houses stared back at me. I stopped moving, breathing heavily and resting my hands on my knees. I heard a sound behind me and turned quickly. The dog stood ten feet away but still it only stared. Its eyes were huge and expressive, too expressive for a dog. It opened its mouth for a moment and then shut it, almost as if it was about to say something but then thought better of it. I laughed shrilly, surprising myself with the sound coming from my throat.
Suddenly the dog tensed, raising the hair on the back of its neck and turning quickly to look towards our left. I slowly followed its gaze but saw nothing out of the ordinary. When I turned back it was staring at me again but now it was closer. The expressiveness had disappeared from its face. Its eyes were blank and dog like, emitting unending love and happiness. I raised a shaking hand, moving towards it slightly as if to pet the golden fur on its back. It was completely motionless as I came closer and closer. It bolted as my hand touched the first wisps of hair, running in the direction it had looked previously.
Without thinking I ran after it, determined not to be left behind again. The houses on the side of us started to blur and warp as we ran. Eventually we were running side by side. I twisted and turned, following the dog without consciously knowing our destination. My legs churned and my lungs screamed, but I continued. We suddenly skidded to a stop as we reached the edge of town. The dog looked up at me with a pensive expression. It was back to looking abnormally human. I knew I was expected to do something, but as I looked around I had no idea what.
The sky was much darker than it had been before we had started running. The streetlights were starting to flicker on as the dog continued to stare. I rubbed the back of my neck, feeling embarrassed and avoiding its questioning gaze. We were at the line on the map where my town turns into another similar but differently named town. My thighs burned and my shoulders hurt from carrying my backpack. I wanted to scream and ask what was expected of me, but I knew that there would be no answer. Instead we stood side by side in silence. After a few minutes I heard the dog sigh and turned in time to watch it saunter away into the trees on our left. It never looked back as it disappeared.
I started to walk home. The moon moved quickly through the sky, too fast, and soon it was late and I was standing on my front porch. The silence began to press into the pores of my skin again. It made me want to scream, to shout, to shatter it. I clenched my teeth so hard that my jaw burned and I feared my teeth would crack. I could only stand it for a few seconds before I dropped my backpack and ran to the park across from my house, picking up a rock from the side of the road and shouting at the top of my lungs. The silence splintered and fluttered away. I threw the rock as hard as I could at the bay window of the Bulgart’s house, instantly regretting it and turning away before it hit. The sound of the shattering glass washed over me, cutting into my skin and forcing me to slap my hands over my ears and shut my eyes tightly. A few minutes later I opened them and turned around, viewing the hole in the window. I stared at it for a few more minutes and then turned away towards home.
I moved back towards my house, scuffing my shoes on the pavement as I walked. My front door opened without a key. My living room was warmly lit and cozy, but I ignored it and went to my room. I shut the door without turning on the light and flopped onto my bed. I stared at my ceiling in the dark and wondered if my mom would still wake me up for school like she usually did when I slept through my alarm.
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Posted on December 15th, 2007 at 10:17 pm
