Sleep

It happened the day they took the mattress off the floor. What happened? They got a bed. They were off the floor, closer to the ceiling, level with chairs and the bedside table. They felt good about being higher up. They felt like they deserved it. But he was afraid of falling off the bed. Don't be, she told him. It is only a few inches off the ground. It could be higher. She told him as she held him tight and he looked over the edge. Look you can reach down and touch the ground. He reached down and touched the ground and felt it solid underneath his had and this made him feel better.

The night of sleep on the high bed was the best. It was the deepest, most complete sleep either had ever gotten. They awoke refreshed and energized, like they had never felt before.

Lets make it higher, she said, imagining how great they would feel with just a few more inches. So they made it higher, another six inches, and they felt even better than before. They felt like new people, they felt like God himself was rubbing their backs and caressing their hair as they drifted off to sleep.

She wanted it higher. We could sleep in heaven, she said. He was scared, reluctant. He didn't want to get too far off the floor, but he was drunk with content sleep. He felt complete and rested, like he didn't need the floor.

So they went higher. A larger leap this time, four feet. They needed a ladder. They slept like the dead. They slept like the dead who had died and gone to heaven. It became a drug. They were addicted to the sleep of the gods, and they wanted more. They wanted to transcend the sleep of the dead so that they were actually able to leave their bodies and live, while their minds sleep. They could sleep forever and live forever. If they could only build the bed higher.

They built it up so it was right by the ceiling, so their bodies were right next to the ceiling as they fell alseep.