1_8

He grunted twice and rolled over. He was swathed in sheets, tied up and left to sleep for all eternity. His pillow was too warm, but he didn't want to pull his arms up to his head to turn it over. He just pushed the pillow away and laid his head on the mattress instead.

He twitched, his body falling asleep, and his foot shot out from under the blanket. He slowly pulled it back in.

He sat there for three hours in a black mood. He couldn't find a motivation to get up. He could feel the sun rising and hanging overhead. He started counting to sixty. Sixty. Sixty. Sixty. He reached sixty sets, and he started all over again. Sixty. Sixty. Sixty. He noticed dust slowly falling in front of the window, each mote falling imperceptibly. He found one mote that fell like time and started following it down. It drifted from the top of the window, almost to the floor. He suddenly realized that he long since stopped counting. Then he realized that he had focused too much on the numbers and he had lost sight of the mote. He found another and started counting again.

The mote settled to the floor, and time slowed to meet its speed.

one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve thirteen fourteen

fiftyeight fiftynine sixty one two three four five six seven eight nine ten

Then a wind ripped past the house and gushed in through the cracks and shifted through the room and

the mote

twentyfour

rose

twentyfive

calmly

twentysix

twentysix

twentysix

twentysix

twentysix

twentysix

twentysix

twentysix

and time stood still.