The Unravelling
Sometimes, you get really, really tired…
At 11:36 pm on Wednesday, you finally get tired of staring at the ceiling in the half-darkness from the bathroom light and put on a movie. The movie is Tinker-Tailor-Soldier-Spy, which you happen to adore even though you have not watched it all the way through. Sometimes you come across a part you have never seen before, and the movie gains a little depth. Other times you seem to be watching the same scenes over and over again, and it lulls you, always, into a place where your brain shuts off and you can go to sleep. Like now.
At 2:43 am on Thursday, Cat begins his crusade for your wakefulness. The vanquishing of your sleep is one of his primary objectives. When you are tired, you make poor decisions regarding his food, and he grows fat on the results. He leaps on top of the game console and smacks the button with his paw, turning it on. Tinker-Tailor resumes directly behind him at the point where you began watching through your eyelids, and a burning owl flies around a classroom, keening his sad and frightened cry. Cat purrs at you from across the room, pleased with himself, and proudly fluffs up his shadowy double coat as he resettles all his paws and curls his tail around his toes, making the console creak. You put the pillow on your face and pretend to be dead. He doesn’t believe you.