what dreams may come

Last night as I was drifting off to sleep and very nearly there, I was suddenly and abruptly certain I had heard Shawn whisper something in the dark. It frightened me.

"Did you say something?" I said, quietly in case he was actually asleep and I was losing my mind to fever again.

"No." He said this too quickly, with too much conviction, and with a voice that wasn't even slightly sleepy. He was lying.

"You did too," I said. "I heard you. What did you say?"

He hesitated. Finally, "I said, whyyyyyyyyy." As soon as he said it, I recognized it as the exact sound I'd heard from halfway into sleep.

"Why? Why what? What did you mean?" My brain, no longer half-asleep, began to finish his thought. Why did I marry this woman? Why is she so weird? Why doesn't she greet me at the door naked with a martini in her hand?

"Not that kind of why. The other kind. Like ayy-- eee-- aii-- ohh--yoo- ... and sometimes whyyyyyyy."


A pause when I tried to understand that.


"What?"

"I'm trying to make one of my animations talk. I was moving my mouth to try and figure out how the vowels are shaped. I didn't mean for the Y to be out loud."

I digested this. He wasn't lying. He's just crazy. It's easy to tell the difference.

"A, E, I, O, U..." I said.

"Right. And sometimes Y."

"Whyyyy..." I said.

"Whyyyy..." he said.

"Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

*