TM Challenge 228
"Come on, Gary, shut up. Come on."
He wakes up because his roommate is shaking his shoulder, hard--shake, shake, pay me attention. Pay me attention. He rolls over and looks up, into a bleary, irritated face, and thinks:
Oh. I had a dream.
Nobody's said anything for years. His family knows, they all know. His mother knows that every night he dreams--doesn't know it's about her dying, and he'd die sooner than tell her. His brothers can hear him but don't know what it is. It doesn't matter living at home because everyone's so used to it, but his first night away--
"Oh, my God," his roommate says, sitting back and wiping his face. "It's 3 a.m., man. You scream like a lunatic."
"Sorry."
"What were you dreaming about?"
"I don't remember," he says, without even a pause. "Sorry for waking you up."
"It's okay, just--oh, my God."
"Won't happen again," he says. "I hope," and laughs as easily as anybody.
He wakes up because his roommate is shaking his shoulder, hard--shake, shake, pay me attention. Pay me attention. He rolls over and looks up, into a bleary, irritated face, and thinks:
Oh. I had a dream.
Nobody's said anything for years. His family knows, they all know. His mother knows that every night he dreams--doesn't know it's about her dying, and he'd die sooner than tell her. His brothers can hear him but don't know what it is. It doesn't matter living at home because everyone's so used to it, but his first night away--
"Oh, my God," his roommate says, sitting back and wiping his face. "It's 3 a.m., man. You scream like a lunatic."
"Sorry."
"What were you dreaming about?"
"I don't remember," he says, without even a pause. "Sorry for waking you up."
"It's okay, just--oh, my God."
"Won't happen again," he says. "I hope," and laughs as easily as anybody.