The Start of Something

This is not a good time to start anything.

The night wanes deep.  The power has gone out.  The Kindle is drained, and the cell phone is at 4%.  Best to leave that for emergencies.

Nevertheless, my uninvited guest refuses to leave.  Insomnia has taken up residence, and I cannot shake it. It clutches me tighter than the blanket I have wrapped around me.

It is 45 outside.  And without a functioning heating system, the house is rapidly racing to match that.

I should have made sure that the flashlights had working batteries.  They stay on long enough for me to find a candle and some matches.  I set it on the dining room table and light it.

There is enough luminescence for me to see the paper and pencil I have set before me.

The dog looks up at me, shivering.  I put him on my lap underneath the blanket.  Thay way, we can warm each other. Dalton, my precious Chiweenie heater.

The paper, white and college-ruled, is looking up at me.  Fill me up.  Make me dance. It dares me.  It mocks me.

This is not a good time to start something.  Or maybe it was.  What else was there to do?  I can't sleep.  I can't do much of anything else.

Dalton is already asleep.  I envy how easy it is for him to slip into the dreamscape.

I clutch the pencil.  I shake my cobwebs.  Where to start?

After much brain strain, I birth my opening sentence.

Last night was a mistake.

There it is.  The start of something.  

I heard a woosh and a click.  The room was flooded with light.  The power was back on.

I stare down at what I had written.  What was I thinking?

I wrinkle the page into a ball and let it sear in the candle's flame.

Dalton clambers to the floor, no longer in need of my body heat and blanket.

That was not the time to start something.  As much as I was haunted, as much as I could not sleep, exorcism would not help.

A siren sounded, getting closer, flashing lights in the driveway.  Then silence. Then a knock at the door.

It might not be the time to start something. But it looked like something was going to finish.

I pray that someone will take good care of Dalton.