Snap

Tammy didn’t know what was happening. She was asleep. So painless. So wonderfully peaceful. She couldn’t open her eyes. She couldn’t speak.

Why were those people hanging around? Why couldn’t she talk to them? She didn’t panic. She thought she smiled, but no-one would smile back at her. 

She floated out of and over her body, watched it sleeping. She even saw people with tears in their eyes. Why? And she couldn’t talk to anyone! 

She felt a lovely life, floating around in the corners of her room, able to go outside if she wanted to, visit other people in this building. She smiled at others and some smiled back. Only who were asleep. Like her.

What was life? Was she still alive? Was she just asleep? She knew: yes, she knew – her body was asleep. She had time; she had to explore.

She floated down the hallway, looking at people in that hallway, wondering why they looked so busy, or seemed very upset, or, occasionally, just laughed. Wonderful people! Or maybe not so wonderful… so upset.

She perched in a corner, high above the alive people, and was joined by a woman who puffed herself out and floated with her and sighed.

“Are you dead?” the woman asked.

Tammy tinkled, blew her laughter out into the void above the hallway.

“No!” she said, her voice crystal clinking. “I’m asleep!”

“Pleased about that,” the woman said, a light, lovely voice. “I am too. Sleep’s better for the body and floating around here is better for my brain.”

Tammy looked at her, amused, full of questions but didn’t know which to ask. So she said “What’s your name?”

“My sleep name is Sally McIntosh. My real name is Shadmuckle!”

Tammy smiled, deeply.

“So what is yours?”

“My sleep name is Tammy Greene. My real name is Teasergazal. I have only discovered that!” She laughed, tinkled. “I’m not bad, really!”

Shadmuckle’s laughter rang down the hallway, turned some people around yet none could see her. She giggled, covered her mouth. “I have to be quieter!”

“Why?” asked Teasergazal.

“So I can stay here with you! Or we can go further out from this dingy hallway.”

“Oh gosh, don’t even think that,” gasped Teasergazal. “We can’t really leave our sleeper bodies. They mightn’t live!”

“Well have you thought that being out on your own might just be better than sleeping every time you’re in here?”

“Why?”

“Because discovering is much better! Much more enjoyable!” Shadmuckle floated up from her puff, spun round, loved the feeling, turned back to face Teasergazal. “Admit that!”

The third voice seemed to come from a wall behind them, but the chap who sang for them just floated over from… wherever. They’d never seen him before!

“I know my name,” he grinned. “My sleep body name is Murray Knight, so my real name is Mazerkilick. I am here to keep you in fun!!” He spun around better than Shadmuckle had done, and his heavy breeze tucked the other women into his spin. They all three laughed, and laughed again when their volume had people down there looking around – probably for them, but they wouldn’t find.

“What are we doing?” asked Shadmuckle. She floated up against where the wall met the ceiling and just about disappeared.

“We are all asleep, possibly for far too long,” said Mazerkilick, “so let’s make everyone’s life fun!”

“Uh oh,” whispered Teasergazal. “You are going to cause trouble, aren’t you?”

Mazerkilick looked innocent. “Not at all!” he claimed, spreading his arms and legs and hanging from the ceiling. “Who can see us anyway?” He smirked. “Bet they can hear something from us. Mostly just a whisper, mostly a breeze of sound going past them. Maybe they need something more to make them laugh!”

Shadmuckle squealed and puffed up again. She would love that! Teasergazal looked a bit doubtful, but she’d started the meeting up here so she would join in. “What are we doing?”

Mazerkilick was singing, “…and we laugh like soft, mad children.” He reappeared beside them and grinned. “Do I sound like a kid? That song was sung by The Doors. Very good. Okay,” he continued, “we can just start like… this,” and he cackled very loudly and giggled at how so many of the people down in the hallway looked around in shock.

Shadmuckle took a deep breath and blew bubbles from her mouth and chuckled when even more people looked around for where they came from.

Teasergazal laughed and started to spin, causing a hefty breeze flowing through the hallway.

One little boy child down in the hallway stood still, looking up at the three of them. “Why are you doing that?” he asked.

Teasergazal floated down to the hallway. This boy intrigued her. How come a child could see her? Really, she wasn’t even here, she was just asleep and dreaming this. Yet the boy put his hands on his hips, looking angry.

“Why are you doing that? Why are you frightening us?”

“Frightening you?” Teasergazal was shocked. “We were just having some fun!”

“No you weren’t. Too many of the older people are very frightened. They can’t see you. Or him. Or her.” He pointed up at Mazerkilick and Shadmuckle. They looked at each other and floated down with Teasergazal.

“Why can’t we just play a bit while our bodies are sleeping in our wards?” asked Teasergazal.

“Because you’re not sleeping. You’re dying. That’s why you are out of your body. You need to go back to stay alive.” For a seven year old boy he seemed far more intelligent. Teasergazal felt a fraying on her floater.

“Why are you stopping us? What is happening to us?” She felt like she was vanishing. She looked at Shadmuckle and Mazerkilick, and they seemed to be vanishing too.

“Because you must go back to your body if you want to stay with your family.” He spoke as if he was a lot older. And Teasergazal couldn’t see any of his own family.

A tear ran down her face. She turned and floated back towards her own body. She didn’t see Shadmuckle or Mazerkilick anymore. She merged into her body.

Tammy felt her eyes opening, very slowly. She blinked: she was alive.