Charlie’s Room: Rainy Afternoon
The afternoon was cool and overcast. There was enough light to read by, but it felt later in the day than it actually was. They had eaten lunch late, so no one was in a hurry to start cooking dinner.
Marianne and Charlie were drawing up plans for the garden. They had the spring garden coming along well, but it was time to start transitioning things for summer and planning for fall. Luckily they kept a pretty detailed garden journal, so they were able to look back to previous years for help.
Isaac was reading. The story was getting to an exciting point where he kept turning pages to find out what happened next. He was so interested in the story, that the world around him faded away.
Suddenly, he felt Charlie tapping his arm. “Dad, dad, dad, dad, dad…”
“What?”
Charlie folded his arms across his chest with a frown. “You weren’t listening. We were asking your opinion on cantaloupe.”
“I like cantaloupe.” He turned back to his book and read the first sentence of the next chapter.
Charlie tapped his arm. “But do you like it better than honeydew melons?”
Isaac shrugged. “I like them both.” He began reading the first sentence again.
“That didn’t help.” Charlie began tapping his arm again.
Marianne laughed. “I told you. He’s too busy thinking about his book to think about gardens. We can ask him later.”
“Fine.” Charlie stopped tapping.
Isaac read the first sentence of the next chapter for a third time, but this time he wasn’t interrupted. It wasn’t until the next chapter break that he noticed it was raining. He looked up and realized that the room was a lot darker than before.
He was leaning in a lot closer to his book. He straightened up and stretched his head from side to side. Ouch. How long was he hunched over like that?
The house seemed quiet. He looked around. Marianne and Charlie were curled up on opposite arms of the couch, fast asleep.
The rain continued to tap against the windows. If he listened closely, he could almost hear music. He stood up and walked to the window. Outside, he could see brightly colored dots hovering around the flowers. They were the size of bees or maybe butterflies, but more luminous, and they seemed to be humming to the rhythm of the rain.
He watched them weave around the flowers in whirling patterns of color for a while. However, the humming and the rain and the snoring behind him were all making him a little sleepy. Isaac sat back down in his comfortable chair, picked up his book, and read the first sentence of the next chapter. Then, he fell asleep.
Of course, he didn’t realize he’d fallen asleep until he woke up later, startled out of sleep when he dropped his book. Marianne laughed. “You’ve been sleeping for a while. I guess the book wasn’t as interesting as you thought.”
“It was the rain…” Isaac stopped and listened. “The rain stopped.”
“It put us to sleep, too,” Charlie said. “We just woke up.”
“Sometimes an afternoon nap is just what you need.” Marianne smiled and began to gather up the papers on the couch.
“Since we took a nap, does that mean we can stay up late to watch a movie? Dad doesn’t have work tomorrow, and I don’t feel at all tired anymore.” Charlie jumped up and did a little dance. “See, full of energy.”
“That does look like a wide awake sort of dance,” Isaac said. “Do you think there are falling-asleep dances?”
“I wonder what that would look like?” Marianne thought for a moment and shook her head. “I don’t usually think of dancing as something that would put you to sleep.”
“Maybe if it was the kind with the long, slow music,” Charlie said. “You know, the sleepy kind of music that doesn’t seem to go anywhere.”
Isaac thought about the little dots of color and the humming and the rain. “I think you’re right. The music does matter. So, what kind of music is wide awake music?”
Charlie didn’t have to think about that at all. “The theme song for the newest dinosaur movie! We can watch it right after dinner, and we won’t feel at all sleepy.”
He was right.
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