Above Us Only Sky

Close your eyes, gently now. You’ll just have to trust me. It’s like one of those games we used to play as kids. Put your trust in this person, and just, let, go... And then they lead you blindfolded into a tree or something and think it’s the funniest thing in the world. People. You just can’t credit it sometimes. I mean, they’ve got a lot going for them sometimes, but other times, they can just make a beautiful world insufferable. Which is when I choose to close my eyes. To trust you. I’ll close my eyes, and wish really hard, or I’d pray to something if there was something to pray to, and then when I open my eyes again, everyone else will be gone. It’ll just be you and me, in a darkened room. We could dance if you’d like? There’s music in my head, and the songs just go round and round and round. And I’ll take you in my arms and we’ll go round and round and round. And the record will keep spinning round and round and round. Until it’s spinning in silence. Like us. Like the world.

I could turn it over if you’d like? There’s always the other side to listen to. But some small part of me prefers this. A tiny piece of me wants to just hear this silence. The cracks and hissing of a silence on the cusp of waking. Shhh... we’ll keep our voices down now. It wouldn’t do to wake it. Who knows what would happen? Right now we can tell ourselves that our record, when the music plays again, will be the most beautiful record ever listened to. And we can imagine that we’ll listen to it, dancing to a heartbreakingly beautiful song that never plays. And we can tell ourselves that this world, when the music plays again, will be the most beautiful world ever imagined. Just imagine it. Just imagine all the people.

Living for today.

Thank You, Hazel

Want to find out where waking and dreaming merge? Try sleeping on a futon in the conservatory of your house by the river. And be sure to leave the door open, to allow a cool breeze to blow in off the water. Then make certain you're really tired when you go to bed quite late, and have your alarm set for early the next morning.

Then after all this preparation, if you're really lucky, you might just be woken at half 3 in the morning, by the sound of a small body landing hard on the tile floor, and a smaller body squeaking shrilly beneath it. Then you'll come immediately fully awake, but believe you're still dreaming as you watch Tom chasing Jerry around your bed. And it'll only be some minutes after this, when you're standing on top of the bed, having switched the light on, that the neighbour's cat Hazel will bat the field mouse she's brought inside to play with one last time, scoop it up in her mouth, and dash out the door into the night.

If you're awake by this point, you might want to close the door behind her.

And then hope and pray you don't dream anymore this night.