Love Is A Thousand Lies

Counting Sheeps

*****

There was once this show that I'm watching with P'Song when we're still very young about a funny man and his teddy bear.

In one of the episodes, the man is having trouble falling asleep so he found himself a painting of sheeps and began counting them to lull himself into slumber. He's the first person we came to know who owns a painting of sheeps and uses it to fall sleep and P'Song and I both thought he was a genius. Nevermind that he had repeatedly miscounted or that he didn't actually 'counted' them in the end and just used his calculator but got an incorrect tally anyway, but after that, P'Song and I, equally amazed with the idea, both begged our parents to get us the exact same copy of that painting and it was since then hung in our wall just across our bunk bed.

Call it silly but whenever we find ourselves unable to sleep, P'Song and I still stand in front of this painting and will begin counting them. We soon realized that there's actually just 43 sheeps in the painting instead of 405 which is 27 times 15 (it's still a mystery to us how the man in the show fell asleep when he counted them wrong) but we still find the act of counting them relaxing and helpful in falling asleep.

(A/N: No approved therapeutic claims you guys.)

And so with the unsettling feeling of having to sleep in close proximity with the 'eldest devil' who confessed to me on the same day, once more I found myself standing in front of the said painting ready to count them fluffy sheeps and hopefully relax my mind and get a bit of sleep.

---

An hour earlier . . .

"P'Song, do you snore?", Nong Jay asked my brother after a moment of silence settled into the living room as we all look at the makeshift bed in contemplation.

"I think I do but not very loud nong, right Pi?", P'Song replied as he drags me into it.

I was a bit surprised to be called into agreeing with my brother but thankfully managed to answer after a few split seconds of delay.

"No. I mean yes. Y-yeah, it wasn't that loud." Just enough to wake up the dead. I intentionally left out the last part in my answer. They'll know it soon anyway. And besides, it's me and my brother against these two. I have to support him no matter what.

"I think that's gonna be a problem, Ai'Song. My brother is a light sleeper when he sleeps in someone else's house. I think you need to be as far away from him as possible or else he won't be able to get some sleep." P'Mork said.

Get some sleep? Dream on. There's a reason why I sleep with my earphones on.

P'Mork seemed to be thinking hard about the newly-acquired info on my brother's snoring tendencies and after a while suggested on how we should go about our sleeping arrangement.

"How about we do it this way, Jay will take this corner and you sleep on the other one Ai'Song, then Pi and I will sleep in the middle." He sounded so casual about the whole thing but I highly doubt it's an innocent suggestion. This guy is suspicious as hell.

I didn't noticed I dropped the bolster I'm holding until P'Song picked it up for me.

Alright, no doubt he wants to project a considerate brother image but must he inconvenience me in the process of doing so? And who is he kidding? We're all gonna be sleeping in the living room, it's not like a few centimeters of difference can do much for something that travels in the air. Noise isn't something you can suppress, minimize or whatever by simply lying a little farther away. I was about to protest but then my brother suddenly spoke up.

"Sure. I move a lot too when sleeping so I'd rather sleep in the corner with Pi beside me."

Suddenly, I felt like someone just emptied a bucket of ice on me. My brother's consent sealed my wretched fate that night.

---

Back to the present time . . .

I'm staring blankly at the painting before me. The fluffy sheeps are all there in front of me waiting to be counted.

An hour ago, we all decided to finally sleep and get some rest but truth be told, I've never gotten even a minute of sleep at all. I had my eyes closed as I lie in between P'Mork and P'Song but my mind was far too active to be resting. P'Mork's gentle exhales brushing the back of my neck were the biggest distraction ever and P'Song who started to snore just a few minutes after lying down aggravated the situation.

In cases like these, counting sheeps is my only option to get that much needed sleep. Hoping to get away without anyone noticing, I checked the other three people in the bed with me. The eldest ones looked like they were heavy sleepers and were already in dreamland while Nong Jay is unexpectedly prepared as I saw him sleep with his earphones on. Probably already dreaming too.

Trying not to wake anyone up, I then slowly removed the blanket covering me and tiptoed upstairs to our room as stealthily as possible. I felt like a spy on a mission.

Gazing at the painting, I was about to begin counting when I heard a familiar voice call out to me.

" . . . Pi?" I think he said something else but I didn't catch it.

"Nong Jay? What are you doing here?" I asked surprised.

For the first time since I've known them, I'm happy it was Nong Jay who followed me here. Being alone with P'Mork in a room sounds like the most dangerous thing that can happen in this sleepover.

"I can't sleep, P'. The earphones didn't help." If I thought this kid's stares are like daggers, his accusing voice now felt like the sharpest of knives. I suddenly felt guilty for lying.

"I'm sorry."

"Are you going to sleep here, P'?" Nong Jay must've sense my sincerity and decided not to dwell on the lie anymore.

"No. I-I'll go back down. I'll just do something here and sleep downstairs."

"In the middle of the night? Can't it wait tomorrow?" Nong Jay asked, puzzled with my behavior.

"You see . . . I um, actually, I need to-"

Goodness gracious how do I explain this. This is so lame.

"You need to?" Nong Jay asks prompting me to finish my sentence.

I scratched a non-existent itch at the back of my head. I didn't realize how lame this 'sheep counting' ritual is until I have to explain it to someone else. What to do?

Trying to come up with a different and hopefully more decent excuse, I started to take a few steps backward and turn my head back at my study table hoping to come up with anything when I suddenly missed a step and slipped. Nong Jay saw me falling and tried to help but we still ended up on the floor with him on top of me.

I thought that was bad enough but right when Nong Jay lowered his head to ask me if I was fine, we heard gasps coming from the open door. Turning to check who was there, we both saw P'Song and P'Mork wearing shocked expressions as they take in our current positions. Then a few seconds later . . .

"Get the hell away from my brother!"

"P', t-this isn't what you t-think it is."

*****

A/N:

Sorry about the late update. Been busy these past few weeks.

Let me know what your thoughts are about this chapter.