A Daughter of Light(A Light onto the World)

Chapter 13

Marimar

Chapter 13

Slumber eludes me as I toss and turn all night.  I can’t seem to get comfortable.  The air is still in our room.  I’m trying hard to fall asleep.  Maybe if I think about something boring I’ll fall asleep — I choose the most boring subject I can think of, biology.  I think about what’s inside the air, air molecules slowly bumping into each other.…

Bang.  What was that?  I rub my eyes.  I look around the room — everything seems to be in order.  I lay back down with a sigh.  That biology thing was working.  Biology: the quickest way to knock a person out cold.

I turn and look at the clock.  It reads three o’ clock.  “What a surprise,” I whisper under my breath.  Ugh, my throat is dry.  I swallow saliva in a pathetic attempt to relieve my thirst.  I try to ignore it.  I think about the air molecules to get my mind off of my thirst.  Air molecules — oxygen molecules are also in water.  The molecules that form water are two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen.  Water.  My throat is parched!

 I look at the clock.  Only three minutes have past.  I’m too tired to get up.  Three more minutes pass.  I’m starting to think I repel slumber.  More time passes and the ache in my throat starts to become even more profound.  That’s it.  I can’t take it anymore!  I’ll just go and get a drink of water.

I get out of bed, careful not to disturb my sister from her blissful coma.  She has her arms around our hibernating puppy that lies in between us.  His legs are twitching as if he’s chasing something.

Maybe, I should just drink tap from the faucet, it’s a long trip to the kitchen … no, since I’m up, I might as well drink filtered water.

Tippy-toeing into the hall, I turn on the light after I close our bedroom door.  The light in the hall won’t bother Mama or Papa since their door is closed.  I reach the stairs.  Once down them I turn on the light and I walk past the bathroom, then the laundry room, past the great room, and I enter into the breakfast room.  I think of the strange occurrences that happened there, so I run as quickly as I can through the door leading into the kitchen.  I turn on the light.  The room is lit up artificially like dawn has just arrived.

If I had realized it would take this long to get a glass of water I would have just cupped my hands under the bathroom faucet and drank tap.  That was a moronic mistake on my part.  But since I’m here I might as well get what I came for.  I grab a chair and drag it over to the cupboard so I can reach a glass.  This is one of those moments where I really wish I had grown just a few more inches.  Being short sucks!  Why can’t there be cupboards closer to the ground to accommodate short people?  How hard would that be?

I leap down from the chair and go to the fridge.  I put my glass under the dispenser.  I turn and lean against the fridge, sipping my water.  Ahh, just what I needed.  I drink enough until my thirst is quenched.  I finish the water and I put the glass onto the kitchen island.  I go back into the breakfast room and through to the lit hallway.

I leave all the lights on as I walk through the hall.  Hopefully Papa won’t get mad.  Weird, the house seems to get colder by the minute.  Maybe the thermostat has a glitch.  Or maybe it’s the ice water making me feel cold.  No, that doesn’t seem to be it.  It might have played a small factor but the icy chill seems to be following me — certain areas of the hall vary in temperature.  Even stranger are the goose bumps that are starting to rise all over my body, along with my hair standing up.  I get a nauseous feeling each time I walk past a cold spot.  Bizarre.

My slow walk becomes brisk.  I start to notice the lights flickering on and off, like it does in horror movies just before bad things happen to the teenage girl running around half naked.  I hope they don’t turn off.  I should have brought a flashlight.  I’m such an airhead.  I’m starting to get very unnerved.  As I’m walking past the dining room I see a shadow dart past me into the living room.