3:30 A.M.
Two college alumnae slept.
3:31 A.M.
Into their sweet slumber broke a
BEEP... BEEP... BEEP...
pulling the younger out of her dream, a sound she'd come to hear with the same nostalgic familiarity as the summer cricket concerts, crickets maintaining monotone and distinctively dragging Gregorian chants on just those two or three discordant tones which pierce to the dividing of slumber and sleeplessness... only this time she realized, heart sinking, this time the
... BEEP... BEEP... BEEP...
had no intention of stopping - as it usually did - the whole reason she looked back on the cricket chants with decidedly nostalgic familiarity. She stumbled out of bed to try the only measure she knew, which was pressing the plug-in behind the device to make sure it was securely plugged. But unfortunately, this did not stop the
... BEEP... BEEP... BEEP...
as it usually did. In horror she realized the terrible struggle for power then taking place within the device. For the device was a Uninterruptible Power Supply responsible for maintaining the residence's Wireless Internet Connection through power outages. This room, the scene of the piercingly present
... BEEP... BEEP... BEEP...
and underneath, the distressingly pre-digital and archaic sound of the UPS attempting to regain power, archaic due to its extremely loud
CLICK-click... CLICK-click...
no, this room was not a bedroom, despite the cleverly suggestive furnishings... the bunkbed, the twin bed, the two dressers and closetful of girls' clothes, the large mirror and the shoe rack...no, this room was the house's Central Processing Unit, and the girl stumbled out of bed not to quiet the device but to preserve the all-important Wireless Connection. Unhappily, her efforts failed... she dropped back into bed... the UPS continued its struggle alone...
...BEEP... BEEP... BEEP...
undergirded by the
... CLICK-click... CLICK-click...
...and finally won. Its guardian relaxed into the peace of a once more silent and dark room, dark except for the rythmically flashing lights that signaled a newly smooth wireless connection, and between those green flashes
flash... flash... flash...
considered that the BEEPs must not have been at a volume high enough to wake the ten other sleeping residents on the floor, as there was no stumbling rush of groggily panicked computer addicts... the green lights flashed on
flash... flash... flash...
and she fell back into dreams... dreams which she would distinctly remember on waking the next morning, and thereafter distinctly try to forget.
4 comments:
When did this happen?
How could I be sleeping right across the hall and not hear this?
Perhaps your father was snoring in synchrony....
Undoubtedly, this is a testimony to the wondrous somnolent effects of Tylenol PM.
Mommy, the post tells when it happened.
I don't know why you didn't hear it, but at least you have the hall excuse. Ardith doesn't.
You are hilarious, Sharon! I wonder where you got it ;-D It's so good to hear such "Hoyt-ish" humor - it makes me miss church all the more! =) I'll try to call sometime soon so that we can chat a bit and catch up on life...
Talk to ya' soon, Alina
That would be lovely, Alina. I miss you. But I hear great things!
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