Belinda Lange (madeofsunshine) wrote in light_of_may, @ 2014-04-03 16:42:00 |
|
|||
Growing up, there were a lot of things that both Belinda (and Glenda, by proxy) and her parents had to adjust to because of her somnambulism. When the twins first started sleeping in their bunk bed, it became apparent that Belinda could not sleep on the top bunk. All it took was one instance of her stepping out of bed and crashing to the floor for her mother to put her foot down on the matter. Some time in middle school, her parents had purchased a spare twin bed for the girls to use however they saw fit. More often than not, Glenda slept in it when she wanted her distance from her sister, but it’s position by the door made her a reluctant guard dog for the times when Belinda tried to leave the room in the middle of the night. It wasn’t until high school, when her sleepwalking reached the height of its activity, that several locks and bolts were put on the door to deter her from getting out in the night. Sometimes, Belinda just slammed into the door like a dumb computer game character that didn’t have an operator to tell them to reach for the knob. Other times, she actually began to work the locks out of place, but there were so many that someone (typically, Glenda) stopped her before she got too far.
The past two nights had not seen much activity during her sleep. Her body seemed to be readjusting to the fact that it was back at home and in a familiar space. Being on the road had been different. As much as she hated it, Belinda had set up contingency plans to keep herself (or someone else) from getting hurt during the night. She always shared a bed with someone and she always positioned herself against the wall so that she would have to climb over them because that way she would wake another person up with her movements. It had worked so far. Her friend, Carolynn, had stayed with her most nights and, being a light sleeper, had no trouble waking and yanking Belinda back into bed. Sleeping in the van made things even easier because Belinda was surrounded by no less than four other people. But being at home was another story. Night one, she had only made a few laps around the room before she finally laid back down again; night two, she had attempted to bathe Mayara in the shower. Tonight was night three, and her somnambulism was rearing its ugly head.
She bolted upright in her bed sometime around 4 am. Mayara felt her move, but didn’t wake up completely enough to keep her from getting out of bed. When Belinda stood up, she went first to the bathroom to pick up her hairbrush off the counter. She passed a few strokes over her own hair before turning to walk towards where Glenda was sleeping. Bending over at a perfect right angle, she began to brush her sister’s hair -- perhaps a bit more sloppily than she would have had she been awake. At some point she started to sing. In her mind, it was a lullaby that they had heard since childhood, but given the fact that she wasn’t awake, it game out more like garbally gook. After a few mumbled bars, Belinda began to get louder and louder.