A Walk Brought On By Insomnia (Previously Called Alice)

It’s late, or early depending on how you look at it and she still hasn’t slept. Her normal bedtime came and went a long time ago yet she’s still awake. The schnauzer next to her is fast asleep, oblivious to her insomnia. Some part of her wanted to punish him for eating another pair of her underwear so she decided to wake him. She called his name and he did nothing, just kept on sleeping. He was a lazy dog. She believes he was like that because he spent too much time with her. She shoved him a bit until finally he got up and together they made their way downstairs. 


The house was quiet since everyone in her family was asleep, as she should have been. She walked up to the window that overlooked her backyard and was surprised by the beauty she saw outside. She has looked out through that same window for the majority of her life and it had never looked so enchanting. It was the way the early morning sun reflected off the dewy grass and the way the birds slept in the gothic looking birdbath. Maybe she’d never looked hard enough to notice the beauty of it all or maybe she was just so sleep deprived that her mind was playing tricks on her, making her dirty backyard look like a magical forest straight out of Narnia. Whatever the reason it was that made her boring suburban life look beautiful she wanted to take advantage of it so she took her schnauzer and went out for a walk. 


It was an unusually cool morning, especially for mid July. She didn’t mind though, she prefered the colder weather. The dog led her through the familiar path to the nearby park. He immediately peed on the first tree he saw. She looked at her surroundings and was hoping to be struck by the same beauty she saw earlier in her backyard but it never came. It was just a park with the usual dirt and garbage, nothing Narniaesque about it. 


She did enjoy the solitude though, she felt as if she was the only remaining survivor of a horrible disease that killed everyone on Earth. The crazy post apocalyptic fantasy of hers was crushed when she heard cars driving on a nearby street. As her dog was busy sniffing a tree she wondered who these drivers were. Why were they up at this time? Where were they going? Who , if anyone, were they with? She imagined one of the drivers was a woman who was leaving her family behind to find happiness with another man. The next car she heard she imagined was driven by a young man with his girlfriend in the passenger seat. They’d spent the whole night driving home from her mother’s place in Wawa, they were exhausted but they were happy because they together. She could only wonder as to what the rest of the world was up to. 


She’d hoped to stay outside longer but she started to grow tired and the solitude she enjoyed just moments ago was beginning to feel like loneliness. So they made their way back home. Once there she walked up to the window overlooking her backyard, she wanted to see if it still looked as enchanting as it did earlier. It looked different. The sun was brighter, the morning dew was long gone and birds were no longer bathing in the birdbath. But it was still beautiful because it was familiar and it belonged to her family whom she loved dearly. With one final look out the window she took her dog in her arms and escaped to her bedroom where she hoped sleep would finally greet her.