To Sleep, Perchance
(192 words)
The past few nights insomnia plagued, but finally exhaustion claimed me. I wasn’t asleep long, maybe ten minutes when Coco tugged on my t-shirt.
“Go to sleep.”
Her teeth dug into the cotton. She growled. While I wanted to sleep, I also didn’t want to have to deal with the aftermath of diarrhea.
I pulled on sweatpants and flipflops, shrugged into my hoodie and left the apartment building. Coco pulled on her leash, which she hadn’t done in years, yanking me toward the park.
We weren’t far from the building when howls rose, followed by a boom. I thought: a bomb, but then the earth trembled. Coco barked and jumped at my legs; I picked her up. She buried her face in my neck beneath my hair. The earth shook so much I fell to the grass.
Streetlights extinguished, the poles swayed. Then the shuddering stopped. Car alarms bellowed. Voices rose, panicked, confused.
Still carrying Coco, I walked toward my building and stopped. Dust hovered like fog. The front wall had been sheared away. The roof rested on the floor of my bedroom where fifteen minutes before I’d desired long, uninterrupted sleep.
end 10/2/2016
S. Darlington
To read more Sunday Photo Fiction Stories for the 10/2/2016 prompt, click here.
Excellent! Holy cow! Your writing is exceptional.
Thank you. I don’t think I’ll be able to get my hat on now. 🙂
lmao
Great take on the prompt. A lucky escape!
Thank you.
Wow. That was great Sascha. I love the little bits in it. It’s funny how dogs can sense things like that.
We were saved by a dog barking and waking our neighbours in 1971.
I find dogs very intuitive. And, yay for furry savior! 🙂
Intense story. That would be a very scary situation, realizing only a moment ago you were in a building where the roof collapsed on your apartment. I hope no one else was hurt. Great write!
Thank you! 🙂
A lucky escape! Very interestingly put.. 🙂 Enjoyed reading it..
God bless Coco!!!! Well written!
Thank you! 🙂