Ever since she was a girl, it took her a while to fall asleep. The thoughts, the plans, the house noises, all of them floated in and out of her hazy mind as she tried to wind down for the day and dive into a good night’s sleep. When the girl was about 10 years old, as she finally drifted off to sleep, or at least that is what she thought was happening, she’d suddenly find her mind immersed in empty dark space filled with music. The instrumental sounds would start off mid-song and increase in volume like an orchestra building up, until the suddenly very loud music woke her up. As she dozed off again, the loud music would start playing again and would wake her up a few times before she was finally able to silently fall asleep. She never knew the song, it was never recognizable, they were just increasingly loud instruments filling her ears and her mind until they woke her up.

As the years went by, she got used to that, and although bothered by the mid sleep startle, she didn’t think much of it. Then, one night, as she fell asleep, instead of instruments, there were voices. A chatter of which she was not part, but a listener. It was as if she entered a room, filled with several pairs of people who were talking to each other, having long conversations that she just started to hear mid way, and they carried on with no regard to her coming into their space. Much like the music, those indistinguishable conversations increased in volume until the loud chatter woke the girl up. That was interesting! She tried to identify a voice, or a word, but could not. There were too many people, it was too loud. She drifted off again, and the conversations came back. Was it a dream? Did she momentarily access some other dimension? All she knew was that at some point, while falling asleep, she crossed through a loud space where people talked or music was played. Some days she’d get right back to her woken self, and some days she’d cross through and go somewhere else for the rest of the night. Maybe one night she’ll figure out a way of staying there a while longer, and she’ll listen.