The Hypnotic Bedtime Story

 Chapter 2

For a moment I wasn't sure if it was morning or evening. Faint golden light streamed through the cracks around the red velvet curtains, warmed the room slightly, and called attention to the dustiness of the place. The sun was setting and my sleeping hours were off track. My snug cozy cabin didn't feel quaint and charming any more. The air was stale and I wanted to be outside. I wanted to be at the top of the hill again where the air was clear. I felt stiff, confined, and yearned for the freedom of the night and my special world of magic things.

  My bed wasn't comfortable so I escaped from it quickly and hurried into my jacket and damp slippers. My well worn favorite footwear felt pleasantly cool on my hot prickly feet. I was relieved to see my rod was still where I had left it and brought it with me as I opened the front door. I stepped out on to my front porch  to see the last of the orange sun dissapear behind the softly sloping mountain across the highway.

The air was fresher and cleaner outside but did not yet possess the quality of night air. I would have to wait until the last of the sunset had left the sky for that.

  I sat in my chair holding my rod in both hands across my lap and minded the business of my fellow ordinary human beings. The cars on the highway went back and forth as usual and Mr. Smith was out in the north pasture.  I could not recall Mr. Smith's first name because it had been my habit, as far back as I could remember, to forget the given names of people I did not like and call them by their sir names.

 He was repeatedly thrusting a rod into the grounnd very much like the one on my lap. Once it was driven into the earth and positioned, he would step back and watch for a moment, scratch his head under his trucker's cap, retrieve the rod, walk about another ten feet, and plant it again.

 I cautiously slipped my rod behind my chair for I neither liked nor trusted Mr. Smith. Whenever I spoke to him he always had a reason I was to give him extra money over and above my normal rental fee. He would work himself into a blushing sweat telling tales of how previous tenants had tried to swindle him. These stories always ended with him being the smart one who came out on the better end of the deal. He was an annoying imposition I would have preferred to do without and I didn't feel comfortable in his presence.

 Mr. Smith was just about to thrust his rod into the ground a few feet to the east of his pickup when he spotted me and waved. I smiled and waved back cringing inwardly sure he would want to drop by for a chat. When he snatched the rod out of the ground, hurried into his vehicle, drove past my driveway and toward his own house, I was almost disappointed. I would not get the opportunity to ask him what he was up to.

 With him out of the way I had time to catch my thoughts as the light dimmed. I began breathing deeply and evenly to relax myself and turned my attention inward to quiet the revving of my mental engine. I whittled down my mental clutter to just one question. Why was this happening to me?

 It had been my experience whenever anything was happening to me I wouldn't see the why of it until it was over. I decided to wait patiently for understanding in the prensent moment and content myself with doing what was before me to do without complicating the situation with too many questions.

 The quiet within me knew I would have to follow this mystery to its end and accept it as part my destiny. To  ignore this inner knowing would lead to misery or madness.  I no longer felt any resistance to my fate. I was prepared to be on my way.

 Darkness had fallen and the moon was nearly full. The stars were larger and more abundant than I had ever seen them before. It was a good night for an adventure.

 I stood, stretched, and did a little dance to loosen my stiff muscles. Rod in hand I slipped in to the cabin one last time to take my flash light off of the shelf by the door and feel a little nostalgia for the quiet time I had spent there.

 I didn't need too much help from my torch in the bright moon light. The air was sharp, clear, and alive. Myself and my rod half walked, half skipped down the driveway. I couldn't remember feeling so vibrant since I was a child.

 Along the dirt road I could make out the outline of the hill. It was darker than the air around it and for a moment I imagined it as my friend the ball. I wondered if it would begin to glow.

 I was glad I could cut across the field to the hill and save myself the spooky trip through the woods. I didn't think the rod could glow and keep me safe as the ball had done and thought it woud be best to stay out in the open. A mother cow would stomp a coyote to death for coming near her calf at night. I didn't  know if this  was true but it made me feel safe to think so. I kept this in mind and kept towards the cows and calves and away from the woods as I crossed the pasture.

 My first impulse while climbing the hill was to use my rod as a mountaineering tool but I pulled back at the last second. I would not plant my rod into the ground until I had reached just the right place and I knew where that spot was. With a mild sense of triumph I wondered how long Mr Smith had been looking for it.

 Atop the hill I found the circle of dead and burned grass still there from last night, drove my spike into it and waited a moment. When nothing happened I felt deflated. I was mistaken. This all didn't make any sense and last night was just a crazy dream. I must have been sleep walking when I found one of Mr Smith's rods then made up a story about it. Perhaps I was delusional and believing my own fantasies.

 I was upsetting myself with this line of reasoning so I sat on the grass in my favorite cross legged posture and meditated for a moment. As I became quiet, peaceful, and still my mood improved and I was seeing things more clearly. I could sense something extraordinary was about to happen and I was to trust my instiincts and my perceptions.

 This was when the ground benieth me began to vibrate. Softly at first then building in strength untill my hill was experiencing a small earthquake.

 I stood and stepped back a few feet searching for more stable ground. It was difficult not to fall with the earth below me shifting so. A portion of the top of the hill measuring about eight feet by eight feet square began to rise up out of the earth. Shakily I outlined these dimentions with my flashlight.

 It rose before me, slowly at first, only an inch at a time, then it gained momentum and rushed up several feet. The vibration stopped, most of the dirt and grass clinging to it slid to the ground, then all was still.

 I was looking at a cube, dark, dirty, and rusty in places. As I moved my beam over the surface of each side, I saw broken pipes, frayed wires, moss, and strange inscriptions.  I reached the side facing the highway and saw two doors and a button to the left like what you would find on an elevator. I pushed the button, and startled slightly as there was a loud squeak, groan and rumble as the doors slid open. I looked  inside. This was much like an ordinary elevator. One thing that caught my attention immediately was a black bowling ball without finger holes on the floor in the back left corner. The carpet reminded me of  the curtains at the cabin for it was the same shade of red, worn, and dusty. The walls were made of smoked mirrors that did not reflect back any image of myself or my world. I saw only the inside of the elevator and blank space where the doors were open. I pushed my right arm through the opening and as it crossed the threshold my hand became visible in the mirrors. When I withdrew it the image dissapeared. I stepped aboard, turned around , and said good bye to my world as the doors glided shut with new found grace and ease. My stomach bumped pleasantly along with the elevator as I was on my way to who knows where. This was going to be fun.

 While waiting for my destination. I noticed the six pot lights above my head were buzzing, one was blinking on and off, and the recesses they were held in were full of spider webs and inauspicious dead bugs. To the left of the doors, painted a similar shade of red to the carpet, was a panel of yellowed plastic buttons. One looked like someone had tried to burn it off with a lighter. The symbols on these buttons were foriegn to me so I left them alone and trusted the elevator to take me where I was supposed to go.

 I watched the long row of perhaps a hundred buttons above the doors light up one by one starting with the first one. Each one would light up for what seemed like an interminable length of time before the light would move on. My legs were feeling a little stiff so I sat crosslegged in the back right corner, closed my eyes, and focused on the empty world of  unmanifested realities asking for patience till I felt a comforting bump. I had arrived somewhere.

 The doors slid open quickly and smoothly. I only had a split second to register my shock as they opened miles above the ocean facing down. I was sucked into the thin, cold air instantly. It took me a moment to adjust and try to breathe.

 A feeling of knowing spoke to me without words. This told me nothing bad was going to happen to me. Calmly I surveyed the land masses below me and could not discern from them where I was in spite of the fact my geography had always been good. The black ball was passing me slowly on my right and I swam through the rushing air towards it. I took it in both hands hoping to find some relief from the wind stinging my eyes as icy tears were being forced back into my hair. I couldn't catch my breath and I was becoming very cold.

 The ball was warm and expanded in my grasp. The ocean was getting closer and I was now able to make out individual waves on it. Urgently I focused my attention on the growth of the ball and as it grew its solid blackness was fading to a translucent grey.  My hands slipped through the surface of it followed by the rest of my body. Inside I was gently floating and and grateful to be safely out of the cold air.

 I landed softly and was thrilled to see little ripples on the water. Those I had seen from a higher altitude were, on closer inspection, thirty foot swells. The leaden sky threatened rain yet I was dry and at ease.  I rolled over to observe the ocean below me through the bottom of my almost completely transparent sphere.

  Under the surface was restful, unaware of the upset above it. The clear water tinted greyish blue sloshed at the edges gently holding little bits of seeweed and specks of things. I wanted to go down there and as soon as I had this thought my bubble began to sink.

 I rolled onto my back and watched the water rise up around me till the storm dissapeared and I was watching soft grey light beams dancing in the still dark water. The light faded growing smaller and farther away until it vanished and I was left sinking in total darkness.

 In an atmosphere of perfect stillnes I lost track of whether my eyes were open or closed and whether I was awake or asleep. Time took on a dreamy quality where a long time and a short time meant the same thing.  I was snapped out of my reverie when I noticed a faint smudge of light far below me and felt myself traveling towards it.

  I could make out shapes there that glowed. These shapes were rounded and resembled buildings of natural design. As I drew near the darkness benieth me was replaced by a patchwork of fields glowing with crops. I followed bright white lines like rivers or roads in awe of the beauty of this civilization so deep below the sea.

  Gently I bounced over the tops of red trunked trees with irridecent hair leaves swaying in the current. Here and there I saw some very interesting fish. They were of varying sizes, consisted of a head that looked very much like an angel fish up to six feet long and behind them trailed the long tenticles of a squid. They too emitted their own soft light.

 I was nearing the centre of the city and could make out holes in the sides of the oganic structures. Some stayed open and others opened and closed as the fish beings swam in or out of them. The buildings loomed collosal as any above the water as my little habitat floated amongst them. I neared one of the holes and drifted in to it. The entrance squeezed shut behind me and I was in a sparkling domed chamber slightly larger than the little cabin I had left behind.

The room was empty and smooth. Off to one side halfway up one of the walls was an overhang reaching out a few feet and curving gently almost to the floor. Directly across from me was an archway leading to another chamber. Through this opening swam one of the fish beings.

She was a teenaged female. I knew this immediately but didn't know how I could tell.

 She began swimming slowly and gracefully back and forth in front of my bubble. She was quite beautiful to watch. What I found most striking were her eyes. I could only watch one at a time for each was on either side of her head. As each one floated past me I was fascinated by it.

  Her eyes were silver and grey, about as big around as a sandwich plate, and in the centre was a large black pupil that grew and shrank somewhat. These pupils contained a dark stillness that went on forever. I felt an intense desire to see into them. I could catch a glimpse of eternity with each pass if I could just will her to stay still long enough.

 A word swirled around me and moved though me. This word could not be pronounced by human speach but my mind translated it as closely as it could and came up with Silliloque. Silliloque was a beautiful sound that suited her well.  This would be her name.

 I felt we were becoming one spirit as I watched her amazing eye swim back and forth in front of me. My eyelids began to feel heavy and my blinks became long. I closed my eyes resting in the feeling of being one with her. Blissfully and joyously I let go of my consciousness and crossed over into the realm of the long sound sleep.



The book shown above as chosen because my teen daughter was mad about it. I picked up a copy to be a good mom who shares her interests and now I am begging her for the next two books in the series. It's a really good book and you can click the link above to buy a copy if you would like. If you treat it gently you can also use it as a gift to any teenagers in your life and they will love you for it.
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The Hypnotic Bedtime Story

Chapter 1

 I had chased this feeling for most of my life. The harder I pushed for it the less of it there seemed to be.The paradox was almost humorous. I had finally found peace by learning not to fight for it. This was so simple yet I had spent forty plus years digging for it inside others. I believed if I could just find the right arguments then peace would be bestowed upon me by those I had convinced. Eventually the threads of my thoughts became spaghetti twisted into strange logic I could get no one I cared about follow. I didn't even understand myself any more. I became confused. The system broke down and I surrendered to the simple truth that if you fight for peace the war is never over and there is no reconciliation in arguing. I had retired from the battlefield. The war I had declared upon the hearts and minds of those I loved was finally over.

  I sat on an antique wooden chair resting on a dilapitated front porch, in front of a tiny little rented cabin.  I was enjoying a feeling of satisfaction in the pit of my stomach. A warm, tingling glow that just sits there, quiet, peacful, and still. This wonderful calm feeling wasn't found in the hay and fluff of my own thoughts but on the ground under them. My mind was empty, clear, and perfect as I breathed deeply in through my nose and experienced the night air without the distraction or interruption of my internal mental chatter.

   There once was a time the chatter owned me. It always wanted attention, thought it was too interesting to ignore, and believed if each thought did not get thunk something precious would be denied the universe. I had learned pay attention to this little voice, observe it without interest, see it for what it is, and it had given up and fallen into silence. I was free now to appreciate the wonder of creation without commentary.

 I focused on my hearing and let the creaks, chirps, groans, and buzzes of the insects happen to me. I moved on to sight and was curious how the forms, colors, and textures of the grass and pine trees presented themselves subtly in the moonlit darkness. I smelled dirt, pineneedles, and rotting wood. I felt my back and my behind pressing into the hard wood of the chair and the soft pressure of my feet as they rested flat on the little deck. I shifted my attention and noticed some tension in my hands so I let that go and allowed them to rest somewhat palm up in my lap. Inside my body were aches and pains. By this time of night fatigue had become a factor. This was a good tired feeling earned from a day of getting things done. My cabin and yard were in order and all was as it should be.

 There had been a few times like this before. Times alone without any problems in need of my attention were rare and a source of great unease for me. Once every few years I would find myself standing somewhere ordinary and become frightened at the prospect of having nothing left to do. I would very quickly find myself a new job, project, or problem to divert my attention away from.....what? I didn't know.

 This time I didn't have to do that. I could finally just enjoy my peace without feeling there should be something more interesting or exciting going on.

 The night air was becoming too chilly for my aching body and it was time for my soft, warm, comfortable bed but first I wanted just a few more breaths of the delicious night air to relax myself.

 I closed my eyes and bowed my head, feeling a pleasant pull against the tightness of the muscles in the back of my neck. I breathed deeply and evenly enjoying the sharp aromas. Slowly I tilted my head back and exhaled my last long slow breath past my bowed lips in a silent whistle. Head centered, I opened my eyes and noticed something peculiar that wasn't there a moment ago.

 There was a spot about two feet in front of my face a little darker than the air around it. This spot was about as big as a basket ball and ill defined. At first I wondered if it was there at all or if my eyes were just playing tricks on me. I closed my eyes and opened them. Still there. I did this several times and as I did the spot seemed to grow a little darker each time. Yes, it was there but what was it?

 I reached out to touch it and expected my hands to simply pass through thin air but to my surprise the spot felt quite solid, smooth, hard, and cold much like a bowling ball. My hands dropped back into my lap and resumed their former relaxed posture intentionally.

  Many unusual things have happened in my life, some of them bordering on the unbelievable. I know it is best not to let the eccentricities of shifting realities throw me for a loop but this was a challenge.

 I sighed heavily a little niggled by the situation. For the first time in my life I felt I truly had nothing to chase after and no desire to create a crisis so I could cope and this, this THING, shows up. I decided to keep my own personal peace of mind as my primary goal and just go to bed. That's it. Just go to bed. No need to investigate, explore, find out, solve, analyse, capture, own, or complicate the situation. I would simply go to bed, sleep, and tomorrow this could be one of those things I only talk about at parties after several others have told their ghost stories.

 I stood up and the thing followed me, still two feet in front of my face. I walked very carefully to my front door so as not to bump face first into it but I needn't worry. The thing was very good at maintaining the same two foot distance. I tried to open the door but the thing was in the way. I tried to push the thing out of the way but it would not budge. I moved my head so it wasn't in the way of the door but the thing still blocked my entrance. I was a little lost for what to do's for a moment.

 Then it began to glow blue. The light originated in the centre of the dark spot. It was a little spark or twinkle that grew with irridescent wonder until it was the size of a basketball. I stood  in awe of the molten blue light undulating before me. The old saying "it takes my breath away" came to mind for I was unaware of whether or not I was breathing and didn't really care. I just wanted to stand there, stunned or in a trance, and stare at it. For how long didn't matter for time didn't seem to be relevent any more. Eternity was happening in an instant and the entire universe was being born inside this little blue ball.

 I reached out to it for I wanted to know what it felt like to hold all of creation in the palms of my hands. I wanted to know what it felt like to be God. It seemed out of place I was not hearing angels singing but instead I only heard a mid range electrical buzz.

 As I touched it I was snapped back to reality. It jolted me with a very unpleasant electric shock. My hands felt stuck there for a moment then I was able to jump back a few inches and pull away. I was breathing again, a little huffy after being so rudely yanked from my eternal ecstasy.

 The ball floated across my front porch and down the three little wooden stairs to position itself about four feet above the decorative gravel path added to the front yard to give it some kind of quirky character. My highest and best self told me to just leave it alone and go to bed but I wasn't listening to that anymore and I followed it.

 The path wound this way and that across the front lawn and the ball followed this impractical pattern. At the end of the path was my driveway where my red minnivan had been resting for several days. The driveway curved steeply down to the dirt road that joined up to the two lane highway several hundred yards away. The ball followed the driveway to the dirt road and I followed the ball.

 The ball and myself stopped in the middle of the road for a moment as beautiful blue light faded and a dark spot desended gently to the stony, dry, hard packed, mud. It began to roll towards the highway and as it did it appeared to be more and more solid until it looked just how it felt, like a black bowling ball without finger holes. Of course this was not as terrific as it's blue glowing hypnotic form but it was still interesting just the same as it rolled itself down the road, rummbeling and bouncing off the odd rock and reflecting the bright full moon.

 On both sides of me were cow pastures. The one on the left was empty and in the centre of the one on the right I could just make out about a dozen dark hulking forms bedded down for the night and huddeling together to protect their calves from the coyotes. In this pasture there was a path consisting of two tire tracks made by the ranch owner's pickup. It began at the dirt road and curved through the pasture into the woods on the right side. This lush and dense forest covered the old worn down mountain that made up most of this place unimaginatively named "Smith's Acreage".

The ball hesitated for a second beside the truck path then desided to take this rout. The sagging wooden gate was open for there was a gate further up the dirt road to keep the cows off the highway and they had little ambition to wander.

 The object of my intense interest curved it's way up toward the woods and I seriously considered turning back to my cabin. There were all manner of beasties living in those woods and I would have preferred to leave them undisturbed but the ball was beginning to glow again. Its erie, calm light created a mobile haven for me as we navigated through the tunnel of trees.The orb stopped at a side path, hesitated and decided to take the path. This way was only wide enough for one person to walk along comfortably and the trees seemed to be closing in on me leaving me feeling claustrophobic. I focused on the ball to me peace and sooth the instinctive anxiety from ancient times of knowing people who go into the woods alone at night get eaten.

 There was again a second of hesitation in the ball and to my dismay it was in front of a small rabbit trail. Mesmerized or not, I would not tolerate being wedged into the foliage for very long. I was being scratched, poked, and prickled by the unfriendly pines and would have preferred the soft, safe, warmth of my bed. The decision to turn back was final and in the split second it took for my feet to obey I burst through the thicket and was standing at the back of the pasture.

 This end of the pasture was dominated by a steep hill that seemed oddly out of place amongst older, smoother mountains. It didn't seem to fit. It always appeared  to me as if it had been placed there on purpose.

 The ball was going up the hill. Reluctantly, I followed. If the going were any steeper I would not have made it up on two feet. The stubbly chewed down grass of the pasture was giving way to longer, softer grass for the cows would not graze there. I took this as  bad omen but I trusted the ball. There was something about it that told me I was completely safe and secure.

 Winded and sweating in spite of the chilliness of the air I was grateful to reach the summit where my companion waited patiently for me hovering two feet off of the ground just brushing the tops of the taller grasses. I suveyed the terrain and noticed the stillness. The air did not move. There were no moon or stars anymore. The slow lazy lights going back and forth on the highway should have been clearly visible from this vantage point but all was darkness and still. As if I were in an endless void that contained only myself, a glowing ball, and a top of a hill.

 Crosslegged, on the grass, in front of my new found friend, I enjoyed the calm wonder of it. As I gazed I began to feel very sleepy. My eyelids became very, very heavy and I wanted to go to sleep. A strange numbness encased me as my eyelids slid shut. Some part of me seemed very awake and alert and another part drifted in the soft blackness and went to sleep. I became aware after a time of grey light filtering through my eyelids as dawn broke. This light turned red as the sun warmed my face and I opened my eyes to a new day and a new world where what is real and what is not is no longer so clearly defined.

 Squinting and blinking I looked to my precious to see it gone. The grass below where it once was was yellow, brown, and somewhat burned in a circle representing its size. Across this patch was laid a simple steel rod. This was a little over two feet long, a centimeter in diameter, and quite ordinary looking. I picked it up and it felt stiff and cold, exactly as you would expect an ordinary metal rod to feel.

 The rest of the world took no notice of this strangeness. The cars were busy going back and forth on the highway. The cows were munching grass beside their calves. Soon Mr. Smith would be out and about his business. I did not want to get caught sitting at the top of a hill in the middle of a pasture wearing my pajamas, a jacket, and my favorite old slippers and be put in the position of needing to explain myself. I took my rod in hand, climbed down the hill careful not to lose my balance, and cut across the pasture to where I could meet up with the truck path.

 I was stiff, sore, damp, very tired, and still longing for my bed. My steep driveway added weight to my journey but the warm sun soothing my aching back was wellcome.

 I entered my safe haven. This little space with only enough room for a small kitchen nook, table, love seat, single bed, closet, and small bathroom off to the side was in stark contrast to the larger abode I had left behind but the peace and simplicity of it were needed to heal my wounded nerves. There had been so much upset back home.

 Behind the painfully orange flowered love seat to my left was a large picture window, almost the size of the entire wall, that afforded an excellent view of the greater mountains in the distance. Snow peaked and grand, on any  normal day, they were my morning eye opener but today the worn, tacky red velvet curtains would stay closed. Wearily I placed the rod on the floor beside my single bed, shuffled to my right to the little closet beside it, opened the ill fitting door, and selected a pair of white flannel pajamas hanging amounst several others very much the same.

 The ecstasy of warm, dry flannel on a cold, damp body was a gift from childhood bringing back memories of dry towels, hot chocolate, and mom's hugs. Some things from my childhood I have been able to "get over". Thank god this is not one of them.

 The mattress was a little too firm for my liking so I had placed several inches of foam on top. As I have aged I found I have become more particular about my bed. I prefer white bedding and pajamas and have always been fond of flannel and cotton. These things spoke to me of clean comfort and my bed was a welcoming whisper as I slipped between foam and down all encased in the finest egyptian cotton. I reminded myself to breathe deeply and evenly mimicing the patterns of a sleeping infant as I enjoyed the airy hug of my longed for resting place.

 The aches in my body felt good again as I slipped deeper into a long sound sleep undisturbed by troubling or distracting thoughs about orbs or metal rods or what this all means. These problems could be dealt with another time. The only thing that was important was following this sinking/floating feeling into sweet oblivion.


This Stephen King book is for sale by simply clicking the link. I chose this book because I think it is a great bedtime book. First because it is over 1000 pages so that's lots of entertainment for your dollar and also because of the page turnability of it. I found it not so gripping I couldn't put it down to go to sleep but I was interested enough to look forward to bedtime so I could get back to it. As long as it was, I was still sorry it was over. In my most humble opinion, I think the story is a good match for people who like the Sleep hypnosis bedtime stories.

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