I defy anyone to sleep when the moon is shining STRAIGHT THROUGH YOUR WINDOW AND INTO YOUR EYES.
Well, that and I wasn't very tired to begin with. Time to fix that!
I hopped out of bed and headed out of my room. I live in the basement of the house, so initially I didn't have to be too stealthy...which was a good thing, because I sideswiped the couch and wiped out.
Klutziness taken care of for the night, I continued on my way upstairs to fetch my sister Quill, being incredibly more careful than I had been at first. Everyone else in my family were pretty heavy sleepers, so I wasn't too concerned about waking them up; but Squirrel slept with a half shi-tzu, half poodle (shi-poo) that never really liked me and barked his stupid little head off every time I approached. His name was Bobo, but upon returning home from college and seeing his size post-bath and how he got chased by the cat, I promptly dubbed him "Rodent." That thing was just too small to be a dog.
I successfully avoided the squeaky step at the top of the stairs and carefully felt around for the doorknob to Quill's room. Easing the door open, I slipped inside and shut it behind me, thanking God that the Rodent hadn't started yipping. (I probably would have been severely tempted to drop-kicked him if he had.)
There was a rustling noise from the bed, then a sleepy voice whispered, "Will?"
I jumped, a bit startled. "You're awake?"
"Yeah. What's up?"
"Well, it's 12 at night--well, actually, it's closer to one at night, and I have insomnia, and the moon is REALLY STINKING BRIGHT, and it's really nice outside, at least I think it is, and we still haven't snuck outside yet this summer, so I was wondering if you wanted to come," I explained in a whisper, ungrammatically and without conciseness.
Quill sat up. "Sure! Meet you downstairs!"
"Gotcha. Beware the Rodent!" I warned melodramatically and vanished out the door to wait in the entryway.
Quill joined me with gratifying promptness, so we headed out the back door through our ACTUAL dog's (Max, a golden retriever) bedroom, which was the mudroom.
"One thing I'm glad about Maxie is that he never barks," Quill noted with approval as we slipped out the back door.
"He did once," I snickered.
"Really? When?"
"Well, remember when I lived upstairs with Nemesis? I used to sneak down to the middle floor bathroom if I had to go. Well, one night, I scared Maxie and he barked, so I quickly ran into the bathroom to hide because I heard Dad coming down to check it out. Turns out Dad needed to use the bathroom too, so when he got into the bathroom and turned on the light, I was hiding behind the door!"
Quill clapped her hands over her mouth to suppress a laugh. "Was he scared?"
"Understatement. I probably gave him some grey hairs," I joked. "Let's go run out on the front lawn!"
We had about 4 acres of front lawn, which was an inviting prospect for both of us. We took off, arms waving in such a manner that it would have been impossible for an observer to predict where they were going next. Once out on the front lawn, we did a bit of stargazing ("The Big Dipper...the North Star..." "There's the Archer. He looks like a teapot!") before deciding that the brightness of the Moon was really not going to be helpful in aiding our efforts in Astronomy.
I closed my eyes. "Quill, count for me. I'm going to do that spinning thing."
20 spins later, I wasn't too dizzy, but as soon as I opened my eyes and looked at the moon, I fell over like I'd been punched. I was laughing so hard I was having trouble breathing, so I didn't make any noise; but Quill had to once again hold her hands over her mouth to suppress her giggles.
After I regained my balance, we walked over to the pond to see if we could scare up any frogs (no go). Then I suggested a short jaunt into the woods behind our house (five acres of that, too), but Quill shook her head. "Skunks," she said, by way of explanation.
"Oh, come on," I urged. "If there are any, we'll smell them LONG before we see them! Well, you will anyway," I added as an afterthought, remember that I couldn't actually smell, a fact that the parental unit had taken advantage of on the several occasions Maxie had picked a fight with a skunk. Guess who got to wash him?
"Fine...just a little ways," Quill conceded. "You go first."
I snickered and took off. After we reached the limit of Quill's comfort zone, we turned around and came back. I mimed howling at the house, but Quill smacked me. "Shhhh! You'll wake up Bobo!"
"You're right," I agreed. "Stupid Rodent would probably start yipping."
"Think we should head in?"
"Yeah, probably. I think I'm suitably tired now."
We parted ways at the stairs; I went down, she went up. I don't remember actually getting back to my room...
...probably because I was sleepwalking at that point. I can fall asleep
really fast....
