Okay…pictur this (and it happened just this way no matter what Mim says),
Mim usually goes to bed before I do. Her routine is to read a bit then get her little dog, Ping, all situated and happy in her bed, which is on the floor by our bed (of course, this little dog isn’t spoiled or anything).
I have had a heck of a week—lots of meetings, fairly stressful. So, when I went to bed I didn’t go right to sleep; I usually do, but not tonight. I was laying there kind of tossing and turning when I hear Ping. She is making this high, weird whistling sound, kind of stutters and chokes at the end of her breath, then starts all over again.
I’m lying there listening to this and it’s getting louder! Now I don’t want to yell at the dog and wake Mim up and I certainly don’t want to get up and walk around the bed to break the dog’s cycle. I end up just hoping it stops.
And it does!….for about ten seconds (which seems like an eternity at o-dark-thirty). Then it starts all over again. Ping goes through this a couple times and gets pretty loud.
Finally, Mim stirs and groggily says, “What’s that noise?”
I say, “I think it’s Ping.”
She says, “I think it’s you.”
I say, “No, it’s Ping.”
And I say this, you know, because I’ve been laying there listening to the little mutt for at least the last 10 minutes.
Mim says with complete and unassailable finality, “No, it’s you.” She rolls over and goes immediately to sleep. I’ve got nothing to say. I’m done…game over.
Postscript,
Today I told my daughter this story when she came for the weekend. She reminds me of the story just after Mim gets home from work. So, I recount it for Mim…who does not remember a thing and denies the whole conversation. She says I’m a liar. Unbelievable. Again, I’m done…game over, man. M.
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