“Where on earth have you been Eric.” Asked Alpha
I mumbled, rolled over and went back to sleep.
“Come on Eric, get up! Get up!” Alpha urged.
“Fine”, I managed to grumble grumpily as I set up to look up at the figure standing beside my desk, “What do you want?”
“Oh nothing, I just want to tell you that you fell asleep.”
“Hang on; let me get this right,” I paused for the melodramatic effect, “You woke me up…” pause. “…to tell me that I fell asleep.”
“Precisely!” Alpha chirped happily. “And to alert you to the fact that you drooled and now your VCD development page 1.5 is all smudged and somewhat ruined!”
I looked down at the war torn remains of what was, not long ago, some accurate sketches. I frowned. I looked up back into Alpha’s face. He frowned back. “I blame this on you.” I remarked.
“What why?”
“Because I’m obviously so completely and utterly fatigued that even my brain can’t name my imaginary friends properly.”
“That’s not true!” said Smuck poking his head through the door and disappearing again.
“Aw yeah! Than how do you explain such pathetic name such as Alpha!” I called back spitefully, though I got no response.
“So anyway, are you going to answer my question?” said Alpha ignoring the spontaneity of Smuck.
“Err…what was the question again?”
Alpha rolled his eyes and pathetically recited, “Where have you been Eric?”
“Ok, well. Truthfully I’ve been in many, many places: sitting working, sleeping, eating, going to school, coming back home, sitting at the kitchen table, sitting on the kitchen table, sitting at my desk, sitting in front of the computer, standing next to the fridge, eating maple fav….”
“No really, enough of your crap. Where have you been?” Alpha emphasised assertively.
I started out thoughtfully the window, pausing for effect. “Well…” I began, as I turned to face Alpha again.
He wasn’t there any more.
“You were saying…” said Smuck gently; interrupting the chaotic, but almost tranquilly scene. He was standing next to me, cleaning the same red off the hatchet point of a French Heavy Calvary sabre.
“I was saying…” I paused, failing to remember due to the horrific scene before me, “Say, can you clean up a bit quicker, it might stain the carpet!”
“Oh, right.” Smuck clicked his fingers and Alpha’s remains were replaced by a blood red dyed leather and dark oak chair. “By all means, continue” he said sitting down, crossing his legs sophisticatedly.
“Ok, right.” I squinted to get my thoughts back on track. “Right, well you see, these last few weeks have horrible really. I can’t seem to get any homework done. It’s Pathetic! I get so much homework, but so much of it doesn’t get done. I’m already five exercises behind in Methods, just struggling to catch up in Spesh, I haven’t nearly done enough work for my design folio, I haven’t even touched my Physics work since the term break, and now I have a English essay due in 9hours and I haven’t started yet!” I clutched my head, “Oh and I’ve got a Physics SAC coming up, and an English one too. There are just far too many things to do in so little time! It’s weird you know, I can never figure out where all the time goes. Like, I usually get home at about 4:30, and by the time I start working it’ll be around 5ish, dinner starts around 7. And at night I begin work again at 8 or 9, and because of the mountain of homework, I don’t can’t finish it all, and I end up sleeping at 1 or 2 o’clock! It’s just not right! Other people sleep earlier than me and still get so much more done than me! What’s going on?”
Smuck looked at me as if he saw a man rocking back and forth in the corner of a padded room. “What on earth are you on about? The question was ‘where have you been?’ What on earth were you on about, madman?”
“Oh right.” It has just dawned on me that they were asking about my Subconscious’ travels while the physical body rested, “I don’t know, dreams are weird.”
“Oh yes, I agree, but they’ve been rather actively lately haven’t they?”
“They have, and I think I’m loosing sleep because of it. I wake up and I feel like I’ve just returned from another day. It’s crazily amazing. Although the good thing is that I’m seeing quite a lot of people there whom I usually see like…once a term? It’s exhausting though."
“I imagine that it would be.”
We shared a comfortable silence, staring off into space.
I yawned. “Christ, what time is it?”
Smuck snobbishly took out his pocket watch, flipped it open, “A quarter to 3”
“Oh god, I need to get to sleep!” I dived into bed and tried best to calm my racing and guilt loaded heart. Smuck, still in his chair, winded up his watch before returning it into his suit. He sighed sympathetically and faded into the night.