Waiting for Sleep

~ Sonya

She can’t sleep. This place is right next to train tracks. Seems to her there’s a freight train going past every half hour. The country doesn’t seem big enough for so much cargo to be transported.

She shifts in an attempt to get comfortable on the mattress. Everywhere she turns, there are springs poking out, digging into her. The bedding smells of age-old sweat and dust. She’d open a window but they’ve been nailed shut. Colin called it a safe house, but she doesn’t feel safe at all. Something about the place freaks her out.

Another train rattles by.

12 thoughts on “Waiting for Sleep”

  3. Lovely little piece- makes me feel for her. And a ‘Safe house’ house that makes you feel ‘unsafe’- horrifying.
    Reminds me of a lodging house I stayed in years ago- other people’s hair and stains on the sheets, a pinned sheet at the window instead of curtains. We were in the basement and had a dozen miniature poodles running on the floor over our heads till the early hours.
    Still makes me shiver to think of it.

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    1. Yikes, Lynn, that sounds nightmarish! Glad you like this – felt a bit like a cop-out because it’s a snippet rather than a stand-alone story… Thank you 🙂

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      1. It was a nightmarish place- I could go on about what else happened there, but I won’t put you through it! That place has stayed with Snippets are good, though- they leave us wanting more 🙂

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  4. Sorry- premature message send! Was going to say ‘That place has stayed with me and fed into some of my fiction, sneaking into the YA book I’m writing. So a bit of discomfort was worth it 🙂

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  5. The house and bed you describe would freak me out, too. And I’d never sleep if the trains ran regularly throughout the night. Nailed up windows …? The term ‘safe house’ brings crime/police stories to mind. Interesing little piece, Sonya. 🙂

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