ON THE WORKINGS OF A SEMI-CONSCIOUS MIND.

With similarity to "What you call [somewhere…possibly Rangoon], I call [somewhere else]", and its sequel, the name of which I cant quite remember.

I awoke, but only slightly.

It was 6:45pm, and I was lying in bed. All the blinds were closed, and it was dark outside. The resulting effect was one of near utter blackness, interrupted only by the light from my bedside clock. I was reminded of being inside a huge cave, (as once I was,) with nothing but a torch covered by red cellophane (that bit didn't happen, but I was still half-asleep, and was in no position to argue history with my imagination.)

I heard a noise at the other end of the cave and something came through a newly opened rent in the rock. At first I thought it might be some fearsome creature in whose lair I was now standing. Then my rational thought interjected, and reminded my imagination that the cave was merely a simile. At second glance it was my mother, no less fearsome, but at least this wasn't her lair.

The shadowy mother spoke, "Are you in there?" she asked, a simple question in itself, but carrying many hidden twists. For instance, although I was here last time I'd checked, I had no way to tell what might have happened since then. I was also unsure of the location referred to as 'there', as the term was quite unspecific. My rational thought was struggling to comprehend the magnitude the question, and so passed it on to my common sense, which promptly resolved to assume that there was here, and so was I.

"Oh." said the shadow, "That's good, because I didn't know where you were." She paused here, and I lay there, trying to catch my imagination, which had broken free, and was currently running wild, making no sense whatsoever. As the shadow spoke again, I decided to give my imagination the silent treatment, and began to strenuously ignore it.

The shadow asked, "Did you go to school today?" I was confused by the question, and answered, "Well yes, of course I did…" then I stopped, I had been distracted by my imagination, which was still trying to get my attention, and had failed to grasp the real implications of the question. I knew that I went to school on the last day I was awake, but how long had I been sleeping? A day, or longer? Surely not, but how could I tell? I was put off ignoring my imagination, which knew an opportunity when it saw one, and immediately conjured up the horrible realisation that I had slept since the previous night, and had missed a whole day.

Then my rational thought voiced its disagreement. It wrote a quick 10,000-word essay entitled 'on the reasons I could not have slept through a day.' And so I lay there, whilst my imagination and my rational thought fought a battle of wills.

Then the shadow spoke again. "Are you all right?" as both my rational thought and my imagination where busy arguing, my common sense promoted itself to spokes-mentality.

I replied "Yes"

"Ok then" said the shadow, "well I'm about to cook dinner, so I'll call you when it's ready, Ok." And she went to leave. My rational thought was gaining the upper hand.

Once again my common sense became spokes-mentality, and I stated "Ok." After the shadow left, my rational thought finally overcame my imagination, which went and existed in a corner of my mind to sook. My common sense filled in my rational thought on what had happened. They both agreed not to tell me that I had gone to sleep after school, but I finally persuaded them to do so.

I continued to lie there, or here, or wherever I was in the dark for another half an hour, at which time my mother's voice aroused me fully. I left the dank cave and headed off into the wilds to dine.