Interrupted From A Dream

Dancing around, playing silly games, and giggling uncontrollably. I’m encompassed by the overwhelming feeling that nothing could possibly go wrong. All around me are feelings of warmth and love, and the exhilaration of being near the love of my life has me so blissfully ecstatic that it feels as if I’m floating. Suddenly, out of nowhere, this awful, high pitched shriek forces me to sit straight up, and it is then that I realize that I have been dreaming of this utopia that I was living only seconds before. After shutting off my alarm clock, or pressing snooze, I unsuccessfully attempt to snuggle myself back into my dream and continue where I’ve left off.

Many morning have come and gone, where I was lying there, enthralled by one of my many fabulous, but mostly strange dreams, and suddenly I was shocked awake by the obnoxious screech being heaved into my slumber from the evil alarm clock that I had strategically, yet stupidly, placed across the room so that I would be forced out of bed to turn it off. This morning was different, my happiness soared as my dream continued on, and even though I was in paradise, I had this eerie sense that I wasn’t where I belonged.

Although I’m not quite sure if it was because of the strange feeling in my dream, or if I had just slept long enough, but I was eventually able to rouse myself enough to look over at the clock, only to discover that my alarm had not gone off and I was late for my morning class. Immediately I jumped out of bed and ran over to check and make sure that I had, indeed, set my alarm for the appropriate time. After confirming that the alarm was set correctly and it wasn’t my mistake, I hurried to take a shower and rushed out of the house hoping to catch the end of class and explain to my instructor that my alarm clock must be faulty and it didn’t go off that morning.

The same bizarre feeling that had plagued my dream seemed to have traveled with me to my awakened state, as everything around me just seemed mysteriously whist. I didn’t even seem to notice the usual banging and clanking around that I normally try to keep to a minimum so I don’t wake up my roommates, or even the annoying clicking and ticking of the water heater while I’m toweling off after my shower.
After rushing around in a slight panic, and debating if going to school is even worth it, I climbed into my car, and flipped on the radio in an effort to make the thirty minute drive to school more enjoyable. As if my morning hadn’t been marred already by my faulty alarm clock, I was very displeased to discover that my radio had quit working! Switching the radio to different stations, and even trying a few different CD’s, I must admit that I ineffectively lost my temper a bit and even tried violence to threaten the music into playing.

A few attempts to get my music to play finally exhausted me, and I gave up, only to find myself sitting at a green light, while the man in the vehicle in front of mine talked on his phone and looked everywhere but at the stoplight. Naturally I did what any other already perturbed driver would do, and I proceeded to lay on the horn. Wouldn’t you know it, my horn was broken too! After pressing on the horn numerous times, without even the slightest inkling of a sound, I deduced that I must have blown a fuse; maybe I should get my car in to get looked at before anything else decided to quit working.

What is this? The guy in front of me turned around in his seat and gave me the finger! Did he see my expression as I pounded on the horn? After returning the unfriendly gesture, I decided to keep a straight expression and test the reaction of the man as I pressed on the horn one more time. There it was, the finger aimed in my direction once again. What could possibly be going on? I tried to yell at the man, and quickly realized that not only were my alarm clock, car stereo, and horn broken, but my voice was broken too! I couldn’t hear myself talk, and even worse, I couldn’t scream back at this angry man flashing his middle finger all over the place!
I frantically pulled into the nearest gas station where I tried to place a call to my mother; she always knows what to do. How could this be happening to me? I couldn’t hear the phone while it was dialing out, and even though I was trying to cry and scream, nothing was coming out. Hanging up the phone and feeling defeated, I tried to send a text message out to my friend asking her to call me back. My phone couldn’t be broken too! I made sure the ringer was on its loudest setting, and waited impatiently for a call to come in. When I saw my phone light up, I eagerly waiting to hear it ringing, alas, it didn’t make a single sound.

Trying to scream out profanities to express my frustration and my lack of comprehension as to what was happening, I noticed people staring strangely at me. After all, I was in the middle of a gas station parking lot. I calmed myself down and tried to be rational about the situation, deciding what I should do next. Many minutes (that felt like hours) later I decided that I should drive myself to the hospital, possibly even to the emergency room, because after all, this was an emergency.

Upon my arrival to the emergency room, I felt panic set in once again as I realized that I wouldn’t be able to communicate with the receptionist at the desk, and I certainly wouldn’t be able to tell the doctor what was going on. Feeling frantic I decided to just go for it, I could write down my concerns and the doctor could write down his responses. I pulled a notebook out of my backpack and went inside.

While I was sitting in the waiting area, I felt a sense of calming take over my being. I noticed how peaceful everything was, and how I was able to focus on things without being distracted by the chatter of people around me. A placid feeling took over as I sat there cogitating how different my life was going to be. I’ve always been the type of person to look on the bright side of things, and decided that I should embrace my loss of hearing, and accept the ability to see life for what it is, rather than resent life for what I don’t have.

Finally the nurse came out and ushered me back into a small room, where I assumed that like any other visit to a hospital, I would sit and wait for the doctor to arrive. After a few more extremely long minutes, the doctor came in, and went right to work at looking in my ears.

He shined a little light in my left ear, and then in my right, and I could see his lips moving as if he was trying to tell me something, but I couldn’t make out his words. He then guided me back so I was lying down on the paper covered cot, and he then took out another device which seemed to have a large speaker on it, and moved it towards my head. I wasn’t quite sure what to think of this, for I’ve never undergone tests for hearing loss before, so I didn’t object to his methods.

As the speaker was raised to my ear, I could hear a distantly familiar screeching faintly penetrating my ears. The longer the doctor held it to my ear, the louder and closer sounding the sound became. Before I knew it, the sound was so loud and abhorrent that I sprung up and found myself in my own bed again, with the sound of the alarm clock clamorously shrieking across the room. As I sluggishly made my way over to hit the snooze button, I smiled, and decided to switch the alarm off instead. I got into the shower, and realized that once again, one of my fabulous, but mostly strange dreams has been interrupted by the evil alarm clock.