Sounds of Tomorrow

Jessi didn’t sleep well that night, which was unusual for her. She normally slept more soundly than anyone she knew and could practically sleep through anything, but this particular night her brain wouldn’t let go of what was to happen. This was more serious than what she normally heard. For some reason, she took this to be more personal than any other sound. There was something nagging her about this particular sound. She couldn’t put her finger on it. It was like trying to recall a name; a name that you’ve known all of your life except for this one moment. It’s there, but it’s not there. If it were solid, you could almost grab it. The nagging thought flitted in and out of her dreams, and each time she awoke, it would have folded itself back up into her subconscious escaping recognition. So it came as no surprise that when the sun was lighting the slats of the blinds in her apartment bedroom window and the radio quietly came on to tickle her eardrums, she was in deep sleep. But as the music played and the cheerful DJs cracked jokes, eventually the life of day pulled away the cover of sleep. She opened her eyes and wiped away the blur of the night while trying to read the time.  “Who gets up at 7:03 on a Saturday morning?” she said out loud to no one in particular. She turned off the alarm and forgot about the worries of the night, started to fall back to sleep. Then the loud noise from the other room started her heart beating hard and fast in her chest, throwing open her eyes and heightening every sense. She sat upright in bed and wondered if the sound was real or something imagined.