I lay in my sleeping bag wide awake. 3 AM. An ungodly hour to be awake if there was one. I was fast asleep, but something far away riled me from my slumber. The silence was overwhelming.
I easily ignore the snoring coming from my roommate, though loud, it did not bother me at all. It was the lack of any noise happening in the background. It was as if the outside world was on mute. I am used to the rustle of trees, the howling wind, the lapping of waves. Here there are no noises -if you minus the snoring, the light fan in the washroom and the gentle hum of the mini fridge. But those are barely audible given the size and emptiness that filled the room. The darkness certainly had its way of manipulating things.
At home, I have the occasional car that zooms by to remind me that I'm in an urban landscape. Someone will start yelling. Music will start blasting. Dogs will bark, cats will meow. At my apartment, it is eerily still. There is no movement at all during the night. No pedestrians, no late night drivers. The wind doesn't even blow. The night brings a chill unlike any I've ever felt before. (Living in Canada, cold is a fact of life) It is as if life ceased to exist after sunset. As if we were all just waiting to live again.
I tried rolling over, readjusting my blankets, counting sheep... Nothing worked. So I face the ceiling and wait. I don't know what I was waiting for. I just knew I was waiting for something - anything. Well, I actually just want the silent chill to lull me back to sleep. But sleep would not come easily; even though my air mattress is comfortable. (I've had very few sleepless nights here.)
I just lay there.
The wailing siren broke the eerie silence. It was the security alarm. It has signal that something was askew. Normally, such a siren would have awoken me with quite a fright. I would think to myself, "what's wrong?" But I lay there. Something inside me told me not to move. The siren blared on.
Silence.
A heavy door swings open and slams shut. Heavy, hurried footsteps run down the hall. There is a sense of urgency in those steps. The siren blares again.
I now get up. I put on my spectacles, and peer cautiously through the cold blinds. The night is undisturbed. The siren blares. The floor is cold. My clothes are thin. The cold creeps into my skin. But my blood is warm. The siren has aroused my senses. I'm listening for more.
Defeated, I slowly crawl back into my sleeping bag. The siren blares on. Silence. The siren blares again. Silence. Sleep comes and the sunrises once again.
Markham, Canada