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We Thought we were
asleep
Rafael Alcolea Harold

ENGLISH READERS
COLLECTION

(Level: Intermediate)

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 © 2013 Rafael Alcolea.

© My Place for English: English Readers Collection: 2

“We thought we were asleep”

Translation: Rafael Alcolea and Casey Talboys.

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All rights reserved.

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We thought we were asleep...

That night all the human beings of the world went to sleep like any

other night full of endless hours of sleep; as we had previously done

during our short or long existence. We all slept, except a few

unfortunate who didn’t sleep like the rest and suffered the consequences

later.

14th June 2040 wasn’t like any other day. For three years there had

been one day and one night of the year where we all slept. Our leaders

had been capable of drilling into our brains, so that, that specific night,

chosen at random, apparently, was declared as worldwide day of sleep.

That way, our planet completely stopped. It was like stopping some

kind of machine to restart the system so that, just for one day, our planet

could breathe.

Whoever you were, wherever you lived, suffering from insomnia or

narcolepsy, you had to get ready for bed. Even the freaks celebrated

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pyjama parties in auditoriums or sports halls. So much so was the state

of ignorance or persuasion that we didn’t even rebel when they told us

that we would be lightly sedated through electromagnetic waves and

pharmaceutics. The explanation was that it prevented criminals from

violating the good intention of the majority of the world’s population,

and robbing, destroying all that we tried to save. I was one of the many

believers that defended the movements towards the saving of the world

with a day of sleep per year. Now, I think of how stupid we all were, to

swallow similar pack of lies.

On previous occasions nobody remembered anything just that they

slept like never before. A repairing and placating sleep, accompanied

with the best sleep in their lives, was the only memory of our sleep day

of the year 2038 an 2039. There were even people who had regular

sleeping problems, but they slept like a baby that day even though it

was four o’clock in the afternoon and broad daylight in their

hemisphere, while on the other side of the world they slept normally at

night, these people tried to figure out which medicine, provided by the

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United States authority, to buy it. It was the first time they had slept for

ten hours; after decades of light sleep, but they did not succeed.

We never knew when it was the next “sleep day” to save the world

environment. The first time it was in January, but the following in May.

This time they had only given us two weeks’ notice, it would be on the

14th of June. It annoyed me a lot, because it was my birthday and I

wanted to do a barbeque, the meat had to be frozen, the drinks stored;

my friends had something more important to do: Sleep.

On the first world wide sleep day, there were no incidents, but on the

second one there were. Over a thousand people went missing around the

world. Nobody knew what had happened to them, they had just

disappeared. The authorities hastened to say that there was nothing to

worry about. Finally, a thick smoke screen covered the disappearances,

with spectacular news about fast drops of types of interest or

discoveries about daily life.

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 Little by little the families of those people stopped protesting. One

threat here, a job offer over there, and sometimes their silence was

simply bought.

But the third final celebration of world sleep was quite different. To

short with, it was very sudden and unorganized. When the authorities

announced that a meteorite was heading for Earth and the impact date

was June 14th, immediately mad people about stars, or the followers of

Astronomy, as they wanted to be called; gave the warning. But, they

were paid with holiday to the nearer jail due to disorderly conduct and

try to increase the collective hysteria. There were others, close to the

governments that started to filter out information a few days before;

saying that the pharmaceutics they handed out were unable to make

people sleep, it was just a type of placebo. They really made us sleep

through the waves emitted from the satellites situated in our terrestrial

orbit.

Something must have gone wrong, because I, as well as other

unfortunates, woke up that night, when we were supposed to be asleep.

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We woke up when the whole world should have been unconscious

whilst they slept.

I went to bed early, even though I don’t think it was my choice. The

last thing I remember is laying on my bed, unable to get under the

covers, due to the suffocating heat of the beginning of June, that

summer was going to be unbearable in London. It had hardly rained and

due to climate change, the British city reminded me, more than ever, of

my birth city in the South of Spain. I was closing my eyes little by

little, slowly I was losing my consciousness, when I noticed the little

pill that the British government had worried to make us take in the

morning as we left the house, got in the tube or we tried to arrive at

work on time. For the whole day, without realizing it, I had shaken off

unintentionally all the controls made by the Bobbies. I had decided to

take the beige pill that they had left in the post box last week. But my

unconsciousness state was very advanced so I stretched my arm to

reach the tablet and when I placed it in my mouth, I couldn’t remember

anything else apart from being inevitably asleep.

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 I wasn’t sure how long I’d been asleep for, but I had the sensation of

sleeping more than twenty-four hours. I looked at the alarm clock on

my bedside table, and it showed two o´clock. I couldn’t believe I had

slept for seventeen hours. I lay back down, still confused by sleep, and

as I turned over, my blood froze.

Through the gap in the curtains, half open because I didn’t have time

to shut them, when the most terrible heat took over; no light shone

through. As quickly as possible, I stood up and I looked out my

window. Confused and a bit dizzy, I leant on the window sill and I

checked that it was still night. The most serene and silent night I had

ever witnessed in my life. No cars were being driven, the teenagers

didn’t walk trying to commit offences under the protection of darkness,

the wind didn’t even blow the tops of highest trees, and not even

homeless people sleeping close to the underground entrance; today they

looked impatient under their mountains of second hand belongings and

pounds of indifference.

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 Nothing moved, nobody spoke, everything was calmed, and

everyone was sleeping. I couldn’t help but ask myself why I wasn’t

asleep like them. Quite surprised I decided to see if any of my

neighbours or flat mates was awake. I went to their bedrooms, in

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darkness, and they were totally asleep. I put on some running shoes, a

pair of shorts and an old t-shirt for round the house and I decided to go

out and enjoy the quietest night of the year. I walked all around

Portobello, without meeting anybody. All lights were out in the houses,

retaining the silence of their inhabitants. The houses which showed

light, housed nothing. Normally, it wouldn’t have occurred to me to

walk alone in the dark at this time of night around London, but the

temperature and the opportunity invited me to do it. I wanted to

remember every detail of that night so I could recount it the following

morning. One of my flat mates worked for a tabloid as an apprentice.

Maybe, they would publish my interview. After a while of walking up

and down the city, even looking through windows of Londoners, just to

check that everybody was asleep; I thought I saw something as I turned

the corner to the road that led to my flat.

Instinctively I stepped backwards to check everything was ok. I

stood listening, and… nothing. I was going to carry on with my

journey, when an unsettling sound stopped me. I needed to turn around.

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But that was the only way I could get home. I was starting to regret

coming out. The sound came closer. I had to get out of there, but my

sudden panic stopped me from moving. Vey quietly, almost not

breathing, I leant against the naked wall to see what it was that was

terrifying me. When my sight rounded the corner, I saw it. There was

someone dressed in black military clothing. Then he saw me and started

to run towards me —¡ curse! — I thought. But this time my legs

responded thanks to the adrenaline released as I thought of all the

terrible consequences that could happen to me.

I ran as fast as I could, faster than I had ever run when I went

running in St. James’ Park. But after running through some streets, I

tripped on a paving stone and my persecutor reached me. On the floor, I

heard his short breathes; I tried to turn so I could see his face, when I

felt pain at the nape of my neck and I fell face down.

I regained consciousness in a large vehicle which had no windows.

Next to me I felt the presence of other people, who I couldn’t touch or

speak to because mu hands were tied and an enormous piece of

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insulating tape, covered my mouth and part of my nostrils. I did not

know where we were going, or who those people were. I only knew that

I was really scared. Nothing good could happen to us. After a while, the

car stopped. Later, the car continued bumping over what seemed like an

unused country road.

As the doors opened I saw hooded military men pointing their

torches and weapons to us. They directed us to a type of camp in the

middle of nowhere. I was thrown to the floor with my companions,

inside one of the tents. My companions in captivity cried and writhed

trying to escape. There were women, children even old people among

them. I counted around twenty people. People that could not sleep that

terrible night like me.

Next to the tent there was their tent, they were talking, quite loud for

our local custom. When I listened carefully to the accent, I realized that

they were speaking American-English. Then, they mentioned what they

were going to do with us, they said something about a set time, they

would take us to the agreed location; they just have to leave us on the
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big sign, in the exact location of the coordinates and leave. No

questions, no remorse or regret; we were going to be left anywhere as if

we were just rubbish. But, some of the soldiers revealed, concerning

what they were doing. They kept on repeating that we were just

innocent citizens. The man who seemed to be in charge, advised them

to be quiet; it was either us or the whole humanity. The world wasn´t

ready to witness what happened each “special night” when everybody

was supposed to be sleeping. Nobody could be awake; there shouldn’t

be witnesses that night. He said something about the fact that humanity

was not prepared to be revealed a secret like that, but all the cries and

voices next to me avoided a perfect understanding of the conversation.

He even advised them to get lost in the Caribbean for a period of time

with the generous money they were going to be paid with that mission,

and forget about it all. It was impossible for me to go on hearing

anymore due to the screaming of women and children; it was a horrible

and desperate crying.

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 I knew in that very moment that I had to get out of there no matter

what. I looked around me for something to cut my ropes that held my

freedom. There was nothing in sight, then I saw a child dry his tears

with the sleeve of his shirt; I made him sins and he came closer. I

indicated him to take off my gag. At first, he doubted, but then he did it.

I told him that he should try to untie me, but when he was succeeding

and the pressure on my wrists lessened; someone came into the tent.

The boy was completely surprised standing up at my side, I

immediately looked down. The soldier grabbed the boy’s arm, and

between pushes and shouts he led him out of the tent.

I felt horrified about the child, but after some seconds I continued to

rub my wrists, I had to survive, until at last I untied my ropes, next were

my feet. My pulse slowly quickened as I felt I was close to freedom. I

went to the back of the tent looking for a way out. Those people who

saw me begged to be set free, their faces implored my help, but all the

commotion going on outside indicated that sooner or later they would

come to take us. With a piece of metal I found on the floor I managed to

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rip the tent’s material, the narrow irregular gap would allow me to get

out in a hard way. I looked through the gap to discover that there was a

forest next to the camp. I put my hands either side and with all my

strength I made the gap bigger until I could push my way through. I had

just fallen to the floor outside the tent, when the military men came for

the prisoners. I stayed immobile behind a nearer tree, waiting to be

discovered.

Thankfully, they were rushing and they were shouting at each other

about keeping to the set time. I waited for a few petrifying minutes, and

I checked that there was no one around. In the distance, around eight

hundred metres, I saw the vehicles stopped and they thrown the people

there. Immediately, they left. I saw the slow figures trying to move, and

trying to get up of the floor. Without thinking, with the vehicles still

near, I ran to help them.

Suddenly, I heard a deafening sound, it was the most awful thunder

clap I had ever heard, it resounded in my head over and over again, I

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stayed paralyzed. Immediately a blinding light came out of what looked

like an enormous aerial surface and swallowed them all.

Open-mouthed, I saw how in an instant the monstrous thing had

gone and with her all the witnesses of that atrocity; except one: me.

I felt dizzy; I even thought I was dreaming. Desolated and in shock I

began to cry on the floor. After some minutes crying, I looked back to

the place and it appeared as if nothing had happened there. No soldiers,

no people, nothing was strange in the middle of the countryside. I was

like that for hours, looking up to the sky constantly, until the sun began

to brighten everything around me. I was walking through the forest for

a couple of hours, fearful of meeting one of those terrible men, until I

came to a side road. I asked myself what had I seen, what had

happened. After hours of walking, a car approached in the distance.

Before I could notice, it was on top of me.

A nice old man offered to take me to the city, he was in his way to

London, to see his family and check if they had slept as peacefully as

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him. I had a terrible appearance; I made up an excuse that my car had

broken down so I had to sleep in the countryside.

On the way home, the news on the radio told of the great success of

the past twenty-four hours and how millions of pounds had been saved

on electricity bills, pollution had been reduced and how the interviewed

people in the streets had slept the previous night.

I was shattered; luckily the man dropped me off two underground

stops away from my house. He even gave me some money for a single

ticket and I got down in Portobello. I was looking forward to getting

home and tell my friends what had happened to me but I wasn’t sure if

they would call me mad.

So I would have a shower, and wait and see if I heard anything on

the news about the missing people; that idea sounded like the best

alternative. When I went to go upstairs, I realized I had no keys. My

friends saw me from upstairs and went to look for them, so one of them

could throw them down to me. I tried to catch them but I missed and

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they landed on the floor. I turned around, exhausted, to pick them up;

cursing my friend, who wasn’t at the window, for his bad aim.

As I picked them up off the asphalt, a taxi went past our building;

inside a figure was surprised to see me. He turned in his seat with his

eyes popping out. The taxi stopped a few metres past the building; he

rolled the window down to look for me, but I had already hidden behind

the porch door.

Where an instant ago there was a figure picking up keys, now there

was nothing. After a few never ending seconds, the taxi started up and I

heard it pull away. I began to breathe when I looked through the glass

and I saw the car turned the comer, where the night before I had been

caught. Relieved I began walking up the stairs when I realized that the

guy in the taxi was the same guy in black who had captured me the

night before. I turned the key and entered my flat. —Safe? —I asked

myself.

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