A Restless Night

I'm normally a good sleeper, but in the past few days I've been having trouble. Could it be the after-effects of that jury trial? Of getting up and "going to work" every day--something I have grown unused to, over twenty years of free-lancing? No idea. But last night was no exception. It took me hours to get to sleep. My mind seemed intent on recalling every person I've ever known in my entire life. Curious... I finally got up and washed down half an Ambien. I keep a small supply, mostly for travel, but sometimes for occasions such as this...

Then I had this dream that we bought a young alligator as a pet, but forgot to ask what we should feed it. We had been told that its teeth were razor sharp, and only to pick it up by the tail. The tag that came with the receipt told us that it weighed twelve pounds and some odd ounces...

After a day or so we began to worry that it would be getting hungry, and somewhere we'd picked up the idea that it liked yellow sponges. I fed it a yellow sponge--our last--and hurried back to the pet store to buy alligator food. By this time we were worried that it might eat George the dog...

The pet store was busy with customers, but I managed to attract the attention of a bearded young man behind the counter. In addition to buying a supply of food, I left him a twenty dollar bill in case the alligator needed to be fed while we were gone--I had just remembered that we were booked on a flight to China.

By this time, though, a construction crew had arrived and razed the entire center of the mall where the pet store was located. There were mounds of dirt and muddy pools everywhere, along with a maze of heavy construction equipment and men working in hard hats. There was no way out. I had one of the men contact the mall security, to demand that they help me find my way back to my car. The flight was due to leave at 1 PM, and my watch told me that it was already close to noon...

Sorry, friends. I, too, wish I knew the end! I'm hoping, at least, that the alligator didn't eat George.