What is the big deal if I enjoyed a good night’s sleep while the rest of the world went crazy about a silly ball game other side of the world?
ROBERT CLEMENTS
“How was last night Bob?” my friend Ramesh asked me this morning. “Good!” I said happily, “I slept like a log!”
“You did?” he asked, looking at me as if I’d committed a murder. “You didn’t stay awake to watch the drubbing Spain got?”
“No,” I said.
“And you didn’t get up again to see America being defeated by that tiny country? The great America, the mightiest power in the world, can’t even play football! You didn’t watch them getting thrashed? What were you doing at 4 in the morning?”
“What I normally do!” I whispered.
“Which is?” asked Ramesh threateningly.
“Sleeping!” I whispered.
“You think those guys, run the length and breadth of that football field, sweating away, panting like animals, sometimes falling, oftimes getting hit, vey often carried away with life threatening injuries, doing all this, risking life and limb, so you can sleep?”
“I’m sorry!” I said.
“You’re sorry?” shouted Ramesh, “You’re sorry?”
I looked round and found that many others were gathered around us staring at me. I looked at their eyes, some were bloodshot with lack of sleep, others wee nearly closing, drooping, eyelids, eyeballs finding difficulty in focusing, “I’m sorry!” I said to all of them.
“Look at his eyes,” said a pretty lady who lived close by.
“Yes look at his eyes!” said her friend who walked with her.
“What’s wrong with my eyes?” I asked the first lady, “Have I got conjunctivitis? Are they red?”
“They are not red!” shouted the first lady, followed by the second one as they peered closer at me and into my eyes, “They look like they have had a good night’s sleep!”
“Traitor!” shouted Ramesh.
“I am not a traitor!” I said stubbornly, “All I did was sleep last night!”
“No!” screamed everybody around me, “Don’t say the word. Don’t utter that word again!”
“What word?” I asked confused, “You mean ‘sleep’?”
“No!” cried the whole crowd as they fell onto the ground in a stupor. It wasn’t a few moments and I heard snoring. I was shocked it was coming from both the pretty ladies, “Never thought they were the snoring types!” I said looking at their pretty nostrils happily bellowing a symphony.
I walked away and walked up the stairs to my home, “You look like you’ve been up to something?” said the wife, “You look terribly guilty?”
“Yes,” I said, “Never thought I’d feel guilty about sleeping..!”
