Simply Everything

By Peter K. Lam

“Hey Jenny, what do you want for breakfast?” I asked as I put on my clothes.

Jenny said nothing.

“Jenny, do you want breakfast?  I’m making eggs if you want some.”

Still she said nothing.  I got out of the bathroom and looked around to see if Jenny had woken up.  The two of us have been living together for nearly six months and only now have we started to get adjusted to each other’s habits.  We’ve been dating for over a year and thought it was time to take the next step.  So far, we like living together but occasionally there’s conflict.  Well, whose relationship doesn’t have conflict, right?  Like last night… Jenny and I got into an argument about where we were going to spend Thanksgiving this year.  Last year we decided to have Thanksgiving at home by ourselves.  Since we spent Thanksgiving on our own last year, this year we wanted to be with family and friends

Jenny wanted us to go all the way to Seattle for her family thing but I wanted to go to visit some good friends of mine that I hadn’t seen since college graduation.  I wanted to compromise but Jenny could care less about what I wanted to say.  Her mind was made up about visiting her family and that was that.  She’s stubborn that way which is one of the things that I love about her.

Walking out of the bathroom, I bumped in Jenny on my way out.  Her hair was all ruffled probably because she just got up.  Usually she straightens out her hair and stylizes it.  She’s really into all that fashion stuff.  Me, on the other hand, I don’t know all that much about fashion.  A t-shirt and jeans is fashionable for me on a good day.  Jenny though, she loves fashion.  She buys fashion magazines so that she would know what would be the next best thing.  She is unlike other girls though.  She doesn’t get the magazines just to look at, she analyzes them down to the very last detail.  She’s like a fashion designer deep down.  I have no idea why she decided to be a nurse instead.  It’s obvious her passion in life is fashion.  Well, I love her anyway.

“Oops!  Hey there sleepy head,” I joked with Jenny trying to get her to wake up a little bit, “Did you sleep well?”

Jenny walked right past me without saying a word as though I were an annoying apparition not worth her time.  She didn’t even look at me.  She completely ignored me as though I wasn’t even there.  Maybe she had a bad night or something.  After what happened, I’m sure she would be a little cranky.

“Hey Jenny, if you want, I could make pancakes instead or I could make that one special dish that your mom really loves.  What do you say?”

Jenny went into the bathroom and slammed the door shut behind her.  The power of the door shutting reverberated down the halls of the house.  I could tell she was mad, maybe more angry than I first thought.  The sound of the door slamming shut so hard continued to ring in my ears as I decided to get ready for work.   I guess she’s going for the silent treatment.  Maybe I was too hard on her last night.  She wanted to go visit her parents since she hadn’t seen them in a long time.  I guess I should’ve just gone along with her.  Well, it’ll pass.  I got to get going or I’ll be late for work.  She’ll get over it, and then we can talk about it again tonight.  I’ll take her out to dinner or I could make dinner myself.  We could have dinner by candle light or something.  It’ll be a clear night tonight or so the meteorologist suggests.  We could eat out in the backyard and it’ll be beautiful.  Then I could apologize.  I should apologize but why… why should I apologize?  I didn’t do anything wrong.  I just provided my input on the subject.  Ugh!  Relationships… girlfriends… they can be so difficult sometimes.

As I got dressed for work, Jenny got out of the bathroom looking better than when she went in.  In fact, I dare say looked stunning.  It’s amazing what she can do in half an hour… She still hadn’t looked at me or said “Good morning,” at all.  This is probably going to last all day I bet.  That’s too bad because I enjoy my phone conversations with her during lunch hour.  Guess that’s not happening today.  She walked by me a couple times in the bedroom as she shuffled to find her work clothes.  I opened my mouth to say something but I could say nothing.  As the morning dragged on, the silence between us become deafening.  It was so quiet that the room turned cold as though it had become a prison cell.  The clicking of bedroom clock started to become evident in the silence and it started driving me nuts.  It continued to click and click drawing closer to the next hour and then the next day then the next week and so on.  In the silence it felt like an eternity to me.  Time was disappearing on me.

I feel kinda bad about what happened last night but I don’t want to apologize.  I wasn’t at fault so I shouldn’t have to but is the conflict really worth all this tension between us?  It’ll pass.  We can talk about it later.  She’ll cool down and we’ll both be thinking much clearer.

“I’ll see you later Jenny,” I announced as I was about to walk out of the door but something stopped me, “Jenny, I know you’re angry about last night but we have to talk about this you know… Maybe tonight when I get home, alright?”

Silence.

“Okay, you don’t have to talk to me.  I’ll be back tonight around seven or so.  See you then…” I said as I was about to close the door, “I… I love you, honey.”

The whole drive to work was so uneasy for me.  I was all jittery and I couldn’t really concentrate.  Why is she making this out to be such a huge deal?  It was nothing, just a silly argument, that’s all.  I couldn’t stop thinking about it nonetheless.  If it wasn’t such a big deal, why am I spending so much time on it?  Maybe I should apologize.  I shouldn’t have been so hard on her.  I could’ve seen my buddies just about any time I wanted.  We’re both so busy that we barely get to see family.  I guess I should apologize.  I’ll call Jenny.  She’ll be at work in an hour or so.  I’ll call her then.  I’ll tell her I’m sorry.  I’ll tell her…

CRASH

…

Wha…. What happened?  I can’t… where am I?  It’s so cold and cramp.  I… hey, what’s going on here?  My arm, I don’t think I can feel it.  I can’t feel my legs either or anywhere else… What the Hell… then I looked around me.  Everything was metallic and I could barely see because of the bright fluorescent light beaming down on me.  That is fluorescent light isn’t it?  As my eyes adjusted to the light, something strange happened.  I could move again.

I was lying on something but now I’m standing.  What’s going on here?  This is too weird… That’s the last time I’m skipping breakfast.  I must be hallucinating or something ‘cause stuff like this doesn’t… happen?  Looking around me, I found that I was in a morgue of some kind.  Bodies were all over this place, each on top of a gurney and covered by white sheets.  It was like a scene straight out of a horror flick.  I’ve never been a huge fan of horror movies because they always give me the creeps.  Some guys get excited or what not but not me.  Definitely not me…

Then I saw it, I saw something words could not describe.  I saw me.  I saw me lying on one of the gurneys with a white sheet covering the lower half of my body.  I wanted to vomit.  There I lie mangled and disfigured.  This must be a nightmare.  It can’t be real.  It can’t be real. It can’t be… Suddenly one of the doors opened and two people, a man and a woman, came in both dressed like doctors.

“The poor guy hardly knew what hit him,” the man told the woman as they walked toward me.

“Hey please!  Tell me what’s going on!  Why am I here?  Is this some sick joke?” I called after them but neither of them heard me.

I tried stepping in front of them but they walked right through me.  At first I couldn’t believe what was happening.  They just walked right THROUGH me.  How is that possible, unless… I’m dead?  No, no, no!  This isn’t really happening.  I’m just dreaming.  I’m not dead.  I’m not…

“… dead.  He’s been dead since they found him,” the man reported to the woman.

“His girlfriend must be devastated.  Who broke the news to her?” the woman asked.

“My girlfriend?  Where is she!?  I need to talk to her!  I have something to tell her!  Please!”

“One of the cops did.  They said she broke down.”

“Wait!  What do you mean!  Somebody talk to me!  I have to let Jenny know that I’m okay!  I’m right here!  I’m okay!  Are you listening?  I’m talking to you!”

For a moment there I wasn’t aware of anything except what the doctors were saying about me.  How could this be?  How can they be talking about me being dead when I’m right here?  Jenny must’ve called a hidden camera show last night and is doing this to get at me for our fight.  Jenny, she’s a clever girl.  If I weren’t so smart I wouldn’t have figured it all out.

“Alright guys the joke’s on me!  I’m on the Jaime Kennedy Experiment right?  Or am I on Punk’d since this is much more Ashton Kutcher’s style.  You guys can drop the act now…. guys?”

A chill ruptured through my spine paralyzing me.  The warmth from my body slipped out of me as though I had just plunged into the icy depths of an ocean.  I could no longer breathe.  I tried to but I kept gagging.  I couldn’t get a good breath of air in me.  I crossed my arms across my chest, trying to preserve as much heat as possible.

When I looked around me again I was no longer in the morgue.  The scenery around me had shifted from one to another without my knowledge.  It was a seamless transition like the flow of water from one container to another.  This place was familiar to me.  The windows, the lighting, the bed… the bed… this is my house!  I was about to go looking for Jenny but I didn’t have to look far.  I could hear her sobs clearly.  There she was, at the dresser staring at the mirror with distraught.  Suddenly she grabbed a vase of flowers on top of the dresser and slammed it against the mirror, shattering it to pieces.

“Jenny!” I cried.

She couldn’t hear me, just like the doctors couldn’t hear me.  This cannot be happening!  Why is this happening?  It doesn’t make any sense!  Nothing makes sense!  No could hear me so no one could help.  There has to be someone, anyone who can help me understand… help me stop all of this.  Then I look upward, hoping to address whatever higher power that governs over life.

“She doesn’t deserve this!  All this, pain all this suffering, she doesn’t need any of it.”

“I hate you!” shouted Jenny as she clawed through the shards of the broken mirror, “I hate you, I hate you!”

“Stop it!  Make this stop!  Make it stop now!” I shouted feeling more and more desperate but my cries were ignored.

I started to shake violently unable to convey my feelings into words.  How could someone feel so hot but yet feel so chilled?  I could feel my blood boiling but at the same time it felt as though ice water ran through my veins.  I desperately wanted to grab something and thrust it into the air in hopes of maybe getting my message across through a sheer act of force.

“This isn’t funny!  This is my life and this is my girlfriend!  You can’t do this to us.  I WON’T LET YOU.”

Nothing was happening.  I continued to shout and scream until my voice cracked but still no help.  I just stood where I was and looked over at Jenny, her face frozen in anguish.  I couldn’t bare to see her in so much pain.

“Why!?  Why?!” Jenny shouted as she dropped down on the ground, “I shouldn’t have let him leave.  Maybe if I had just said something… oh God!  He could still be here!”

“I’m here!  Jenny!  I’m…” I plead when it suddenly dawned upon me, “… dead.  I’m dead…. I’m dead,” I muttered realizing that there was nothing more I could really do or say.

After all this time the reality has started to become clear to me.  Something must have happened to me along the way to work and I died.  Why now?  Why me?  I can’t be dead!  I’m just not ready to be… dead, but I am.  I’m dead.  Dead.

“How did it happen?” I asked aloud as though someone would hear me.

Jenny got up and crept over the bedside counter where our phone was.  Usually the phone’s handset would be place on the phone itself but now the headset was off the hook.  I could hear the repeating beep sound that phones have when they remain off the hook for a long time.  The answering machine near the phone was blinking and Jenny pressed the play button to check the message.

<<You have no new messages.  To listen to your save messages, press one…>>

Jenny fumbled with the machine and it started to play….

<<Hi this is the local police department,>> said the voice through the machine, <<I’ve called this residence three times already and I’m not sure if uh… this is his family.  No one picked up so I’ll have to give you the news through this call.  Earlier this morning, Keith Eisner was… was shot on the way to work.  Someone was acting out of road rage and uh… had a gun handy.  He was caught in the crossfire… a casualty.  I’m sorry to do this over the phone but…>>

Jenny grabbed the answering and pulled out its wires.  She threw it across the room and it landed smack against the wall.  The machine was no longer intact.  It scattered into a dozen pieces but the audio remained playing, repeating “was shot” over and over again.

It was all true.  I’m not alive.  I’m dead.  I’ve been dead and I never got my chance to say I’m sorry.  But why haven’t I gone over?  I’m still here… there has to be a reason.  Maybe I can tell her.  This could be my chance!  I felt so hopeful but I knew better than that.  Even though I made it out as though I could really get a second chance to correct my mistake, deep down I knew there was no second chance.  I had my chance.

“I… I’m sorry Jenny.  I’m so sorry…” I muttered but Jenny continued to weep as she sat on the floor with her head against the bed.  She didn’t hear a word I said.

I got furious immediately.  Why was I being tormented like this?  Here I am, so close to the one person in the world I truly loved and I can’t even talk to her.  I just want to hold her in my arms again and tell her that everything would be okay and that I would be fine but I knew that I couldn’t do it.  I had my chance before and I didn’t take it.  I was too late.

I stood there still not quite believing all that has happened.  It all happened so quickly and hadn’t had time to absorb it all.  I looked around the room again and my mind flooded with memories of my time with Jenny, both good and bad.  I love her so much and it isn’t fair that I have to go but my time is up… I was too late.  I walked up to Jenny who was crying herself to sleep on the floor.  I kneeled down next to her and put my hand through her beautiful hair but my hand went wispily through it like air.  I looked at her one last time.  If only I could tell her how sorry I was.  If only I could let her know I was wrong.  If only… if only… but I was too late.

By Peter K. Lam

Foreword
The story you are about to read is based on the events of September 11, 2001.  I wrote this for one of my college English courses.  There will be many parallels between my story and the actual events of September 11.  None of these parallels are done by accident.  I hope that you enjoy my story and maybe it will inspire you as it has inspired me.

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You know, I love going to school.  School is so fun!  I get to learn so much and play with other kids.  I like playing tag and cops and robbers.  But the best part about going to school is, both my mommy and daddy take me to school.  We do the same thing almost everyday.  Daddy wakes me up and gets me to brush my teeth and stuff.  He usually brushes his teeth when I do too.

You know what’s funny about my dad, he always makes funny jokes.  He’s such a big goof.  Every morning puts on shaving cream and he shaves.  I wonder when I’m going to shave.  I want to be just like Daddy.  I watch him shave and he’d catch me sometimes.

“What are you looking at kiddo?” he asks.

“Nuthin’,” I reply smiling.

Daddy grins at me and sometimes he take some shaving cream and smudges it on my nose.  I laugh as Daddy chases me around the restroom with his can of shaving cream.  That’s when Mommy comes in to scold us.  She’s always like that but she’s really nice sometimes too.

“Stop playing,” Mommy said looking at me then to Daddy, “BOTH of you.  You’re going to be late.”

“Aww man!” both Daddy and I sighed.

We eat the same breakfast everday.  Daddy and Mommy eats bacon and scrambled eggs.  I don’t like that so I eat cereal.  Cereal’s good for you, at least that’s what Mommy says.  We ate breakfast really fast because Daddy was going to be late for work.  They usually drop me off at school first but today, we dropped Daddy at work first.

“Well, kiddo, I’ll be seeing you later tonight, okay?” Daddy asks.

“Okay Daddy!” I shout as Daddy turned to kiss Mommy.

“I love you, honey.”

“Pick you up at five?” asked Mommy

“Probably a little later.  I have a deadline to make,” responds Daddy as he closed the car door.

He waved us good bye as Mommy got back onto the street.  Daddy is so cool and the place he works at is so fun!  The buildings he’s in is really tall too.  Daddy says they’re called the World Trade Center or something like that.  I like that place a lot.  It reminds of the a king’s castle or something.  It’s so high up and mighty that it’d never fall down.  Mommy and Daddy say that the two tallest buildings are called the Twin Towers.  Whenever I look all the up the building from the ground, I feel like an ant looking up at a giant.

So I head to school.  My mom drove me to school and walked me to class.  I was almost late but my teacher was really nice and said it was okay.  After I hugged and kissed Mommy good-bye, I followed my teacher to the cubby where I put my backpack and lunch box.  Everyone in the class got a little section with their name on it where they can put their stuff in.  There’s this one lunch box that one of my friends have that I really want.  It has this really cool fire truck on it and it’s moving fast like it’s going to save some people or something.  I want to be a firefighter when I grow up.  I want to help people and be brave.  Daddy is really brave.  Mommy and Daddy will be proud of me.

As class starts, my teacher had me do math problems which were all easy addition ones.  Then, after math time, she decided that we should have recess.  During recess, I like to play on the jungle gym and pretend to be a firefighter.  My friends and I like being firefighters so we play games about saving people from fires.  Every time we play, we make a new story about how we can save people.

Today, I went to the classroom toy chest to find some toy planes because my friends and I wanted to save people from a burning plane.  So I grab two planes from the chest and they look really cool.  I had to play paper-scissor-rock with my friends to figure out who was going to be the planes and who’d be the firefighters.  I was lucky… I got to be one of the firefighters.

It’s a nice day out today, a perfect day to play outside.  Sometimes it gets really cold and my teacher won’t let us out to play but today was okay.  So my friends start the game.

“Watch out!  I’m coming!” shouts Evan as he runs towards me holding the plane high with one arm, “Bombs away!”

He and Joey each control a plane.  The two of them ran and leaped onto the jungle gym and made a crashing noise like they crashed or something.  They started screaming for help.

“Please someone help us!  Our plane has crashed!” cries Joey.

“Don’t worry!  We’re here to save you,” I exclaimed, “We’re firefighters!”

So Billy and I, the firefighters, raced over to the jungle gym to help save the people burning in the planes stuck on the jungle gym.  Usually I have a lot of fun playing firefighters but I didn’t feel so happy today.  What if this were real?  It wouldn’t be nice to have people really be in a plane fire…

I got bored of playing really fast today.  My friends stopped too and we decided to play tag instead.  A bunch of other kids wanted to join us since we were having so much fun.  We started to get a second game going when I noticed Ms. Steinbeck, one of the mean teachers, talking to my teacher.  What are they talking about?

Ms. Steinbeck and my teacher talked for a short while.  Ms. Steinbeck whispered something in my teacher’s ear.  I couldn’t hear what they were saying from where I was standing but it was probably bad.  Ms. Steinbeck probably tattled on someone because my teacher looked very sad.  Ms. Steinbeck is such a meanie.  Why can’t she just leave us alone and let us be happy?  She always wants to make people sad and mean just like her.

I want to get back into the game but as I got ready to, my teacher called the end of recess.  She stood very sternly and was really unhappy.  See, I knew Ms. Steinbeck tattled!  My teacher gathered all the kids and headed into the classroom.

“We shouldn’t be outside right now,” she said, “It’s not safe.”

I didn’t understand what she was talking about.  What wasn’t safe?  Anyway, I wanted to play some more but I didn’t want to break the rules.  We went back to our seats and my teacher had us lay our heads on the table and be silent as she read to us.  I knew something was wrong because we only put or heads on the table and be silent when we get in trouble.  Did someone do something and get caught by Ms. Steinbeck?

My teacher started reading and I didn’t like the story at first.  It sounded like some kind of fairy tale or something… I wasn’t really paying attention.  But as my teacher read some more, I found out that she was reading The Lion King to us.  That’s one of my most favorite stories!  I like because Simba, the little lion cub, grows up to be the lion king after his daddy died.  Simba had to fight his evil Uncle Scar to become king though.  It’s sad that Simba lost his daddy.  I hope I never lose my daddy.

My teacher continued reading and then some of my friends’ mommies showed up for pick up.  I looked at the clock and it was 10 AM.  I know that because I just learned to tell time a few weeks ago.  Daddy taught me how so I’d be ahead of the class.  He’d be so proud.  I didn’t know today was a short day.  The teachers must have forgotten to tell us about it.  That’s okay though because I’ll get to surprise Daddy when I go with Mommy to pick him up.

Some of the kids in my class started to leave. Others have already gone.  As I perked up my head from my desk to glance around, I saw Mommy come into the classroom.  I was so happy to see her and I almost jumped out of my chair.  I went to get my stuff and said bye to my teacher before I ran to Mommy.  She gave me a big hug and tried to smile.  I gave her a big hug too but Mommy seemed sad.  I was going to let go so I can walk out with her but she held onto me tightly.  She carried me instead.

“Mommy, I can walk by myself,” I reminded her as she carried me out of the classroom.

“That’s okay, honey.  I want to hold you,” Mommy replied.

I didn’t say anything more.  Walking down the hall of the school, I saw many kids going home with their mommy or daddy.  Everyone should be happy but no one seemed to be.  Everyone seemed really blue.  I wanted to ask Mommy something but her phone rang.  She fumbled through her purse and took out her phone to talk as we walked out of the school.  The street was filled with people and no one was driving in the cars.  This is really weird because I’ve never seen this many people outside at once before.

“Hello?  Any news?” Mommy asked the person on the phone as she started to walk the opposite direction of everyone else, “Do you know where he is?  Is Eddie okay?”

“Mommy, where are we going?” I asked as we pushed our way through the crowd.

Everyone walked the opposite direction from us.  No one was smiling.  Everyone was calm and sad.  I don’t know how I know but I can see it in their faces.  Some people were hurt and some looked white like ghosts.  Mommy and Daddy always told me it’s impolite to stare so I looked away so I wouldn’t be rude.  “Where are we going Mommy?”

“It hit both towers, Jenny!  He’s still in there!  What am I going to do?” Mommy said to the person in her phone.

I don’t understand what’s going on.  Mommy started talking really fast and I her say Daddy’s name.  She said something about explosions too.  Why’s Mommy talking about Daddy like that?  Why’s she sound so scared?  Why does everyone look scared?

“Mommy, what’s going on?  Why are all these people on the streets?  What’s wrong?  Mommy…” I asked but Mommy didn’t hear me.  She was on the phone.

Once she hung up, she turned to look at me.  Mommy was sniffling like she was about to cry.  I know because I do that when I want to cry.  Her eyes were a little wet like she had cried already.  Something was wrong.  I knew it.  I started to sniffling too and my eyes started to tear.

“It’s going to be okay.  We’re going to go find Daddy.”

“What’s wrong Mommy?  Why are you crying?  Where’s Daddy?  Where did Daddy go?”

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Afterword
In the post September 11th world, many people cannot go place without fear of being a victim of terrorism. Because terrorism is now a major problem and concern for contemporary society, I thought it would be best to for my story to be based around that.

First of all, after having read my story, you may have noticed that a few names have been thrown out into story at random. These names do not in any way help to mold the characters in my story. The names are very ordinary as well. This is because I wanted them to be ordinary. Anyone can be named Jenny, Evan or Joey. This way, any ordinary person can easily relate.

Another thing you may have noticed is that the mother, father, and son are all unnamed. I choose to keep them anonymous because the events that they experienced are unique to them. Giving them a name could make their character more accessible to the average person and these characters are not average people. They are one of the few people with the direct experience of the events of September 11 and it would be an insult to their memory to try to pretend that I know remotely how they feel or what they went through because I do not.

I know that these are all just fictional characters but I attempted to portray what it must have been like to be a victim of the terrorist attacks on September 11th. This is a tribute to those people and I hope that they can find peace after the scars of this unforgettable day. The documentary I watched is 9/11: The Filmmaker’s Commemorative DVD Edition. It is a film by Jules and Gedeon Naudet along with James Hanlon. This film shows the events of September 11th from the firefighers’ perspective. It is inspirational and heartfelt film that truly brings the proper respect and reflection to the events of September 11th.

By Peter K. Lam

As I lie in my bed asleep, I felt horrible because of the potent flu virus that I caught.  I spent my entire day today just huddling in my bed because I was too sick to do anything else.  I hate being sick because one of the side effects of sickness that happens to me is that I get really weird dreams.  One time I dreamt about a falling action where I fell and fell continuously down into darkness.  This is the type of dream I had when I had high fevers but not this time.  This time something different happened to me.

I had just fallen asleep and usually I dream about nothing when I first begin to sleep.  My dreams start to occur when I get half way into my sleep.  The dream usually starts with me feeling a strange lifting feeling that affects my entire body.  It’s as I had jumped out of an airplane and I started to feel the intense wind blowing against me as I fell.  I continued to fall with increasing speed and the wind blowing against me would only intensify.  My body started to feel like it was burning as the wind slapped every part of my body.

This part of the dream only happens for a little while but it felt much longer this time.  I had never stayed in a dream about falling for this long before so I attempted to wake myself up.  I started become half conscious because I started to hear my brother talking to my mom about my condition.  Their voices were muffled and I could make out what they were saying.  I tried to open up my eyes but they felt as though they were sealed shut.  I tried to speak and lifting my arm up but nothing happened.  It was as though I was a dead weight!  I continued to launch into the darkness and the speed wouldn’t let up.  That’s when I realized something was very wrong.  I started to panic.

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Sked’s eyes were closed as he slept but, every once in awhile, his eyes would twitch from one side to the other.  This is rapid eye movement which is a characteristic of some who’s asleep.  Sked laid in his bed, the comforters pulled all the up to his neck to prevent him from feeling cold.  He has been sick for the past day now and has shown signs of recovering.  He slept for most of the day and everyone thought it was pretty normal until he didn’t wake up.

When his mom and brother came in to check on him, they found him asleep peacefully.  Sked’s mom used the back of her hand to feel Sked’s forehead to check and see if the fever has gone down.  Earlier in the day the fever was nearly gone but now Sked’s forehead was so hot that it felt like it was aflame!  Calling out to Sked, Sked’s mom and brother tried to shake Sked awake but he didn’t budge.

Sked’s eyes started to go through REM at a face pace and at closer intervals as though he were in some kind of fast paced dream.  Sked’s mom didn’t know what to do.  Touching Sked’s forehead again, she knew something was not right and quickly rushed for the phone.  The brother continued to move Sked in an attempt to arose him awake but to of no avail.  The brother started to talk to Sked calling him to wake but was met with silence.  As the brother held Sked by the hand, he could see Sked’s eyes trying to lift open but appeared to be struggling.  Sked’s eyes continued to jiggle indicating that he was still dreaming.