Neon Dreams

The pop and fizz of the neon lights had been keeping Amy awake for hours now. That’s what she told herself as she lay there, tossing and turning, reaching for that elusive sleep. In truth she had been struggling to sleep for weeks, with or without the persistent buzz outside her window. No matter what she did or how she did it, sleep just would not come. So here she was, once again wide awake and tormented by the buzzing and popping of the cherry red neon lights outside her small bedroom window.

Amy was what she would think of as a normal person. No real traumas or anything big happening in her life. She worked a normal office job counting numbers and attending meetings, she had normal friends and a normal family, absolutely nothing in her life was extraordinary or abnormal, well that’s not entirely true. Amy had what you would call an active imagination. She could conjure images in her head that would appear real if only she closed her eyes. If she could dream, she would dream of uncharted worlds wrapped in neon lights, not just the cherry red ones, but lights of all different colours. Once she imagined an entire planet made of string and entirely inhabited by cats. She thought of this world often, hoping to sleep like her feline friends.

As it was, Amy could not sleep. The neon lights were all she could think about right now. The buzzing, that never ending buzzing. Maybe, Amy thought, they were attached to a big alien space craft hovering high above, sent down to keep everyone awake and weaken them for the inevitable invasion. That had to be it, she couldn’t be the only one awake right now. Maybe everyone was awake and having the same night as her, completely unaware of the impending doom threatened by the pops and buzz of the neon lights, the sizzling space craft waiting for its time to strike. She really needed sleep and those annoying neon coated extraterrestrials were not helping in any way.

Noise from outside her window pulls Amy back to the here and now, a crashing sound, she doesn’t dare move for fear of tricking her body into thinking it was time to rise and start the daily routine. She lies still, listening to the sounds outside her small window. The noise slowly moves down the street, crashing and rattling bins and cars as it moves. An image pops into her mind, an image of a gorilla carrying a cherry red disco ball, making his way through the streets and dancing to music only he could hear, that had to be why the lights were being so noisy tonight. The lights must be in tune to whatever the dancing disco gorilla was listening to. Could he be on his way to a party? Possibly a party with all the apes and monkeys in the surrounding area? Amy did live near a zoo. She thinks maybe she could join them. Dance with the apes and monkeys and use up all of her energy she has left and then maybe she could finally sleep. The apes could be having a party for that very reason. Carrying the neon lights and music to a different location so they could dance and party and sleep, definitely sleep. That’s what she needed most, sleep, then maybe dreams of aliens and party apes would stop.

Another sound catches Amy off guard outside her window. The party ape gone now. This sound was distinctly human. A car door slams and a couple, man and woman tumble to the ground laughing and shouting. Maybe they have just returned from the ape party Amy thinks. Maybe, instead of falling down when exiting the car, they instead floated up. Either taken by the neon lights or something else. Perhaps gravity stopped working outside. Like some great and shapeless neon god had flipped a switch and turned off all the gravity. The happy couple would float up and up, drifting through galaxies and space dust, going through light and neon particles, ready to meet the great neon god. 

Amy had always had dreams of space and distant planets. Drifting through the either, surrounded by stars and lights and big balls of gas, weightless and sleepy, she drifts from galaxy to galaxy, taken on a path completely out of her control, floating and flying. Maybe along the way she meets her neon god, or maybe not. Drifting through the cosmos, she would eventually find her plant on string and yarn. The cats would take her in as one of their own, make her a nice, comfy, and fluffy bed. They would curl up next to her, purring softly as they drift into sleep, eyes slowly closing, no aliens or party gorillas or neon gods anywhere in sight. For what use would they have of cats. 

Amy wishes she was a cat. She lies in bed, eyes feeling heavy, the blanket tucked between her legs, positioned in a way that makes it look very much like her own tail. Her eyes begin to close and she slowly drifts into sleep, beginning to purr. Asleep or awake she dreams of neon lights flashing by and meeting her neon god. She dreams of aliens passing her by on her way to a planet completely inhabited by cats. She dreams of finally finding a place she can rest and sleep curled up with her feline friends. Being a cat has its benefits after all.