WB Entry 8 : WAKE UP! (2013)

WAKE UP!
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'WAKE UP!'
I was startled back into a vague state of consciousness.
'Huh?' I mumbled.
'You at the back. WAKE UP!'
I straightened myself up in my seat and got my bearings. I was in a gloomy classroom along
with a bunch of other grown-ups. There was a frosty old lady at the front looking at me sternly
and pointing with a ruler.
'Now. Good. To continue...'
The teacher rambled on, but already she'd lost my attention again. I noticed a friendly face at
my right and she dug her elbow into my ribs.
'Way to go, Jon!' she whispered, 'Making a good impression right from the beginning.'
I gave her a smile. It was Shahe, one of my old pals from Uni. What was she doing here?
I remembered that she had and I never quite got together even though I often thought she
would have made a cracking girlfriend. Whenever I was single, she was in a relationship and
whenever she was single I was in one.
But we were always good friends and I think we had a sort of unspoken understanding that if
we were ever single at the same time then perhaps... She was cute too, small, timid, dark
skinned. From Sri Lanka.
'Wake up!' she hissed and then giggled, 'You glazed over again!'
'Must have been that cigarette I smoked earlier, I'm not used to it any longer.' I whispered
back. Why did I say that? Had I really been smoking again? Good God.
'Now class!' the teacher got our attention again , 'I hope you have studied all your flash cards.
Today we are going to do Historical Figures.'
You could hear her putting capital letters on the last two words for effect as she took the cards
from her desk with slow deliberation.
'Oh! Oh!' squealed Shahe, 'Jon will be good at this! He likes history!'
'Be quiet!' I poked her in the ribs to shut her up. I knew more about history than Shahe but
probably not more than the old teacher who, by the look of her, had lived through at least one
world war.
The teacher then held up a card to each of the front row of the class and one by one they
examined the picture and shouted out the name.
'Einstein!'
'Charlemagne!'
'Julius Cesar!'
It didn't sound too hard so I settled back into my seat again. What was I doing here again?
This felt like primary school but we were all adults. It must be one of those work things I
guessed, where it’s all about team building or something. Taking us back to school to release
our inner child or some such claptrap. Well, whatever, I supposed. I don't mind, if the
company wants us to waste a day on this then that's fine by me. Anything to get away from
work for a while.
The teacher came to me. I could feel Shahe gripping my arm in excitement. The old lady held
up a card that had a rat on it with the slogan under it which read PLEASE WAKE UP!
'Umm..' I said 'That's not a historical figure. That’s a rat.'
The teacher 'tsked' and looked at the card.
'So it is. Mr Smartypants. It's from the wrong pack. Very well. Read what it says on the other
side anyway.'
She turned the card over and handed it to me.
'Ah it says...'
I found it difficult to focus on the words, but read,
'It has been reported that some victims of torture, during the act....'
I looked up at her,
'I can't make out the rest. It’s too small and I don't have my reading glasses.'
The teacher harrumphed and said,
'A likely story. You are not a good reader are you?'
'Of course I'm a good reader! I'm forty years old. I have two kids. I'm not a child!' I said rather
petulantly.
'I don't believe a word of it.'
She snatched the card back and took a step away from me, moving on to her next vicitm. She
showed a picture of JFK to Shahe who melted into a pool of pure terror.
'Walt Disney?'
The teacher 'tsked' for a second time and moved on, muttering 'Stupid Girl' under her breath.
Shahe whimpered and leaned hard against me.
When that ordeal was over the teacher returned to the front of the room and said
'Wake Up Class! Now it's time for our morning run! Everyone change into their dungarees.'
A run? Dungarees? What sort of silliness was this? I looked at my feet, but right enough there
was a bag down there with dungarees in them.
I followed the crowd into the male changing rooms and got into them. I didn't see how they
would be good to run in but I went along with it anyway.
Outside it was a cold and misty morning. Across the playing pitches I could see the brooding
outline of trees. Our breath added to the mist and a weak sun shone low enough on the
horizon to dazzle us but not to warm us.
Shahe exited the female changing rooms and quickly latched herself back on to me.
'Promise you won’t run off? Stick with me for the whole run even if I go slow?'
'Of course' I said, ever the gent.
In the pockets of my dungarees was a bit of paper. It read.
'It has been reported that some victims of torture, during the act, would retreat into a fantasy
world from which they could not WAKE UP....'
There was more, but Shahe was there peering over my shoulder.
'What's that?'
I crumpled it in my hand. For some reason I didn't want her to see it. I wasn't sure I wanted to
see it myself. Looking up I saw that the others had set off already.
'Come on old girl.' I said and set off at a slow jog.
Later, Shahe was lagging behind and we were beginning to loose sight of the main pack. She
looked utterly puffed out, her dark cheeks glowed a deep rich red like wine. I was slightly
concerned we would get lost in the dense mist, but what could I do? I couldn’t abandon her.
‘Can you see them?’ she panted. She just wasn’t built for running, being quite short and wide
hipped.
‘Just. Don’t worry though. I know the way back.’ That was a bit of a lie.
‘Jon. WAKE UP.’
I looked around. Where had that last voice come from?
Another runner went past, just a dark shape in the mist and a bit of paper floated down from
his hand. Shahe picked it up and we read it,
‘It has been reported that some victims of torture, during the act, would retreat into a fantasy
world from which they could not WAKE UP.
In this catatonic state, the victim lived in a world just like their normal one, except they weren't
being tortured. The only way that they realized they needed to WAKE UP was a note they
found in their fantasy world. It would tell them about their condition, and tell them to WAKE
UP. Even then, it would often take months until they were ready to discard their fantasy world
and PLEASE WAKE UP.’
‘That gives me the shivers,’ said Shahe and threw it away.
‘Let’s just walk eh?’ I said ‘Who cares if we come last?’
We plodded on for a while. Shahe linked her arm into mine. I patted her on the head.
‘Don’t worry old girl.’
A short while later we came across a bench and sat down. I could just see the edge of a duck
pond poking out of the mist about ten yards away.
I shut my eyes. If this was a fantasy then perhaps I should do something about it. It was all a
bit weird here after all.
I closed my eyes amd tried to relax. The cold wood of the wet bench seemed to start to fade
away. I could feel myself, sort of, rising….
‘Hey! Jon! WAKE UP!’
Shahe gave me a poke.
‘Don’t go to sleep here. Don’t you want to get back?’
‘Back where though? To the school? Why? So an old bat can accuse me of being illiterate
again?’
‘I don’t know, but don’t go to sleep and leave me alone.’
I drew the collar of my shirt up and shut my eyes again. I wasn’t going to give up that easily. I
drifted upwards again. Any sense of the cold mist or the wet bench, or the anxious girl by my
side faded away.
I lifted through the darkness and heard,
‘He’s waking up! Jon! WAKE UP! PLEASE WAKE UP!’
Then I remembered. Everything. The plane crash. The jungle. The terrorists. The dirty cell.
Everything. I was definitely better off where I had just come from.
I willed myself to descend back into the darkness, but someone was shaking me. My eyelids
fluttered open and I was blinded by a bright blue light. I shut them again as tightly as I could.
‘Wake up! Please wake up!’
I opened my eyes.
‘It’s ok Shahe. I’m ok. Chill out. Shall we get going?’
I got up from the bench and hoisted up my dungarees. Shahe did the same.
‘Thank god Jon. I don’t want to be all alone out here.’
‘Let’s go back then. No, wait. Stuff the school, shall we just go and find a place to get a
coffee?’
Shahe giggled.
‘Are you asking me on a date?’
I laughed, ‘Steady on old girl. I’m a married man.’
I considered for a moment,
‘I suppose that doesn’t matter much, unless she turns up. I think there used to be a little shop
around here.’
I put my arm into hers and decided to put out of my mind the fact that I should WAKE UP. If
this was a fantasy then I did not want to PLEASE WAKE UP.
A nice coffee and a bun right now would be WHY DON’T YOU WAKE UP?