Heat Wave

This heat wave is making me feel gross and sweaty. I’m sticking to the bed, unable to get comfortable. It brings me back to when I was 14 years old, living with my mom and brother at the apartment that only had a unit in the living room. We were too poor to turn on the air conditioner, so we had to suffer in the heat using box fans to keep us cool. It was a mere few weeks before my brother was to start his freshman year at college and I was embarking on my freshman year of high school. My brother was the designated night owl of the family, but I felt competitive, as if I had something to prove and wanted to see how long I could stay awake before succumbing to the Sandman.

Somehow I managed to stay up for 36 hours. I don’t remember much from those 36 hours other than at a certain point I became delirious. I managed to scare my mom and she forced me to go to sleep, which was sometime in the afternoon, when the heat was at its highest peak and the sun shone directly on my bed.

I woke up later that afternoon, sticky, sweaty, salty and gross. Slightly disappointed I didn’t make a full 48 hours but accomplished I was able to beat my brother’s measly 24 hour all-nighter.