[Thank you, Olivia, for gifting me the following words: lamb, leaf, longing, likely, looks… I love you! 🫶]
She closed her eyes. Opened them again. Stared at the ceiling. Stupid sleep wouldn’t come. What had her Mum said? Count lambs or something?… No. It wasn’t lambs… What was it again?… Ah, yes… sheep. It was sheep. Same thing though surely… And why the hell sheep?!… Who had thought of that?!… Probably a grown-up… It’s such a typical grown-up thing to say. What do they know, anyway?!… She sighed. Would she really fall asleep lying here, counting imaginary sheep?!… Not likely… She sat up. And nearly got hit in the face by a leaf of her bean tree. Blimey, that thing had grown! “When had that happened?!…” she wondered and pushed the plant pot further back. That’s when, out of the corner of her eye, she noticed something. What was it? She got up, and saw that it was a narrow book, wedged underneath her wardrobe. She pulled it out and couldn’t help but smile. Oh the irony. It was ‘Russell The Sheep’. She had LOVED that book when she was little. She took it back to bed and curled up in her blanket. “Looks like I might fall asleep with sheep after all”, she thought and started flicking through the pages. Seeing that silly little fluff ball with its crazy long stripey bobble hat, desperately trying to get to sleep himself, she suddenly felt an intense longing to be small again. Like really small – like the kind of small where you can curl up with your mum, and, just by being close, everything feels alright and safe again. She closed her eyes and suddenly, she could hear her Mum’s voice in the distance, quietly reading to her. She smiled and snuggled deeper into her pillow. She felt safe. And warm. And cosy. And tired. Oh so veeeery tir-yawn-ed….. zzzzzzzzzzzz
#fivewordstories #elkethompson #storytelling #sheep
16/01/24 © Elke Thompson
Published on Jan 19, 2024