It’s hard to be upbeat when you haven’t had enough sleep. I couldn’t get to sleep for hours last night. I wasn’t lacking tiredness or the will to sleep but neither was I overtired; and it had little to do with the fact that I was sleeping next to a sleeping lion (the lion had his snoring guard in place), although, it has to be said that when you’re just lying there waiting for sleep in the darkness, you notice every single movement and sound. At ten past two I went upstairs to check and see how my free book promotion was going and was surprised to find that Germans were acquiring my eBook in greater numbers than the English, and the Americans and Australians even better still – thank you all! Back in bed at 2.20am I decided to read my eBook for a while in the hope that reading would induce sleep at that hour, but no, I read one chapter and then another two (damned good book, if I do say so myself!). At last I put my Kindle away and sleep came to me after another half hour or so of tossing and turning.
Of course, I knew why I couldn’t sleep. When on Facebook yesterday I clicked onto the page of an old girlfriend of my brother; she had been ill with ovarian cancer and I wondered how she was. It came as quite a shock to read the most recent few posts from her – “waiting for an ambulance”, “hoping there will be a bed on the oncology ward”, “on a drip” and “I have been singing ‘Try not to get worried’…” I decided to phone Henry (in Australia) to let him know that his ex-girlfriend was very ill – thought he might want to send his best wishes. Would you believe that he was just about to phone me?
“How amazing, Sally! I’ve just stepped through the door and I was about to phone you…”
He didn’t say why – I told him about his ex before he had the chance – and we both shed tears. I don’t know her well but she is a nice lady. Henry and I took some comfort from the connection between us, which had made us want to talk to each other at precisely the same time.
Chris let me sleep on this morning and I awoke with wet eyes and an aching feeling of loss in my abdomen. Chris says I’ve been working too hard recently.
This afternoon a little ray of sunshine entered my studio and took me away from my sad thoughts. My friend, J. waited patiently for me tell her all my news, and when I had finished she broached the subject…
“I haven’t told anyone else, Sally, but I’ve met someone…”
“You’re in love!”
Suddenly it was obvious, by the pink in her cheeks and the light in her eyes.
She nodded. “But we’ve only met once, three months ago, and have been texting ever since…”
She doesn’t have a computer so she has been saving text conversations by writing every single word by hand. Well, I’m not going to steal my friend’s thunder by revealing all, especially as she may be writing her own book sometime. J. (not J.K.Rowling,incidentally) got up to leave and her mobile phone made a pretty noise; a frisson of pleasure went through her before my very eyes. She laughed. I laughed.
I feel so much better now and tonight I think I’ll go swimming. I need to get out and have some exercise.