The Big Sleep Interrupted

Tony felt the shots to his chest nearly hearing the thud as each shot hit his ribs. The overwhelming sense of gravity kicked in as he felt the hardwood crack under his skull as he dropped to the floor. The shade on the lamp next to him on the table rattled threatening to tip before settling on the base again. The shock to the back of his head signalled the ringing in his ears. The lights appeared to flick off and on as if in a muzzle flash. A form appeared above him muffled voice coming to him softly in his ringing ears.

"Have a nice flight!" The mocking tone he imagined in the voice brought up images of bad villain lines from past movies or even worse hero lines in final scenes where the bad guy dies. The points in his chest ached from the earlier strike, but did not feel like he had been shot anymore. He was distracted by the ringing and the weariness in his brain he attributed to the slow creepy decline into eternal slumber. In his waning thoughts, he began to assess his recent times and reveal who would sneak into his home and assassinate him in his sleep.

He worked in an office entering data from credit card applications received in the mail. He knew each of the ten others working around him, but no one else in the company except for the man who had hired him. In the past week, he had eaten with everyone he worked with at least once. Larry laughed at Tony's lame knock knock joke he had stolen from an episode of The Office the night before. Simi and Terri had bought him lunch when he left his wallet on his desk last Monday, but he had paid them back and they had seemed to have forgotten he owed them money. Tim, Janice, Fred, Joe and Margret took him out for drinks Friday night to celebrate a strong week of over 10,000 applications entered as a new record for the team. Timo and Angie could not make the happy hour, but they had pitched in for a round and taken off in their enamoured haze as newlyweds. His boss had given them all bonuses for work well done. His work place could not have been the source of the assault.

He had met no one knew in the past month. He had walked home quietly in solitude to his wife without so much as jaywalking to upset anyone. He had come home a bit too intoxicated for his wife's preference the night before when the happy hour ended. She had ordered take out like they do on Friday nights, but he was late and she ate alone. He had apologized several time for not calling, but she had never seemed to drop the grudge. It couldn't be his wife, could it? Could she have actually been so angry at his tardiness as to shoot him? It couldn't be, he thought. We don't even own a gun. We hate guns.

The initial shock was wearing off and he now realized he was actually getting warmer instead of colder on the floor. He reached down and felt his chest coming up empty for blood seeping out of open wounds. He was fine. There was no assassination. He had fallen from bed and now lay next to the space heater trying to recover his breath. Pressing his right hand firmly against the floor he got up to find his wife looking at him with a slight smile through drowsy eyes. The clock marked the time as 3:48am. He crawled slowly back to bed and curled on his side facing his wife as she closed her eyes and seemingly slipped back into her dream world.

After five minutes of closed eyes attempts at a return to sleep, the aching died in his chest and he began to doze off barely aware of the sound of shifting sheets as sparks jumped in front of his closed eyes. A sharp aching arose from his groin. He opened his eyes to look down and find his wife's knee solidly lodged between his thighs. The assault was on again. Tony slipped out of bed and walked towards the bedroom door to get some ice from the kitchen. From behind him, he heard a whisper chase him out. "Don't forget to call next time."