Sleep story · quiet, books
A library at closing time — a slow story for the end of the day, when you have been meaning to start — for an overtired night
The last hour, when the lights go down row by row.
Reading it yourself. Back to the audio version.
The carpet has flattened every sound in the building down to nothing. Someone is pushing a trolley two rows away, and you can hear each wheel separately. The windows are dark enough now to reflect the room back at you.
Everything here will still be here tomorrow. The library closed twenty minutes ago, and the staff are working along the far shelves, switching off sections. Your own book is heavy in your hands, and you have stopped reading it.
Feel the weight of the blanket on your legs. Let your toes stop holding on to anything.
Let the back of your neck lengthen out. Your eyelids can be too heavy to open, and that is fine.
The clock above the door is the old kind, with a second hand that moves in small jumps. The air smells of paper, dust and floor polish.
Your fingers can stop doing anything at all. Feel one shoulder go heavy, then the other.
Your ankles can go loose now. Feel your heels sink a little into the mattress.
A book lies open on the next table, face down, which is technically not allowed. The reading room you are in has one lamp left on, and it is the one above your table.
Your jaw can drop slightly. Let your teeth part. Let your forehead go cool and smooth.
The last of the day's light is going out of the high windows. There is a trolley of returned books beside the desk, waiting to be put back.
Let the pillow take the whole weight of your head. Let your forearms get heavy and warm.
If you're thinking about the next thing on your list, that list will still be there. Notice any tension that arrived while you weren't looking.
Feel your cheeks let go. Let your tongue sit heavy in your mouth.
Slower. Leave it there.
Let each breath be a little smaller than the last. Softer. Almost nothing to do now.
Let it all get further away. Let the quiet be boring. You do not have to count them.
You have been meaning to start. This is the least intimidating way in.
Let this be the last thing you listen to.