The lamp burst to life, blasting light into Josie’s sleeping eyes. She awoke and glanced at the clock. 1:34 am. She’d slept an hour.
The blanket held her in a warm embrace but Josie broke free.
She shuffled into her mother’s bedroom. “Do you need to go to the bathroom again?” At 83, her mother was wheelchair bound and unable to get out of bed on her own. Josie did the lifting and transferring. But they’d been up at 11:47 and 12:29. Surely there couldn’t be much left.
Mom rolled her head on the pillow. “No, not this time.”
Josie settled onto the edge of Mom’s bed and adjusted her blanket, pulling the sheet under her chin. Just like her mother had done when tucking her into bed as a little girl. She laid her hand against her mother’s cheek, like her mother had done a thousand times. “Are you sure?” She really didn’t want to get up in another hour.
“I’m sure.”
Josie tried to clear sleep fog out of her brain. “Well, why am I up then if you don’t need anything?”
“I just thought you ought to know.”
Josie kissed her mother on the cheek, just like her mother had done to her so many times in the past, and padded to the cooling sheets. Better get to sleep before that lamp burst to life again.
Just like it would do a thousand times.
