—How did you sleep?
—Last night or, like, throughout my life?
—These are never small questions. Think of this as reflecting back, and I’m this ‘St. Peter at the gates’ figure trying to get a sense of the monster you once were, or still are, or both. So… How’d you sleep?
—Fabulously in my youth, despite the high sugar intake. Not so great in adolescence. The buckin’ broncos. They were always there. And they had a habit of arriving in the wee hours, or more like the witching hours. But I had these…imaginary girlfriends—Vicki from Algebra, Julie from Earth
Science, Piper from Ceramics 1. Sometimes we did stuff, but most of the time we just slept together. They were a big salve. Then I discovered beer and weed and cigarettes, and so did the imaginary girlfriends. Not a good thing when you’re waking in the middle of the night to go have a smoke outside, and your mom looks out the window to see you puffing on a Marlboro, sipping on a Budweiser, and talking away at someone who’s not even there. So that was a tricky period. Later in life I’d discover Xanax.
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