Hell

Nonimportant

BEEP BOP BEEEEP. BAP BAP; BEEEP.

He woke up, momentarily disoriented. Where was he? Who brought him…after about a second, it hit him he was in his bedroom; the same place he lied down to sleep the previous night, after a rather unsuccessful night out.

He rubbed his eyes for full four seconds, and yawned. Then he slowly freed his body from the sweet, comfortable embrace of his light yellow sheets. He felt his feet hitting the floor, and the sense of safety and happiness he always felt with that came soon after.

Then he slowly but surely lifted his behind from the soft cushions of the bed, making sure to only lift his left hand off the bed when the right hand was already in the air. Then he tapped a total of six times on his forehead with his right index finger, yawned again, and slowly turned around counter-clockwise in order to make his bed.

He first removed the pillow, moving it to a nearby empty shelf, momentarily. Then he quickly passed his hands above the sheets, to check the situation, and slowly walked to the other side of his bed and started pulling the left upper corner of the sheets and tucking them in their proper place, slowly flattening the surface of the bed.

When he was finished, he walked again to the other side of the bed and repeated the process for the upper right corner. He did it two more times on the remaining corners. Then, passing his hands on the sheets again he noticed a small protuberance near the center-right region of the bed, and slowly removed the sheets, folding them properly and removing them from the bed altogether.

He positioned the sheets on the pillow that was on the shelves. He then picked up the offender: his glasses, which were, merely seconds ago, disturbing the otherwise neat and flat surface of his bed.

He went to the kitchen and positioned himself exactly under the ceiling of the entrance door, he then walked six steps, turned ninety degrees to his right, walked four more steps, and proceeded to put his glasses on the lower left corner of the table, from that position, first bending his elbow and then extending his arm towards the table, then slowly descending until the glasses were in their proper position.

He then made his way back to his bedroom and picked up the sheets again. He positioned then on the bed and slowly unfolded them. Then he quickly passed his hands above the sheets, to check the situation, and slowly walked to the other side of his bed and started pulling the left upper corner of the sheets and tucking them in their proper place, slowly flattening the surface of the bed. When he was finished, he walked again to the other side of the bed and repeated the process for the upper right corner. He did it two more times on the remaining corners.

When he was finished, he passed his hands on the sheets again, and confirmed they were properly flattened. Then, he went to the shelves and picked up his pillow, holding it with one hand on each side. He moved to the left side of his bed and slowly rotated the upper part of his body while, at the same time, bending slightly forwards, and put the pillow at the centre of the bed.

He walked to the lower side of his bed and positioned himself at a roughly equal distance from both sides, and checked if the pillow was properly aligned. He then realized that the pillow was about three centimetres too for the left, and walked to the right side of his bed, and then he slowly repeated the movement of rotating and bending his upper body, and picked his pillow with both hands.

He put the pillow back on the shelf, and then he went to the left side of his bed. He counted the seconds. After a proper amount of time had passed, he went back to the shelf and picked up the pillow again, with both hands, each of them positioned at an end of the horizontal axis of the pillow.

He went to the left side of his bed and slowly rotated his upper body while slightly bending it to the right, and then he put the pillow in its proper place. After this, he went to the lower end of his bed and positioned himself at a roughly equal distance of the left and right ends of the bed. He checked if the pillow was in its place.

It was.

Dr. Friedrich Howard could barely contain the feeling of inner glow and warmth while he tapped his forehead with his left index finger. He counted the times he tapped, and only stopped when it totalled eight. He chuckled softly and smiled broadly.