Prompted by the sound of the alarm clock going off, I stared at its facts, undaunated and naked. It was 3 a.m.

Only 3 a.m. That’s all. As if that fact were useful, as if any good ever came from 3 a.m. Well sometimes good things can occur at 3 a.m.

I know I wanted to belive that. So I sat up, turned off the alarm and waited as I had so many of those middles-ofs-thes-nights befores.

“It’s okay,” A voice said. “I’m here.”

“Who said that?”

“You did, stupid.”

“No, I didn’t and don’t call me stupid.”

“Charlie, who are you talking to?”

My girlfriend sat up next to me.

“You know the basics,” I said. “Why can’t I?”

“What basics?  What the fuck are you talking about?” She was usually quite calm–downright aloof during these moments.Which came with more regularity each passing week, month, etc.

“The basic, you know,” I said, throwing off the covers. “The decorum of life, a mode of responding to those  things  that go bump in the night. You always sleep like a baby.

“No I don’t,” she said. “Bumps, basics, babies?”