Sometimes, I read to him. He curls up in bed, I read to him, a bedtime story, to put him to sleep. He shifts now and then, distracting me from the words on the page, he listens and drifts off and tries not to drift off because he wants to hear my voice, doesn’t want to let go, doesn’t want to leave me.
I read to him from a horrible book where the author seems to be so concerned with her own use of language that irrelevant flowery phrases confuse the story and make me hate her, but it is fun to read the ridiculous prose. As I read, I come across snippets of German, which I stumble through, awkwardly. I manage to get to the paragraph’s end, but I can’t help laughing softly to myself at my terrible attempt at both the pronunciation and the accent. He starts giggling in bed, which makes me laugh harder.
“Sssshhh… you are supposed to be falling asleep!”
He laughs out loud now. “You did very well, Ma’am!”
We laugh at the silliness, he is nearly fully awake now.
“Shhhh now, sleep!” I tell him primly.
He chuckles some more. “Yes, Ma’am…” He settles down again and I keep reading.
I read to him still hoping that it will be a wonderful novel. We have both just started it, only reading it when together, one of our voices in the other’s ear. He is tired, tired and I read. His breathing deepens, a regular metronome of quiet stillness. I read softly and it is sad, heartbreaking and powerful. She is 44, she is dead, she leaves behind her younger lover. He thinks of her apartment… full of food that she will never eat, clothes she will never wear, books she will never read, chairs she will never sit in again. It breaks my heart.
I stumble over words because the catch in my throat interrupts me, he stirs immediately.
“Oh, are you okay? It’s okay sweetheart…shhhh… you can stop, it’s okay”.
I sniff, feel a little silly.
“It’s just so sad…” I say unnecessarily.
He is awake now, concerned and soothing me.
“I’m okay, really… no, I want to go on reading…”
He finally acquiesces and snuggles back down into bed. I continue reading, trying to stop from being too affected, I am not sure why I am letting it in like this, sometimes I allow it, welcome it, but this time the emotion crept in without me even opening the door. I continue reading about the lover left behind, he is lost, he doesn’t know what to do, he finally goes to her empty apartment, takes off all of his clothes, crawls into her bed, and falls asleep waiting for her to come to him.
I start to cry, my boy will not be sleeping for a little while now.
8 comments
This is the most beautiful post. Just, ohh so amazing :D Can completely imagine doing this with my sub, watching him sleep is one of my favourite activities :)
I love your blog for how real it is, and just wanted to say thank you for it all, since this post just got me enough to bring me out of lurking for a moment ;)
Anonymous: Thank you so much for the delurk and for the compliment.
Sleeping boys *are* lovely, and when they come out of sleepiness to laugh with me or to comfort me, it is unbearably sweet!
Ferns
That's so sweet!
Now I'm curious to read the sad novel. Title, plz?
jm_kaye: “That's so sweet!”
*smile* I agree!
“Now I'm curious to read the sad novel. Title, plz?”
I was wondering if someone would ask! It's Audrey Niffenegger's “Her Fearful Symmetry”. I can't vouch for it, as I have just started it, but I love love loved “Time Traveller's Wife”. I read it twice in a short period (which I never do), and the second time, when I wasn't trying to work out logistics, gosh, I cried nearly every time I picked it up. I am just a big sap!
As an interesting aside… Audrey the closet dominant…? See her little editorial review on Stephen Elliot's “My girlfriend comes to the city and beats me up”. Fun!
Ferns
I agree with “anonymous” it really is a lovely post, in many ways. It encouraged me to comment too (not that I have been lurking long, just a few days)
I absolutely adore snuggling up with Claire of a night time, feeling safe, secure and very loved :-)
herboypaul: “…it really is a lovely post, in many ways. It encouraged me to comment too (not that I have been lurking long, just a few days)”
Thank you for the compliment and for the early delurk (welcome!).
“I absolutely adore snuggling up with Claire of a night time, feeling safe, secure and very loved :-)”
Me too (not with Claire though, that would be weird!). Sometimes the tenderness gets lost when people talk about D/s relationships… I am not sure why that is. Maybe because it's just not so interesting… it can't be because it's just not there in all those stories out there, can it? Really?
Ferns
This was very lovely. I can’t wait to read more of these vignettes when I get your book.
Thank you!
I hope you enjoy the book: there are a lot of sweet things in there, though looking at the category of this one, it wouldn’t have made the cut!
Ferns