A Sleepwalker's Tale

A sleepwalker can be defined as someone that’ll drive you crazy trying to keep up with em all the time.
They have no knowledge of what they do or where they’ve been. It’s the people around em that has to be on their toes and constantly jumping out of their skin.
We had a sleepwalking cousin that used to stay at our house quite a bit. When he spent the night it was Katie bar the door and lickety split.
That boy could sleep walk with the best of em and that’s no lie. My mama never slept a wink, she was always on standby.
He’d wait till the wee hours of the night and everyone was fast asleep. He’d come out of that bed and like a deer, mama would leap.
She’d have to put him on a pallet in the middle of the floor. He slept in the middle with two of my brothers, he still hit the door.
There were a few times mama dozed a little and that boy beat it all. She found him one night at the back of the house down on all fours tryin to crawl.
She had to give him a big shake to get him awake. She said, son wake up and stop this stuff for goodness sake.
My poor mama was a nervous wreck when he came to stay.
She loved him like one of her own but all she could do was pray
And lock the doors up really tight, padlock,  key lock and any other lock, it was an awful sight
He scared the living daylights out of us all one night.  Mama woke us up to help search and we looked till close to daylight.
We found him sittin up against the old woodshed at the crack of dawn. He’d slipped out quicker than a cat could lick and was gone.
We never could figure out how he did it so well. That boy was scary as a booger when he took a sleepwalking spell.
He’d have this blank face and scary, glassy, lookin eyes. He acted like some walkin zombie, I tell ya no lies.
Needless to say, mama loved him but was filled with dread every time he came. She said, there’s somethin wrong with that youngun, in the daytime he ain’t the same.
So mama decided to go ahead and sit up one night and watch him real close. That boy never turned over till daylight and the sun rose.
He was really a good kid and loved staying at our house all the time. He would have moved in but mama would’ve went crazy and lost her mind.
We loved him like a brother and tried to adjust. He was the most gentle and kind soul but a sleepwalker ya can’t trust.
He sleepwalked in his own world and never remembered a thing. Till today I call him the sleepwalking king.
And he sure did love mama’s biscuits and gravy every morn. He’d be the first one to the table and act innocent as the day he was born.
He’d eat like a pig and was ready to head out with the boys to play.  Just a normal kid doing kid stuff until the end of the day.
After supper when he’d get his belly full mama would try to talk him into going home. After all, she needed a night’s sleep and the tiredness shown.
He’d always come up with some kind of pitiful excuse to stay and mama couldn’t turn him down and everyday her hair turned more gray.
This went on for quite a few years till the older he grew. We actually missed him and mama did too.
Now, I’m not gonna name any names but I’m sure he  knows that we still love him like our own. I wonder if he still sleepwalks now that he’s married and grown.
My mama said one time, I sure do dread it someday for his wife.  She’ll be put to the test, she’ll never sleep the rest of her life.

                                                      © Susie Swanson, 2015