September 27th, 2026
Asher and I sleep together. That’s his choice. He has his own bed in his own bedroom, but he prefers to be with me. When he comes into bed, he insists on “stuffie talk” before he sleeps. His stuffed seal lies next to him, and I have to speak for the Big Blue Seal and tell stories until Asher is ready to doze off. When Asher is ready, he tells me,
“Grandpa, give me your arm.”
Then he finds a place on my left bicep to use as a pillow. Generally, he is asleep within minutes after having laid his head down.
I am prone to night terrors. I don’t know why. The terrors don’t visit me often, but they come with a vengeance. Usually, they arrive early in the night. I have these hellish dreams that I barely remember. They almost always involve some amorphous, shapeshifting being that is darker than black. I get into a fierce psychic battle with the creature, and that fight explodes into the physical world. I scream and flail about. My wife rushes to the bedroom to wake me up. She doesn’t touch me during these dreams because she knows that she might get hit.
Now while I get enmeshed in the nightmare, I am also probably holding Asher near me. During the latest night terror episode, I woke up to find the boy nestled in the crux of my left shoulder. He moaned a little, but he never woke up. As soon as I came out of the dream, Asher was back to snoring. He deals far better with the aftereffects of my night terrors than I do. I feel my heart racing and my throat hurting from screaming for quite a while after I awaken. Asher just rolls over and gets back to his own dreams.
Asher does not always sleep well. He is often restless. He will wake up in the middle of the night and demand my arm again. Then he cuddles up to me and sleeps. He often moves close to me in bed. My wife thinks that it is because the weight of my body creates a gravity hole that sucks Asher toward me. There is probably also an emotional draw.
I had a dream last night about my father. It was unpleasant. At the end of the dream, my dad faded away. I called to him. Asher heard me speak. Asher woke me up by saying,
“Grandpa! Grandpa! It was probably just a nightmare.”
He never opened his eyes while he talked. He said his piece and immediately went back to sleep.
