To Sleep, Perchance. . .

Jason Stout

 

 

Walt rubbed the alcohol-soaked cotton on Tina’s arm.

“Feels cold,” she said with a smile.

Walt put his hand on her shoulder and returned the smile.

“You’re sure you want to go through with this?” he asked her again.

“Absolutely,” she answered.

“Well, OK, let’s get started.”

He lay down on the hospital bed beside hers and started the final preparations.

Across the room, two members of the Society – Captain Patriot and Kid Flame – watched on.

“Walt,” Kid Flame said. “You can’t do this.  You don’t know if it’s safe.”

Walt continued his work, but looked up briefly at Kid.

“No, it’s safe.  I know that.  What I don’t know is whether it will actually work.  That’s what we’re going to find out.”

“I still don’t understand why you’d do this – risk killing yourself and Tina.  And in the process destroying your powers.  Are your lives that miserable?”

“No, but they are incompatible.  You know that.  And I don’t recall you ever being too impressed with my superpowers before.  I believe you described me as a novelty with no discernible use to the group.  And you said Tina was no better than – what was it – a circus freak show act.”

As Kid Flame sputtered, Walt turned back to Tina and winked conspiratorially.  She grabbed his hand and gave it a quick squeeze.

Walt squeezed back and thought Kid Flame was probably right.  He was, in more ways than not, just a novelty.  In the Society resided men and women with superhuman strength, speed, and more bizarre abilities than could be dreamed up.  Super-stretching, invisibility, the ability to control molecular density. 

And Walt?  He was defined by a negative, a lack, something that was missing.  His Society-chosen codename said it all: The Insomniac, the only person known to medical science to exist without sleep. 

It was easy to misunderstand the benefits of this power.  Not knowing what else to do with him, the Society at first put him on duty monitoring the city’s hot spots for dangers they could address.  He was, in fact, the first permanent resident of the group’s headquarters.  Day and night, Walt would watch the TV news and listen to the police scanners, alerting whichever hero was on duty.

After a while, it became apparent to some in the group that Walt could do much more.  His “power” could create for himself something that no other person could – time.  While the rest of the world – even those who could lift buildings or fly to the moon in an instant – slept a third of their lives away, Walt could use that time to think, to learn, to create.  In a year’s time, he had almost three thousand extra hours to solve some of the Society’s trickiest problems.

It was Walt who had devised the cure that brought Niagara Man out of his coma.  It was Walt’s untiring effort that created the force-field generator that protected the Headquarters from Gigantor’s numerous assaults.  And, finally, it was Walt, even after being derided by Kid Flame as worthless, who intuited the process Kid could use to more accurately control his fire – a process that allowed Kid to lead a more normal life when he wasn’t being the superhero.

And then there was Tina, code-named Prophetia, the second permanent resident of the headquarters.  Walt knew there was more than the forced proximity of living together that explained their relationship.  They were yin and yang, night and day – together they completed a whole. 

While Walt could never sleep, Tina’s power only manifested itself in sleep.  It was what the doctor’s had named “Prophetic Narcolepsy” – an uncontrollable sleep state that created accurate visions of the future.  On more than one occasion, her prophecies had saved the entire Society, if not the world, from destruction.

But she had no control over her power, and the bouts were becoming much more frequent.  Tina now slept more than she was awake, while the visions themselves were becoming more difficult, if not impossible, to interpret. 

It was this worsening of Tina’s condition that led Walt to search for a cure.  Walt worked non-stop for six months in his lab at the headquarters.

Finally, he knew how to beat it.  And it was so simple.  Walt walked down to Tina’s room and knocked softly.

“Tina,” he said through the door.  “Are you up?”

“Yes,” she said.  “Come in.”

Tina was sitting on the corner of her bed.  She looked up, then patted her hand on the quilt beside her.  Walt sat down and Tina took his hand with both of hers.

“I didn’t know if you were going to come by today,” she said.  “You’ve been so busy in the lab.”

“I know, I’m sorry.  But I’ve got something to tell you.  You know what I’ve been working on?”

“Yes, you big softie – you’re trying to cure me.”

“Well, I’ve done it.  It’s perfect and so easy.”

Tina turned to him more fully and threw her arms around his neck.

“Oh, Walt, that’s fantastic!  What do we have to do?”

“A little blood transfusion.  You take a bit of my blood and I’ll take a bit of yours.”

Tina loosened her grip around Walt’s neck and looked at him in the eyes.

“Is that safe for you?”

“Yes and, in fact, if I’ve figured this out right, we’ll both be. . .”

“Normal?”

“Yes, normal.”

Tina kissed him on the cheek lightly and pressed her check against his.

“So, how long do we have to wait?”

“No wait.  We can do it right away in the infirmary.”

 

* * *

 

Captain Patriot and Kid Flame had left the infirmary to the couple, and Walt quickly finished setting up his equipment.  After hooking everything up, he lay down beside Tina and the transfusion started.

Tina looked over at Walt

“Feeling sleepy yet?” she asked with a smile.

“No, not yet,” Walt said.

“How will we tell if it’s a success?”

“I guess if I fall asleep watching Pride & Prejudice and you manage to stay awake for an entire episode of Battlestar Galactica.”

“I wouldn’t count on that – condition or no condition,” Tina said.

The two stared at the ceiling and lay in silence while what they hoped was normalcy pulsed through their veins.

“I would just like to be able to share more time together,” Tina said.  “I’m always sleeping lately.”

“I know,” Walt said.  “I’d like to be able to curl up with you and sleep in on a Saturday morning.  Of course, I’d have to make an honest woman of you.”

Tina laughed.

“Is this your clumsy way of saying we should get married?” she asked.

“It’s a little hard to get down on bended knee when I’m all hooked up like this – but, yes.  How would you like to be ‘Mrs. The Insomniac’?”

“I would like that very much.  But, you know, without our powers, there’ll be no more codenames.  We’ll be drummed out of the Society.”

“And I’ll have t-t-t-to get a proper job,” Walt said with a false stammer.

“And a proper place to live.”

“Maybe we’re being too hasty. . .”

“Too late, I’ve already accepted.”

The procedure took less than half an hour.  Walt was just dismantling the equipment when the alarm sounded.  Captain Patriot’s voice boomed over the PA system.

“Insomniac, Prophetia, we’ve got word that Gigantor is on his way.  Kid Flame and I are the only others here, so stay alert and – ”

A thunderous crash interrupted the Captain and the lights flickered for a second before the back-up generators kicked in.

Walt looked to Tina.

“This isn’t good,” he said.  “Stay here and rest.  I need to head down to the control room.”

“Like hell.  Where you go, I go.”

Walt laughed.  “What have I gotten myself into?” he said.  “All right, come on.”

The two raced down the corridor.  As they ran, Walt flicked the switch on his communicator and tried to raise the Captain.

“Captain, are you there?”

“Yes, Walt, uh, I mean, Insomniac.  Little busy, though, at the moment.  Small matter of Gigantor trying to run me through.”

“You’re going to be even busier if we don’t figure out what happened to the main electricity feed.  The force field won’t hold long on the backup power; it’s an energy hog.  If that field goes down, who knows what Gigantor may be able to get a hold of in our weapons room.”

“Ah, I get your point.  You work on the field; Kid and I will keep working on Gigantor.”

Walt and Tina rounded the corner and entered the control room.  Acrid smoke hung in the air.  Sparks flashed from the main control panel.

Walt began assessing the damage.

“It may take hours to get all of this repaired,” Walt said.  “We don’t have that kind of time.  I need to buy us some more time.”

The answer came to him in a flash.  He once again punched the button on the communicator.

“Captain, I’ve got an idea.”

“Let’s hear it,” said the Captain.

“I’m going to turn the force field off – ”

“What?  Are you crazy?  You just told me that we had to keep it on.”

“I know,” Walt said.  “Just listen.  Once I turn off the force field, I want you to lure Gigantor into the training room.  I will set up a smaller force field there, reverse the polarity and, on your signal, turn the mini-field on, trapping Gigantor inside.  That smaller field should hold plenty long enough to get the other repairs finished.”

“OK, I got it.  Let’s just hope this works.”

“It will, Captain, trust me.”

With that, Walt turned off the force field and began his work to buy them all a little more time.

 

* * *

 

Twenty minutes later, Captain Patriot yelled into his communicator.

“All right, we’ve about got it.  On my mark, turn on the mini-force field.”

“Yes, Captain,” Tina said.

“Tina?  Where’s Walt?”

“Never mind that, Captain,” Tina yelled.  “Get out of the training room and tell me when to throw the switch.”

“Right.  One more second.  Now!”

Tina pushed the button as she had been instructed and waited.

“Captain?” Tina said.  “Did it work?”

“Looks like it,” the Captain said.  “He’s doing a number on our training equipment.  But I don’t think he’ll be able to get out of there any time soon.”

“In that case, can you and Kid Flame please come to the control room?”

“We’ll be right there,” the Captain said.

 

* * *

 

Tina was sitting on the floor holding Walt’s head in her lap, when the Captain and Kid Flame ran in.

“Tina,” Kid Flame said.  “What happened?”

“Another explosion,” she said.  “While Walt was working on the force field.  He was thrown halfway across the room.  He was fading in and out of consciousness, but he managed to tell me how to finish the work on the mini-force field.  He also told me what you’d need to do to fix the main energy feed.  And then he just slipped away.”

“Oh, Tina,” Captain Patriot said.  “I’m so sorry.  Walt will go down in the records of the Society as a true hero.”

“I’m sure he will, Captain,” Tina said.  “But you know Walt never wanted to be a hero.  He just. . .”

Kid Flame knelt down beside Tina and put his hand on her shoulder.

“What?” he asked.  “What did Walt want?”

“He just wanted to take a nap on the couch on a Sunday afternoon curled up with a girl that he fancied a bit.  He wanted to know what it was like to dream.  Can you imagine never dreaming?  He wanted to make me happy.”

Tina looked down at Walt and slowly stroked his hair.

“And that he did.  That he did.  Sweet dreams, my Prince.  Sweet dreams.”