March 11^th, 2020

Make Your Bed

“Can’t get over the fact he’s sleeping in the jail tonight,” Rudy said. “My stepbrother – unbelievable. What are the beds like in jail?”

I said, “In most of the county jails around here, the ‘mattress’ is thinner than a futon and rolled out over a steel shelf. They tell me it takes some getting used to.”

Rudy sighed, “Nothing’s better than your own bed.”

I knew that wasn’t always true. Sometimes addiction opened the bedroom door, sometimes it slipped under the covers, turning the night darker.

A friend told me when she was a little girl, she slept with a chair wedged against her bedroom door. Her addicted mother had an endless line of boyfriends who stayed over. Too often they knocked on her door in the middle of the night. As a teenager, she’d developed her own addiction to Xanax™ and alcohol while battling insomnia.

A couple I’d seen for counseling slept back to back, secretly stewing in their resentments. He resented her drinking a bottle of wine every night. She resented his porn habit. They pretended they weren’t really furious, that their marriage just needed ‘a little tune up.’  They balked at the idea they both needed to deal with their addictions.

Later that night I slipped under the covers with a woman I loved, who’d never seen me drunk, feeling grateful I’d kept addiction out of my bed.

Today I’ll be grateful for the bed I’ve made.

2020 Vision ©2017 & 2018 by Ken Montrose

2020 Vision is a work of fiction. Any similarity between the characters and anyone you might know is purely coincidental.

Other works by Ken Montrose are available at: www.greenbriartraining.com https://www.pinterest.com/kenmontrose/mt-rose/