Flu

I had one of the most challenging nights of my life the other night. I was stricken with the flu syndrome, I’d never had it so tough. I was feverish in bed, not tired, uncomfortable, and wishing I wasn’t there. It was so hard. I had a hangover from sleeping too much, but only it was bedtime, so there was nowhere to go. I have huge empathic tendencies for those who are bedbound, it must be terrible. There comes a point wherein I hate my bed and everything about it. The sweatiness, the clamminess, the yukkiness. Urrgh! And there’s nothing to do but lie there in it, suffering, with the headache and the chills and the cough and the sore throat and the sniffly nose.

The chills are the worst part of it all. At first I thought it was pneumonia. A shivery cold sensation passing over the lungs, like freezing iron fibre reverberating throughout the glands. Absolutely minging. The condition is impossible to describe. I’m both cold and I’m hot in equal measure, each breath is a struggle to gain equilibrium. If a proportion of my arm is exposed my whole body temperature feels it, I stick my ankle out from beneath the bed sheets and it drops a degree. Just. Can’t. Rest.

Last night was perhaps even weirder. I had these strange wide-awake dreams where I was viewing faces looking back at me. They were old-fashioned and antiquated, from another timeline. I could see them crystal-clear, as if on a home video.

I’m gunna have to reel this post in short, as I am still under the weather. The worst part about it is not been able to smoke, as my lungs are too tender and vulnerable. I’m coughing my guts up every other drag. I’m still drinking, that much is never under question. One uncaring customer has just moved half of one of my pints. I wasn’t impressed. Now I’m just in the library talking to you, experiencing the chills in my lungs.

I left church early today, I wasn’t in the mood. Mister Joel the baby was crawling halfway up the aisle. Peter was preaching on the Prodigal Son. The Prodigal Son squandered his father’s wealth but got welcomed back amidst a celebration when he’d spent it all up. You were once lost, but now you’re found.