I was drifting in that wonderful netherland of fleeting, unrelated pictures and thoughts, just before one falls asleep. Then I heard a screech from my daughter's bedroom: "Jennifer's pregnant!" My blood curdled. The screech, the message, the cruelly sudden snatch from peace; the combination of all those.
My mind raced. I had time to think, because my voice didn't work. Jennifer .... all her friends are in their early teens. Do I know a Jennifer from my side? Don't flatter yourself.... This can't be good.
I manage to clear my throat, then I hear a familiar sound. Japanese... Sims. She playing SIMS!
For the uninitiated, The Sims is a computer game, where the player creates characters, families, communities, builds houses and neighbourhoods, then all these characters have to interact in everyday activities. They have to work, clean house, visit, relate to each other, create friendships, marriages - yes, and they can even have babies. Strangely, the dialogue has never been translated - it is still in, what I presume to be, Japanese.
"That's really cool," I hear a voice say, sounding remarkably like mine.
She screeches again in delight, then is suddenly totally absorbed by her addiction again.
How I love the sound of Japanese. There again, I consider as I drift back to the state from which I was so cruelly snatched, perhaps it's not Japanese. Perhaps it's a computer-generated language just for the game, that nobody understands. Much like 'teenager' language, I speculate.
It's hard to fall asleep with curdled blood.
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