The alarm went off way to early, it seemed to Sami. Luckily, that was the last normal thing that would ever happen to her. But still, it was an interruption. She was having a wonderful dream. Or perhaps it was a memory. Whatever it was it wasn't there any more, driven away by the little electronic knife blade pulses of sound storming the edges of her awareness. She could only recall bits of color now, and a really pleasant over all feeling. But as soon as she tried to hold it still in her thoughts, it slipped further away.
She reached out instinctively to swat her clock, as she had done it a thousand times before. She didn't even have to lift her face out of the pillow to do it. She had always just reached, and there it was. She began to feel things were not as they should be when her hand smacked flatly on the dresser top, fingertips just touching the smooth plastic of the clock face.
She twitched her fingers, sliding them across the clock front to get her bearings, making an almost imperceptible squeak. Casually dismissing the first failed attempt as being just a little disoriented after last night, she readied to try again. Last night was just awful. Or had it been wonderful. She wasn't awake enough to recall really. All she knew right now is that she needed to make the noise stop.
She pushed her face down into the pillow, using her head and neck to lever herself the few inches closer that she figured she'd need. The motion forced the smell of her stale hairspray and makeup up into her nose. She lifted her arm out just that bit further, letting gravity bring it down for her. She became confused when her hand came down again on the dresser top, just in front if the clock again.
She rolled her head to the side and pushed onto her other elbow. She looked over at her hand on the dresser, unmoved from where it had landed. Sami wasn't much of a house keeper, and she could tell her aim hadn't been off because her right hand lay directly in a clean rectangle on the dusty dresser top where her clock had been for ages.
Had she pushed it back while reaching for it? Couldn't be. She hadn't even touched it. It was though it was scooting back on it's own.
Annoyed but resigned to wake, Sami reached out again, seeing right where she must touch. But she looked away just slightly as her hand reached out, and again touched nothing.
This was too much. Now she looked very directly, very deliberately at the clock as she reached again. There was no doubt this time. Right before her fingers tentatively reached the snooze button the clock scooted back. On it's own.
She recoiled a moment at this. This was wrong. Was she still asleep? And then she grew mad. She grabbed for it quickly. It moved away just as quick. She swung at it again and again, it dodged each time.
Finally it was trapped. It was on the edge of the dresser, teetering there. Sami made one finally lunge. The clock flung itself off the dresser. It fell to the floor with a clunk. So did Sami.
At least now all was quiet again.
