The Call of the Loon

When I was little, I was afraid of falling asleep.

There were glow-in-the-dark stars on my ceiling, and I’d lie awake staring at them for hours. When my parents bought the house, I had wanted that room (rather than the almost identical one next door) because of the stars. My bed was a bunk bed, with a desk and set of drawers where the bottom bunk should be. If I sat up in bed and stretched my arm to its full length, I could almost touch the stars on my ceiling.