The new kid at school seems a bit odd, but things are about to get a whole lot stranger. As you put your head on your pillows tonight, I hope this one will take you to another world. And maybe you will wake up tomorrow with a compelling urge to build a den under your desk.
Somewhere between waking and sleeping on our journey towards the unfathomable deep, there comes a thin moment where we have one foot in the waking world and the other is in that other world where we relinquish conscious control.
Pausing here and straddled between two planets that drive one another like gears, the attentive traveler will notice a narrow door only wide enough to sidle through.
This is the border of sleep, where imagination and reality are braided together, a chasm in the crust of consciousness, venting the hot pumice of imagery into the irresistible magma of narrative.
Welcome to episode 60 of Stories from the Borders of Sleep.
Hooray.
This is a podcast of curious tales created and voiced by your host Seymour Jacklin, and you can find out more about the podcast by visiting bordersofsleep.com or joining in the conversation on our Facebook page.
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So the soundtrack for this week's episode is by Jay Kishore from the album Stories from My Grandfather's Village, and that's available from magnitude.com so if you're ready to journey with me, then I shall begin Pillow Pillar Portals by Seymour Jacklin when the school bell rang, all the scattered children on the playground clumped together and moved towards the entranceway and filed through the doors into class, pushing, clattering and scraping their chairs as they flung down their bags and sat down.
Ms.
Briars was sitting at her desk with her head down and writing and appeared not to notice them.
It was just like the start of any other school day.
Even Benny seemed not to have noticed Mrs.
Briars and was still prancing about with his shirt untucked and yelling at Frank to arm wrestle him.
One thing was different though.
Another child was already there, sitting quietly at a desk by the window.
The kids flowed round him at a distance, warily.