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recliner sleepThere was an audible “Plop!” as he dropped into the leather recliner. Reaching for the remote without looking, he leaned backwards just enough to instruct the chair to do the same. By its own version of muscle memory the chair finds exactly the perfect angle of recline for watching the telly or dozing into gentle sleep.

The television comes to life, such as it is; slowly opening its Cycloptic eye not to see, but to be seen. Controlled by a remote that seemingly controls itself, the eye blinks through dozens of the usual channels, desperately seeking “The One.” Blink. Or maybe this is “The One.” Blink. The search continues.

By the time the eye finds a viable program – an old game show, a current baseball game, a Disneyesque nature documentary – he is half asleep. Mostly the television these days is for the brief glimpses of light and sound between naps. Nothing new to excite, nothing old that informs. Time for a snooze.

“Wake up and go to sleep,” she says, and he transports himself to the bedroom to rest from the day’s exertions.

Plop! The sound is audible as he drops into the leather recliner, his hand grabbing the remote as if on command. The eye opens. The day begins.

 

[Written in response to one-word prompt, Plop]

David J. Kent is the author of Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (2013) and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (2016) (both Fall River Press). He has also written two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.