Samuel is sleepy. Reading becomes more and more tiring. He closed the door of the room because his parents had turned off the light and the darkness of the corridor was worrying him. He closed the windows too, the temperature drops too low during the night.
Samuel is terrified of sleeping though. He doesn’t want to dream. He doesn’t want to have nightmares. But more importantly, he doesn’t want to close his eyes and fall asleep with a demonic book in his room.
He doesn’t know if it’s really a demonic book… but it’s definitely not a normal book.
He put it to the test by asking about famous actresses but the book didn’t answer. Apparently its “powers” have a limit, it cannot “move” too much from the place where it is.
Yet the dreams that Samuel had, haunted him even when he left the city, such as when he went camping.
So he asks about some of his friends, and in this case too he receives no answer. But when he asks about his parents, the pages fill up with information.
Even asking about the neighbors the pages went filled with information, and the nice thing about this “information” is that they are probably things that not even they can easily know. The book even says the amount of conscious and unconscious thoughts they do per minute.
Intrigued by this fact Samuel began comparing his speed of thought with that of others. He then realized that everyone thinks at the same speed, but there was a guy upstairs who thought very quickly. He wonders if that guy is a genius, but the book describes him as an ordinary guy who works in a supermarket.
He takes advantage of all that cerebral speed in competitive video games, where reaction times are very important. It is not an improper use of that mental advantage however, because according to the book he is not only satisfied with his current life, but thanks to video games he rounds off the income he already makes working at the supermarket.
Only now Saumuel realizes that the book provides information on the state of mind of people. The book knows if they are sad, happy, angry, depressed… and so he decides to start analyzing people under this aspect.
He starts with him, who is described as terrified. And it’s true, Samuel is terrified.
He continues with his mother. She is described as “worried about her child”. The motivations? “Religious reasons”.
He continues with his father. He is described as “angry with the manager of a football team”. There is no need for additional investigations, Samuel already knows what the book is talking about.
Eventually, however, sleep becomes too strong. His eyes are starting to close on their own. He must sleep, he cannot escape that fate.
At the same time though, Samuel doesn’t want to sleep. He is afraid of that book. As it says above, he is terrified.
He stands up and goes to the kitchen. The silence and darkness of the house frightens him a little. He hasn’t felt this way since he was a child.
He prepares a coffee, and drinking it makes his choice.
If he really has to sleep, he prefers to sleep in a safe place full of people.
Like the school desks.