Late last evening our door-bell rang. When we opened the door, our next door neighbour, his wife, and their toddler stood on our doorstep. The neighbour looked slightly panicking, and the wife bent backwards with a bloody wad pressed against her nose.
While the situation wasn’t very funny then, I can now look back at it and see its absurdity . The woman has lived on the street all her life, just like Mark, and they knew his parents and him. So, sometimes they ask us to look after the child when they need to go down to the shops. Just for an hour or two, and for emergencies like this.
Although, admittedly they’ve never appeared on our doorstep at night with half a pint of blood over her blouse and a big stained napkin up her nose. I think I would remember that.
So, Mark being the gentleman says “Of course we’ll look after him”. He even offered to drive, but the guy wanted to drive himself. And that’s how the nightmare started. I say nightmare figuratively because I certainly had no chance to dream.
The toddler spent most of the night screaming. Sometimes he collapsed and fell asleep for a little bit, only to wake up again. Mark spent most of that time walking around the house with the child in his arms trying to get him to shut up and sleep. The child never did.
Come morning, I was a zombie slouching toward school, knowing that at two pm that afternoon I was going to do my practical driving test. Something that I obviously wouldn’t be able to do. At ten I had to ring and reschedule. By eleven I had almost fallen asleep in school. Finally, when I got home at around one, I sat down in the sofa, and the next time I looked outside it was dark, and it was nine pm.
So, yeah. My sleeping pattern is now officially shot. I suppose I should be glad it’s weekend. If I wasn’t one of those boring rational people who don’t believe in superstitions, maybe I would believe that this driving thing is cursed. It certainly has taken long enough, and there’s always something getting in the way of me and the tests. Though, a bleeding woman on my door step in the middle of the night is over-doing it…
Colinology 
Yikes! Sounds like a dreadful night. I have not had a regular sleeping pattern in months so I can identify. I know it’s much worse for you with school obligations. Karma owes you one!
Well, at least both of us are that way. It would be worse if it was only me. Mark slept too when he came home.
Least you finished school at 1 and it wasn’t a full day.