DDOlympics Super Combined.

"Goodnight Lars" "G'night mom" I went to bed that night with my eyelids heavy. It has been a long day - school, soccer, homework - my whole life was wearing me out. There was no doubt about it. It was time for bed. I closed my eyes and let myself drift off into a peaceful rest. Only - I couldn't. Something was stopping me. There was a disturbance, even though my mom had turned off the light and left the room. Something wasn't right. I had to open my eyes and see for myself what was going on. Nothing. My room seemed normal. Messy, but normal. Like it always did. Was I anxious? Or was it something else? Then I noticed my old record player still had its little "on" light shining. I must have forgotten to turn it off. Of course, I couldn't afford a CD player, or even a cassette player. All I had was a record player. And then I saw another light. My old TV. My old computer. All with little lights in many colors, signalling out to me that they were there. It was like they were alive. Speaking to me. Faintly flickering lights in the night like stars in the sky. Most people would choose to simply turn off the power and go to sleep, but not me. I wanted to contemplate this fact. To appreciate it. Deep down, I don't think I believed my eyes as ten million of these fireflies lit up my world. The multicolored rays of photons streamed through the open air, leaving soft teardrop-like reflections everywhere around my room. I felt rude, but that didn't bother me. Moving quietly (not wishing to alert my mother to this moment of zen I was having) I stood up and looked around, immersing myself in the multitude of soft lights shining around me. The lights seemed to hug me a thousand times as the flickering lightning bug beams enveloped my body. I began to explore around the room, darting through and playing in the fantastic bursts of color. Neat dances like the foxtrot were well over my head at that age, but that didn't mean I didn't know how to dance. And dance I did! Under my bed I had set up a small hideout. Putting up an old rotating disco ball by a thread from a hook in the roof, I sent all the shimmering colors to boundlessly refract around my personal city. Down under the mattress I danced the night away. I hated myself sometimes. I wished I could simply be taken away to a world of dreams, but I could not escape the mesmerizing display put on by the adorable little lights. If I had stared at the stars it would have been no different. Hours seemed to pass and I had reached an impasse. It was no longer merely time for sleep - it came to the point where sleep was no longer an option. I wanted to stay up - I was too busy being tired for anything else. I cracked the door open a little to let more light flood in and fuel my insomnia. I even tried counting sheep to occupy myself, although somehow that made things worse. There was a moment that I realized the inevitable had come, and I had to succumb. I said my goodbyes to the ten million fireflies in the room as I flicked the power switch for the last time that night. I didn't like goodbyes, but by that point mist seemed to already be clouding my vision, making the fireflies already too pointless. There would always be another night to come and enjoy with them. That's when my dreams burst at the seams, and I woke up to a brilliant morning. Only then did I realize how futile it had been to dream of wishing to be awake when I was asleep. Not everything is the same as it seemed when I fell asleep, but many of my fireflies that I kept as a child I still have today. They sit up in a jar on my shelf. If I can't get to sleep, or my dreams are too bizarre, I simply take them out, plug them up, and find instant happiness, as I found in the fort under my bed all those years ago. There are those who would believe there is no longer any use for old technology - that we should dump it away, forget about it, and lose it forever. I will not accept that. Sometimes, things don't change so much as we like to think. My belief is that really, the Earth turns slowly. In this day and age it may be an impossible belief, and even I have trouble accepting it, but I know it is true, and my fireflies are the living proof. I smiled that morning as I looked at the old equipment strewn around my room. In fact, I was looking forward to the next night more than ever.