Every night, the same pillow.

“You have 7 pillows!” she replied.

                It was a normal, calmly night. It wasn’t too hot, but I had taken a shower. I was going out of the bathroom, when my dad yelled “Dinner its ready!”

                “I’m coming!” I yelled back.      

                I took my contact lenses out and put them into their case. Pull them out was difficult. I have showered with them, so they turned sticky into my eye like an already-chew bubble gum into your jacket, and you realized it was there an hour after.

                I couldn’t see, not because I haven’t my lenses, but because the entire vapor that had left the hot, almost burning water was all over the room. Running from the bathroom to my room only with my towel was almost suicidal. I slipped in the 5 foot distance from door to door. Only the door frame was my lifeguard in that moment.    

                It was refreshing to put on the cold, dry pajama on. It was a long, sky-blue lined pajamas and a simple long-sleeved shirt. My black and white, simple flip-flops were lined-up in front of the T.V. like waiting from me to put them on. They were cold, but that fell quite good, because my feet were wet and hot.

                Running down the noisy, wooden stairs is always fun. There are like 8 stairs, then a large, wooden table, and then another 5 stairs. But I always past the first 5 in a big jump then walk the 3 more, and the jump the other 5, all at the same furious, fast speed. Because the wooden is not totally set in the white, metal base, the steps of the skinniest person would sound like a big, noisy crunch.

                Jumping the last 5 stairs, I see my mom coming out of my parent’s room. She is the sweetest, but still direct, objective and proud person I’ve ever meet. You must not make her angry or disappoint her because you maybe be regretting for that. She has his red, blonde and brown hair ironed perfectly. A woman who almost always is well combined in her clothes. This time it’s not the exception. She is wearing black, silk pants with a floral print shirt. Perfectly jewelry and shoes that combines with the outfit. As always, she is wearing high heels.

                “Hi darling” She said to me with his pretty, few-wrinkled face.

She walks towards the wooden, rustic, 8 chairs dinner table. My dad was already serving into his plate a bunch of sticky macaroni-and-cheese, graving in his other hand the plate of beans.

“Nights dad” I said to him. My dad, a 50 years-old man, was wearing as always a suit, with a perfectly combined shirt and tie. I kissed him in his shaved, little hole in his head. He has a little bit of hair in all his head, but in the top is different. In the top, a very well-formed circle without a single hair shines like a new pair of shoes.

The conversation starts like any family would. “How was your day?”, “And yours?”, “How school going?” Every night these questions are repeated in the same conversation, kind of boring at some time.

When my brother dropped the question: “Did anyone saw my pillow?” All of us nodded.         

“I have my 7 pillows” I said with a calmly voice, like these was not big new.

“You have 7 pillows!” my mom replied, in a face between shock and surprise.

“Yeah, is that weird?” I said with a calmly voice.

“How do you sleep, I mean you literally are sleeping in a sitting position.” My dad said with his fork pointing at me.

“How haven’t you hurt your back?” said my brother, all my family was shocked by a thing that I seemed normal.

You know, I, every night before sleep, do a little arrangement in my bed. I see the bedcover and I grab it and pull it out completely with a great force because my bed is besides the wall. Then I shake the blanket all over like for 5 minutes.

I do this because, once, a red, creepy spider was on my bed and I lay down. When I started to fell his little, but hairy legs in my face, I started screaming like a person who is about o be killed in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. It was awful.

Then, I grab my fist two rectangle and soft pillows and put it side by side. They, together, make the exact size of my bed.

Then, a square pillow that is hard enough to hold a plate when I eat in my bed. This pillow is in the middle of the two rectangular, making a little form of a high mountain or a little volcano.

Above this 3, another two rectangular pillows are placed. These ones harder than the other ones. These two more makes the shape of the volcano even higher.

Above all this mountain of pillows, there are these two pillows that have little legs in the sides. They are called “abuelos” in Spanish. They are very comfortable, because your head is always in a pleasant way that will never be crushing with the bed or bed board.

So, this is my little personal ritual.