It’s just gone 5am

It’s just gone 5am and I have to write this down while it’s fresh.

There is noise in the world; lots of noise. It’s not unpleasant, but not relaxing. It has a regular pattern, a drone and some higher pitched variations on a short phrase. Gradually, it dawns on me that this strange music is not a dream. I wake up, confused. There is a simple but enthusiastic rhythmic shaking of some jingle bells, Rosabel’s voice can be heard rumbling out one of her made up songs and the twins are dancing all around and in and out of their room saying, “Rosabel’s being hilarious! Rosabel’s being hilarious!” as if it’s the chorus to a well known nursery rhyme. Soon, Ivy’s dancing spills into our room and she carries on with her chant, regardless of the fact that it’s very dark and Ailsa, Bea and I are clearly (no longer) sleeping. I investigate the situation and find that Ivy is quite right: Rosabel is being hilarious. She is sat like some sort of shaman, cross-legged in the middle of her room with the jingle bells shaking in one hand, singing in a low, slow, four-beat monotone, “Wake up, sun! Wake up, sun! Wake up, sun! Wake up, sun!” ignorant to the world around her without, it seems, any intention of stoping. For the sake of Elaine, our long suffering, saintly neighbour, I contain my glee and get the girls back in bed. Rosabel was being hilarious, and now it’s morning.