Chapter 2: Sheep Dreams

Chapter 2

Larry put his hooves up on his desk. A stack of overdue homework lay piled to his right. On the wall to his left was a framed poster of the community rules. His mom had made it and gave it to him when he entered the Dreamforce. Silly rules.
Larry flipped through the channels of the Brainwave apparatus. Satellite radio really was a blessing – he had an endless supply of stations to enjoy while waiting for Henry to doze off. He’d only been at work for a few hours that day, and he was already breaking one of the rules… “No surfing, Larry!” his Dad had bleated a thousand times. He was supposed to stay tuned in to the frequency that aligned with Henry’s radio. How else would he know what was going on there?

Luckily for Larry, Henry was lazy and required very little quality sleep. Unluckily for Larry, Henry worked from home, and was apt to nod off at any given time. Larry could have earned countless hours of overtime if he would have just stayed tuned in, but the vast arrays of punk channels were just too much to resist. Almost without fail, Larry would miss the critical first moments of Henry’s sleep where the dream imprinting was required. As a result, Henry’s sleep patterns were erratic at best, and he only got lazier as he went longer and longer without a good dreamy rest.

Bonnie Collie was the mayor of Cloudtown and the president of Dreamforce. The piebald padfoot was a strict enforcer of the Dreamforce mission. Border Collies everywhere are known for their unfailing loyalty to the human species, and Bonnie was no exception. It was her deepest desire that every man, woman and child receive a top quality sleep each night, and her system worked to ensure the Cloudtown flock provided this quality of service. She had a zero tolerance policy for slackers.

Just like each sheep was assigned to a human, Bonnie had a trained monkey assigned to each sheep. The monkeys were instructed to monitor the quality of sleep of each human and to report deficiencies to Bonnie immediately. They also were required to observe the skills and talents of each woolly worker. The kicker is that the sheep never even knew the monkeys existed.

You see, these were no ordinary monkeys. Bonnie had acquired a fleet of highly trained, super sleuth ninja monkeys. The monkeys were so efficient at their jobs that no one, not even the eldest and most experienced of the Dreamforce squad, had ever suspected they were constantly under surveillance. The monkeys were ultra silent, stealthy, and incredibly good at origami. In fact, they communicated solely through the use of duct-tape origami figurines. Where Bonnie found these creatures, I do not know.

The ninja monkey assigned to Larry had quite an easy job, since Larry never moved. But he was faced with big decisions every day. Larry never stayed on the proper Brainwave frequency. He never got his homework done on time. And Larry never followed the community rules.

However much the monkey had grown fond of his fluffy friend, he was bound by the laws of the land to report Larry’s misdemeanors. Each morning the little fella reported to Bonnie’s office. He rolled out his multipack of duct tape, and began frantically forming little origami re-enactments of Larry’s night. He worked furiously and wordlessly, and at the end of each presentation, Bonnie would nod solemnly, scribble down some notes, and thank him. Truth be told, she had no idea what he was trying to communicate. The little guy worked so fast that she didnt' have time to determine what each of his origami characters were doing before it was transformed into a completely new, um, thingy.

The monkey departed, satisfied that he had done his job, but a little bewildered as to why Larry was not dismissed. Each time he shook off the feeling that he had been completely misunderstood by his beautiful boss. Ninja-monkey 202, as he was known for the lack of being able to properly introduce himself, simply assumed that Larry’s familial connections allowed him to continuously break the rules. He was glad, though, that no punishment was ever dished out. He really didn’t know what would happen to him if Larry was kicked out of the Force.


* * *
Larry switched back over to Henry’s channel. He could hear him munching away. Henry ate more junk than any sheep could ever pack away, this Larry was sure of. The news was good news though, because Larry knew that once Henry got started eating, he would never stop for a nap. Larry put down his headset and stood up. The sound of crunching always got his tummies growling.

The snack machine was just around the corner from Larry’s office. This was no coincidence. Larry had soon become tired of tramping up and down the pillowy stairway each time he had needed a snack, and so had moved it from the third floor down to the mainfloor, where his office was located. No one else really used it anyway, not that it would have mattered to him if they did.

He put four bills in the machine, and got four candy apples in return. One for each stomach, he thought to himself with a drooly grin. Ah, the joys of rumination.

As Larry strolled back to his office, a sudden noise caught his attention. He cocked his head to the side to listen, and realized the disturbance was coming from his office.A few steps later, Larry was standing in the doorway. He looked around the messy room, but saw nothing and no one about. The noise continued, and it was sounded more shrieky now than it had before. He glanced at the headphones. They seemed to be bouncing around.

Larry scooped up the headset and placed them over his ears. The volume had been cranked up, and the sound of the fiasco nearly deafened him.
“AHHHHH” he boomed as he threw the headset down. “What the heck is going on down there?!”

He adjusted the volume and tried again. Ninja-monkey 202 found this all very fascinating. It wasn’t often that the view from his furnace-vent perch afforded him any action at all, let alone this kind of excitement.

“GIT OUTTA MY FACE!” came the voice over the radio waves. “GIT OFFA MY CHAIR, AND NEVER COME BACK!”

Larry instantly recognized Henry’s voice, although he wasn’t sure how. He hadn’t heard him do much more than mutter over the past few months. He didn’t even realize that anyone else lived in the house. His rapid thoughts were interrupted by a pathetic whimper.

“GO! I SAID GIT OUT! Mangy mutt.” Ahh, Larry thought, so he’s talking to his dog. Still, it was a little over the top for the general mellow human couch potato.
“I’m too tired to take you for a walk…. I’m just, so tired!” Henry seemed to be calming down a bit. Larry breathed a sigh of relief, and reached for a candied apple.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” The bellow came booming through the headset, nearly knocking the mutton off his chair. “DON’T PEE IN THE HOUSE! OUT OUT OUT!!!!” Scuffling noises and more yelping followed. “Danged dog. Why can’t he just play in the yard? Why do I gotta entertain him all the time? If I could just get a decent night’s sleep, maybe I’d feel more like playin’.”

Larry started to feel a teenie little bit guilty. Henry just needed to get a better sleep. His laziness wasn’t just affecting Henry, it as affecting his poor little puppy as well. Ah well, no biggie. If a dog was smart enough to run all of Cloudtown, Larry justified, certainly they could keep themselves out of trouble on earth.

He quickly changed the channel before another repeat performance could ensue.
Ninja-monkey 202 wasn’t sure exactly what had transpired, but it sure had been fun to watch. He was sure he had been assigned to the most boring of the Dreamforce, and most days he just kept to himself, practicing origami. This time, he’s practically been swinging off the rafters with excitement. He couldn’t wait to tell Bonnie about this incident.

Larry picked up the folder from the top of his homework pile. It was a physics assignment. “How do you measure the frequency of a wave? What role do radio waves and their various frequencies have in helping the Dreamforce communicate with earthlings?”

Kids stuff, he snorted. Clasping a pencil between his hooves, Larry scribbled down a few short answers. Done. He kicked back and cranked the volume of the radio back up. Time to enjoy this frequency.