Liminal: The Little Man
By Lydia Davis, first published in Break It Down: Stories
As a woman slips in and out of sleep, her dreams become windows to moments in her life.
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Plot Summary
As a woman closes her eyes, she contemplates the process of falling asleep and light filtering through her eyes. Her sleep takes her to previous moments in her life, such as one where her son laid shells on her leg, or one where he smashed a plastic toy with a brick and she yelled at him. The process of falling asleep hasn’t always been easy for her because her mind often won’t stop thinking, but other times it comes upon her quickly. She dreams again of a time when she fell asleep with her son at the beach, and of another night when she was eight years old and laid in bed crying because of a lost relationship until a small man of her invention came in and told her it would be alright. Now as she tries to sleep again her body will still not stay at peace, until the man comes again and his presence assures her that everything is alright and she has done the best she can with those in her life.
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