My Excessive Sleep

Today is my sister's wedding day. I was supposed to be in Lauren's wedding; however, when I repeatedly failed to show up for rehearsals, my cousin Richard kindly stepped in as my replacement. Lauren tried to be patient and understanding; she even went to the doctors with me. She stopped going after I kept insisting that I was suffering from a weird condition that caused me to sleep excessively.

While my condition has been very painful for my parents to accept, for Lauren it has been devastating. For you see, Lauren and I are twins. Medical research has proven that some twins have the innate ability to simultaneously sense and feel what the other feels, I tend to agree. At age 10, Lauren and I attended summer camp in Pennsylvania. While playing volleyball, she tripped over a log and broke her wrist. I was a mile away canoeing when suddenly I felt a sharp, excruciating pain in my wrist. Upon examination, the pediatrician determined that nothing was wrong with my wrist; I had experienced a strange sort of phenomena reportedly common amongst twins.

Lauren, while devastated that this excessive sleep condition has encroached upon our lives; she is certain that if this were a "true" condition, she would have felt it just as I felt her pain years ago. My doctor's final diagnosis was Chronic Fatigue Syndrome; he prescribed medication that has not improved my condition. On average, I get 14 hours of sleep a day. I could sleep for 24 hours but my cat Tabitha's incessant meow for food stirs me out bed.

I miss Lauren, more than she knows. She's pregnant with her first child, a boy. I cried when she told me they were going to name him Jesse Ryan, after me and our father. As I gently laid the phone in the cradle, I hear my wife calling, "Jesse, time to go to the doctors; we have seven months to find out why you suffer from excessive sleep disorder" or else your name sake will not get to know his favorite uncle.