Not being able to sleep was a new development. At first he was not really paying attention. He was stressed, so for sure that was the cause. Then though, the stress subsided but the sleepless nights continued.
It got so bad that he considered taking some pills, when he read the side effects and read online about them he changed his mind. They were too impactful to take the risk.
Otto started looking into natural remedies and techniques to help you sleep. He was surprised to find that the internet was full of fool proof suggestions. He felt like a damn right fool when they did not work for him!
In the end, after many months of searching he had to admit that he might need professional help. Maybe it was hormonal! And so he went to the doctor.
‘It is not unusual for a man of your age, with your responsibilities to have some sleepless nights.’ The doctor consoled him. ‘But we will run some tests.’, he concluded as if he was making Otto a favor.
The tests all came back good, and the doctor had this smug expression on his face that made the very tired Otto want to just get up and leave, instead of sitting there listening to the so called medical practitioner reciting things Otto could try. He had tried everything and the doctor just sounded like reading Google search results.
Before his insomnia Otto lived in quiet suburban house, but now he had to move to the city, so there were things for him to do at night. He had moved into a small one bedroom apartment close to the city center where there were shops, and pubs, and everything one could need open all night.
Because now he had so much time, Otto was agreeing to take work meetings that were in total opposite time zones than his. This made him more productive and his work was becoming even more appreciated.
But Otto was fading away. Not sleeping was eating at his body, and, in just a matter of months he had turned from a well put together man to a shadow, skin on bones. His work colleagues were whispering in the corners that for sure he is doing drugs, but as his work was so appreciated nobody dared say anything of the sort.
Otto was getting close to the end of his tether, so he started to put his affairs in order.
One night, when he was out and about, thinking about how to divide his assets, he felt thirsty so he went into the first pub that crossed his path. It was a dark place, with very low ceilings, and a strangely sunken floor that made it feel like the ceiling was going to come crashing down on you.
The people inside though seemed very comfortable, the air was unusually fresh for such a dark, crowded place. Otto went to the bar and asked for a Pepsi Max with a twist of lemon, the only drink he had ever liked and the only one he was drinking now, when he had lost all cravings for food or drink. The Pepsi reminded him of the person he had once been and whom he sadly believed he would never go back to.
As he was slowly sipping his drink he felt the light change, and when he turned to the chair next to him he was faced with an unusually beautiful, but very adorned, young woman.
‘Hello!’, her voice was high pitched but pleasant in the overall noise of the pub.
‘Hello!’, Otto replied and withdrew a few centimeters back.
‘I am Rhonda!’, she extended a firm hand while adding ‘Not my real name of course, but I quite like it.’
Otto was pleasantly surprised by her honesty.
‘Otto, my real name unfortunately …’
‘Why do you say that?’, she shuffled making herself more comfortable on the chair.
‘Nothing, just the German ring to it got me a bit in trouble when I was a child … bullies you know …’, Otto felt instantly ashamed of oversharing and turning red he focused all his attention on the drink.
‘Oh … ohhhhh’, Rhonda seemed to get what he was alluding at. ‘Yeah, kids can be so stupid sometimes … you are not a child anymore though and that is good, no?’, she had her own drink, something in three different colors topped with fruit and an extremely useless umbrella.
‘It is not useless, it is cute!’, Rhonda smiled at him pleasantly.
‘And inconvenient, you can barely drink!’, Otto did not seem to register that he had not uttered his previous thoughts out loud.
‘Well’, Rhonda said sipping her drink through a black thin straw ‘that is the idea, the amount of alcohol this thing has in it, you would not want to drink it too fast… or too many of them …’, she laughed and Otto found her laughter very comforting and relaxing.
‘A problem I do not have with mine!’, he said satisfied and signaling the bartender to his empty glass.
‘I was never a fan of those chemical drinks, give me a good clean glass of whisky any day … or rum… or vodka…’
‘Or a weird looking cocktail full of God knows what … sugar for sure anyway …’
‘Hey my Mai Tai is nothing to be mocked at!’, and she laughed taking another sip through her straw.
A comfortable silence fell over them and for a moment Otto felt like they were good friends just hanging out. He liked that feeling and he wished it could last. He wanted her to stay a bit more.
‘Do you come here often?’, he looked at her intently and saw that under the exaggerated make up she could not be older than thirty something.
‘Yeah, when I am needed.’, Rhonda smiled and got up.
‘Let’s get some food, I am famished! Do you like sushi?’
‘I do actually! But I am not that hungry …’, Otto had found that he really did not like food anymore …
‘Oh, you did not have this sushi before let me tell you!’
When Otto stood up he felt a bit wobbly, but Rhonda was there to support him and he was saddened to see that she was quite a bit taller than him, it was nice though to feel secure so he just leaned on her and followed.
Funny enough, the sushi place was just next door and could actually be accessed straight from the pub through a door hidden by a heavy curtain.
The light blinded Otto for a second and, when his eyes adjusted, he could see that it was a large, well lit space with rows of tables neatly set up and with quite a few customers although it was well past midnight.
While they were walking towards an empty table, Otto was surprised to hear that the customers were talking in all sorts of different languages, and they were very different looking than normal people. Their clothes were colorful and had different weird angles to close on their buttons, the fabrics were mixed and unusually matched, denim with lace and wool with gauze. They were all so beautiful and Otto felt teary eyed, so happy he felt to see them, although he did not know the source of this happiness, it was just something inside him that seemed to react by itself and recognize them although he did not.
When they sat down, facing each other, Otto saw that Rhonda’s outfit and make-up were now totally different. Her hair was combed back in a pony tail, she was wearing a strict wool suit over a cotton shirt with an oversized collar. Her kind eyes were now looking at him from behind large glasses, when she spoke though, he knew for sure it was still her.
‘Should I order for us? You will love it, trust me! Do you want a Pepsi Max?’
Otto nodded and fell exhausted on the back of the chair. You never know how you can change your life for the worst.
‘Oh come on! Leave the drama, we are about to have the best sushi in the world! Stop moping!’, Rhonda was looking at him kindly.
This time Otto was sure he had not said anything, and he found it really intruding of her part to listen to his thoughts. But what did it matter now? He will be dead soon, if he was not already …
‘Oh no, you are not!’, Rhonda had ordered herself a Jasmine tea and picked up her cup in sign of cheers.
Then the sushi came. Otto was sure he could not eat a morsel but Rhonda kept enticing him, try this, and this, but did you have the ginger, oh and the one with squid. And this deep fried one …
They spend more than an hour trying all the different types of sushi and chatting about the most stupid things, and laughing and just being, with no thoughts, no fears, no wishes or desires.
When the time to go came Rhonda got up and helped him up too.
‘Let me take you home.’
And she did, she walked him up, she tucked him into bed and for the first time in many, many months Otto slept. He slept so well that, when he woke up he was in complete disbelief. Without changing his clothes he went out trying to find the pub from the previous evening but he could not.
Otto did not remember exactly where he was when he went into the pub, how far it was, he had left his phone at home he had no route tracking … he was not able to find it.
After a hot shower and some coffee (morning routine, what a blessing!), he tried all sorts of searches on Google to find the pub or the sushi restaurant but he could not. What he did find though was a group on social media of people that seemed to have been there once, or a similar place, and kept trying to find it, just like him.
Otto reached out, shared his story and listened to theirs. Each of them was at a turning point in their lives when they went there, for some it had been a shop, for others a gym, for him a pub, but for all it was the same, a meeting that had put them back on their own path. Otto now had some very unlikely friends and he enjoyed their presence tremendously.
Most of all, Otto was now sleeping and eating and drinking and being and dreaming …
And each day he would raise a glass of water, juice, or tea, or whatever to Rhonda letting her know how grateful he was for her intervention.