Mini-story: When You're Sleeping

The curfew starts earlier in winter. They begin to extend it once September arrives, by an hour every few weeks, so that once the end of the year approaches we’re all indoors well before full dark. On its own, it’s not so much of a burden. The big pandemics taught us how to isolate for long periods, so a simple curfew during the hours of darkness is easy by comparison. We quickly learned the routine of closing and locking our doors, obscuring our windows with curtains, blinds, or (for the lucky few) shutters, and generally battening down until dawn. Those who still have a functional chimney have the added task of keeping a fire lit, whatever the weather, throughout the night. Virtually all such features have long since been bricked up, though, or even filled with cement. The disappearances usually begin in earnest around mid-November, and then reach a peak within a few weeks, but occasionally they happen at other times of the year too. It’s becoming less and less predictable. At…