Matchsticks

This post has next to nothing to do with Jeff.  If you are looking for an update skip this one.

Our apartment is almost 150 years old.  When the building was built in the 1860s it had 12 apartments.  Each apartment had a smaller apartment inside of it with a separate entrance for servants.  Sometime in the 1950s the apartments were cut in half and what was the servants apartments were turned into rentable units of their own.  The apartment Jeff and I are in is one of those 'new' units.

Jeff couldn't sleep the 1st night we were here and he wouldn't tell me why.  I figured it was a new bed, new space, new sounds, whatever that threw him off and pretty much forgot about it.

Tuesday night last week when I came from visiting Jeff at the ICU I found a white wood matchstick on the bed.  I tossed it away.  The landlord and his assistant had been in earlier in the day, changing sheets and taking out the trash.  The assistant smokes so I thought the matchstick had probably fallen out of his pocket while he was making the bed.

Wednesday night has I sat down at the dining room table to eat dinner, I pushed some change out of the way and saw a white wood matchstick.  Did I throw the one from last night away or did I set it on the table thinking I might use it for the candle that was here when we moved in?  I wasn't sure so I put it in my purse.  I don't know why I put it in there.  Guess I figured that I would remember doing that over just tossing it in a garbage can.

Thursday morning I woke got out of bed and as I left the bedroom I smelled sulfur. Okay weird for some people but that smell is familiar to me because the acne medication my older son uses has a sulfury smell.  I had packed a tube of it with me because I break out under when I stress out.  When I got in the bathroom I checked my face in the mirror to see where the medicine I'd obviously left on me was at.  Couldn't find it.  Went back to the bedroom, smelled the sulfur again as I passed by the kitchen, didn't smell it in the bedroom.  Back to the kitchen, was it from the ancient stove?  No.  Something outside the window?  Didn't seem to be coming from there.  Took off my tee shirt, maybe it was on the collar.  Didn't see anything.  Oh well it was probably somewhere on my shirt and I just didn't see it.

Friday night I get into bed and picked up my Kindle from the bedside table.  I sleep better after I've read for a while at night.  Under my Kindle is a white wooden matchstick.  I had put the Kindle on the side table the night before after I was done reading and it sat there all day while I was at the hospital with Jeff.  Was it the same matchstick?  I remembered putting the last one in my purse.  I thought about getting out of bed to check.  Thought better of it.  Put the matchstick down on the side table, read for a while.  Picked up the matchstick and told it, "You can stay here if this is where you want to be.  Just don't burn the place down while I am here."  I shut off the light and went to sleep.  Had the best night's sleep of my entire 'vacation'.

Saturday night, matchstick is still on the side table and the apartment has not burned down.  Slept great.

Sunday as Jeff and I are walking the halls I decide he's feeling so much better I am gonna lay this matchstick story on him.  He listens, doesn't say I am crazy and then asks if I remember how he couldn't sleep that first night.

"Sulfur smell?"  I asked

"No."

He then tells me that sometime during that first night he woke up face down on the bed feeling like he couldn't breathe.  When he tried to push himself up he couldn't move.  He started to yell but couldn't get a breath.  Couldn't move.  Couldn't breathe.  He freaked out.  He said finally whatever was on top of him got off and he could roll over.  Didn't see anything, didn't smell anything, didn't hear anything.  Also didn't sleep the rest of the night.  He didn't have any problems after that.

Are my matchsticks and his "attack" related?  I don't know.

I found that first matchstick today in the bottom of my purse.