Chapter 69
Death’s Brother
As a thousand writers have observed a thousand times over, death and sleep are closely related.
‘To die, to sleep; to sleep: perchance to dream’ was how Shakespeare put it.
But the line the Ghost was thinking of was from the novel that had found him when he had needed it, The Grapes of Wrath: ‘Death was a friend, and sleep was Death’s brother. ’
And that was how he felt right then. A brother to himself.
He felt like his own protector. And that was a comforting feeling, given he had lost his protecting big brother. But now he realised what he was doing. He was protecting himself. Sacrificing one self to save the other.
Because sleep was where the world of ghosts and the living could meet.
The truth was that he was not really any different to the Wilbur lying asleep on the bed. He was Wilbur – he had always been Wilbur.
He wondered what was going to happen when Wilbur fell asleep. And he kept wondering, right until it was too late to stop.