Chapter 1: Hospital

"Do not move your head!" said Nurse Jenkins. "Try to sleep," she added leaving the room.

Alex Driscoll was getting frustrated. His head did not hurt under the bandages, although it was itching. He was no longer as groggy as he had been right after the operation. He guessed the operation was a success. Only two days before, "trying to sleep" would have been easy. In fact, the opportunity to nap without anybody nagging him to do something would have been very pleasant. Now, however, he felt itchy all over. It wasn't a physical itch like his shaved hair and the stitches on his head; it was more like a combination of utter boredom and buzzing energy. Alex wondered if this is how normal people felt after drinking coffee.

A couple of years earlier his mother, exasperated by Alex's lassitude or laziness ― she wasn't sure which ― let him drink some sweetened coffee. It was not a success. Alex did not like the taste, but the caffeine did not prevent him from falling asleep on the couch five minutes later.

It was not long after that his parents finally gave up their slightly desperate assumption of excessive sloth on Alex's side, and started the long, tedious, occasionally expensive (to the parents) and painful (to Alex) quest to find the cause of his apparent narcolepsy. Alex did pretty well on various cognitive tests, but was struggling in school. His lack of energy and frequent naps meant he read little, and often fell asleep mid-page. As a result, his reading speed was abysmal, and his vocabulary wasn't very impressive either. Alex even had a hard time watching an entire show on television. At least his parent didn't complain about him watching too many cartoons. Or getting into trouble, for that matter.