Saltshakers and sleepwalking

I was listening to one of my favorite podcast's yesterday, Hamish and Andy. They're two Australian radio hosts, who I first discovered years ago via YouTube. I listen to them now on a pretty much daily basis. Well, yesterday, their on their show they were talking about sleepwalking. It made me think of one of the funnier stories from my life.

When I was in high school, my older brother Chris moved back home and stayed with our family for a while before he got married. One of his great pleasures in life during that time was messing with me. One of his favorite tactics was to come into my room when I was sleeping, stand directly over my head, and knee the bed until it shook enough that I woke up. Then Chris would silently stare at me for a few seconds, then slowly turn and leave my bedroom.

One morning, I woke up to get ready for school, I rolled over and saw in the middle of my floor a salt shaker. I stared at the salt shaker feeling quite confused. I got out of bed, picked it up and walked out into the hall. Chris was getting ready for work, looked at me and asked why I had a salt shaker in my room. I looked at him confused and said I didn't know. Chris looked me for a few seconds then said, "You must have been sleepwalking or something," then went about getting ready for the day.

A few days passed, and the same thing happened again. I woke up in the morning and there in the middle of my floor was a salt shaker. This time, I suspected Chris must be messing with me. I got out of bed, marched out of my room and questioned him. He denied all involvement. Then, I headed downstairs to ask my dad. He'd tell me the truth.

I told my dad the story of what had happened, then told him I suspected Chris was the culprit. My dad laughed and told me Chris wasn't doing it and suggested maybe I really was sleepwalking. I walked out of his room feeling even more confused.

This continued for months. Every few days I'd wake up and find something sitting in the middle of my floor. Sometimes it was a phone, or a remote, often times though. It was the salt shaker. I became thoroughly convinced that I was sleepwalking. There was no other explanation. My own father wouldn't lie to me for the sake of a joke!

So I started to accept the fact that I was sleepwalking. I'd tell the story to friends and family. Every morning that i'd find something in my room i'd tell my dad and laugh about it, saying how I wished I knew why I was collecting random household objects.

In May of the next year, my brother got married. He moved to a small apartment downtown with his wife. Around this time, I started to notice my sleepwalking had stopped. No longer was I waking up to find objects on my floor. I started to put the pieces together in my head. I waited a few days letting everything sink in, then confronted my dad. After a long session of me questioning him, he cracked. It had been my brother all along. A few times my dad had been in on it as well.

After thinking about it for a while, i'm pretty sure this has to be one of the better pranks ever pulled. The sheer amount of dedication and time it took to pull it off makes it absolutely brilliant. It's like something you'd see Jim Halpert do to Dwight on the Office.