Every Thought
an excerpt

Evan never told Brenda how hard it had been to wake her up that night, and tried not to think of it himself. He had shaken her, unable to wake her up, watching her face go blue as her arms and legs moved quickly and erratically, like those of the Whomping Willow, hitting his hands and arms sharply as he tried to grab her extremities and wake her up. All the color drained from his face as he saw the terror on her blue tinged face.
He watched her arm sweep the bed table lamp off of the bed table.
This wasn't just any lamp. It was a lamp that his great grandmother had made when she lived in England. She had painted it with olde tymie flowery designs, like those you see on china dishes. The vase had originally been made by the town potter, James Potter. He was called James Potter because for as long as anyone could remember, people in his family had made pots, and so they gave them the surname "Potter" because that's what they were. He had been called James because his mother had passed out after giving birth to him, and died soon after, and the midwife was given the responsibility of naming him.
She named him James because the first born male in her own family was always named James, so it was the first name that had come to mind. A moment after that she decided that it might be wrong to name him James because it was her family's traditional first born name, not the Potter's, so it might be betraying her family. Then she realized that it was a common enough first name, and wasn't specific to her family, her family just happened to use it. So his name was James Potter, and when he was twenty three, an age to which he had almost not survived, as he had gotten pneumonia when he was twelve, broken his arm at six, and had substantial blood loss due to falling onto a rock while learning to walk at age one, he threw the lamp that would eventually be knocked by Brenda.
I understand that you might have just read that and said "Huh? If he threw it, wasn't it already broken?" It is important for you to understand that in this context, to throw means to make. It's potter's jargon. Whenever a potter puts a chunk of clay on the turntable, which is used in this context to mean the spinning part of a potter's wheel, not a turntable of a record player, this type of turntable is sometimes called a wheel head, and turns it from a hunk of clay into a pot or a bowl or a plate or a lamp, by using a kick wheel or treadle wheel, or in modern times, an electrically powered wheel, it is said that he has thrown it.
This lamp was painted by Evan's great grandmother with an exotic animal that she had seen in a picture book called a zebra. A zebra is an animal that looks very much like a horse. Zebras are odd toed ungulates. Odd toed ungulates are browsing and grazing mammals that have simple stomachs and a large middle toe. Zebras have black and white stripes, which are used as a defense mechanism. This is helpful to them because when they stand in large groups, it is difficult to tell where one ends and the other begins, so it is difficult for lions to find one to chase easily.
Without knowing it, Evan's great grandmother had painted a Grevy's zebra, not to be confused with the gravy, which is a delicious sauce made from the natural juices that run off of meat and vegetables during cooking. Gravy is commonly served with roast, meatloaf, not to be confused with the singer of the same name, and mashed potatoes. Gravy is not commonly served with Grevy's zebra, as they are an endangered species. Grevy's zebra is the largest zebra, and its stripes are narrower than the Mountain zebra or Plains zebra, and it is more closely related to donkeys, while the Mountain zebra and the Plains zebra are more closely related to horses.
When the lamp clattered to the ground, it reminded him of a dream that he had been having before Brenda had woken him up. It wasn't the same sound, the sound in the dream he had had was higher pitched and more crackly, while the pottery was a more thump and shatter.
At that time, they both sat, catching their breaths and trying not to hyperventilate. Hyperventilation or over breathing is the state of breathing to deeply or rapidly, which leaves less carbon dioxide in the blood than is normally present. Stress or anxiety are common causes of hyperventilation, which is known as hyperventilation syndrome.
Evan had a history of hyperventilation. The first time he had hyperventilated was when he was seven years old and had been exploring the rocks near his house, and had climbed down to see what was at the bottom of the cliff. He had not climbed down, but had taken a route that was easier, a path that wound around like a road on a car commercial, to take him to the bottom safely. He knew that climbing down such a sheer rock face that was so tall was not safe.
That showed that he had more sense than a lot of other boys. Some other boys would have thought it would be cool to see if they could climb down, and would have subsequently fallen and died. This phenomenon is called Darwinism, so called because Charles Darwin was the one to research and publish his findings. Darwinism states that the fittest survive, and therefore have the chance to reproduce, creating better adapted specimens.