Ok, here is an update! (after a few weeks) Thanks for the lovely reviews!
Jim couldn't sleep, no matter how hard he tried. He was far too excited to calm himself and to enjoy eight hours of sleep. He tried tossing and turning, but that didn't make him feel any more tired, so he tried pulling his covers to his chin, but that didn't make him feel any more drowsy.
He glanced beside his pillow to see Morph curled up and quietly snoring. Jim rubbed his forefinger on the pink creature, which instantly woke him.
Morph spun around the room, and stretched, making it look as if the stretch would rip himself apart.
"Morning?" Morph asked with his limited dialect.
"Not yet," Jim said, smothering the right side of his face into his pillow.
"Not yet," Morph said, smothering himself beside Jim.
Jim rolled onto his back, and placed his hands on his chest. He took in a deep breath and stared at the dark ceiling. Morph looked at the ceiling, wondering what Jim found so interesting. Jim studied the knots in the wood and the different patterns, while Morph waited for Jim to explain what he was staring at.
Morph grew impatient without being able to know why the ceiling was so important, and he nudged Jim's shoulder.
"I'm just thinking about tomorrow," Jim sighed dreamily.
"Tomorrow," Morph sighed, mimicking Jim.
"That's right. This time tomorrow, we'll be asleep on a ship, heading to uncharted planets, and we'll find treasure and battle space monsters." Jim said. "We can go anywhere we want- anywhere! No one can stop us."
"No one!" Morph cheered.
"Yeah, no one," Jim gently pet Morph with his forefinger, who instantly laughed from being tickled.
Jim calmed himself and shut his eyes, hoping to fall asleep, but sleep didn't come, and Morph grew too excited to even think about sleeping. The two stayed silent, waiting for the other to fall asleep, but neither were tired enough.
Morph floated off of the pillow, leaving Jim alone. When he was almost asleep, he felt something square and hard being dragged onto his stomach. He opened one eye to see his favourite book laying on him, with Morph giving a wave on top of the book. It was his favourite because his father had given it to him as a child, and because it surprisingly survived the fire a few years before. When he came back from Treasure Planet, it was the first thing his mother gave him.
"All right," Jim said, getting Morph's message. Jim opened the old book, and the picture came to life, just as clearly as it had those years before. The narrator began the story about Captain Flint and his treasure, and Jim and Morph watched the epic tale.
When the book was finished, both of them felt more drowsy than before. Jim slid the book under his bed and pet Morph on the top of his head, and he finally fell asleep.
Jim woke up to trumpet loudly playing in his ear. As a reflex, his head exchanged places with his pillow in attempt to drown out the sound that couldn't be classified as music.
"Wake up! Wake up!" Morph said, trying to drag Jim out of bed, but failed.
"What is it?" Jim muttered from underneath his pillow. He hoped that there was a fire, or something important enough to have him get up so quickly.
"Tomorrow!" Morph exclaimed.
"Tomorrow?" Jim asked, then he jumped out of bed, throwing his pillow across the room. "It's tomorrow! So it's today, but it was tomorrow!" Morph tried to make sense of that last statement, but decided to conclude that Jim's mind wasn't fully awake.
Jim got dressed in a matter of seconds, and Morph patiently waited, facing the wall. He and Morph left the room, then crept down the hall to his mother's room. She was still sleeping. He couldn't bring himself to leave without a proper goodbye.
"Bye, Mom," Jim said quietly. He went back to his room to find a pencil and paper. A letter to her wasn't a proper goodbye, but it would have to do. He quickly wrote, and set it on her bedside table. He naturally didn't have very good penmanship, and it was even worse when he scribbled on the page with such speed. Morph hovered over his shoulder, trying to decipher the scribbles on the page.
Jim and Morph walked down the wooden staircase. Jim's bag was packed the night before, and he was all set to go. Before he managed to reach the door, he heard the floorboards creaking.
"Leaving with no goodbye?" Sarah asked. She looked more tired than usual, probably because she had just got up. Sarah looked a lot older, making Jim realize that he was growing up so fast. He just realized she had a touch of gray hair by her roots.
"I didn't want to wake you," Jim said. "You're always complaining how tired you are."
"But I want to see you before you go," Sarah said. She blinked a few times, trying to get the tears out of her eyes. Although she was getting older, she was still that caring (and slightly clingy) mother she always was.
"You're not gonna get all teary with me, aren't you?" Jim asked, in a tone that could be considered whining.
"I promised myself I wouldn't cry," Sarah said, putting her hand to her mouth, as if that would stop her from crying. "I mean...you don't have to go. Can't you stay for an extra year at the academy? A victory lap?"
"Mom, I graduated. I can't go back for an extra year, and I'll be back," Jim explained.
"And what will you be doing?" Sarah asked.
"Uncharted planets! Treasure! Space monsters!" Morph exclaimed, turning into each things he exclaimed.
"Space monsters!" Sarah exclaimed.
Jim glared at Morph. "I said I would like to find uncharted planets, find treasure and beat off space monsters. It's just like an excursion, and I get to be a senior officer. It's kinda like practice for all of the graduates." He held his head up with pride, and Morph did too. He was after all, the senior officer's pet.
"My son, the senior officer," Sarah said. To be truly honest, she could have never pictured him coming this far. Ever. She was getting teary-eyed, but it was something all mothers did when they get proud of their child. "And then you'll be a captain of a ship, and go far away from here and live your own life."
"Doesn't mean I can't have a mom who cares about me," Jim said, giving the smile he gave her when he was younger and he needed her the most. He braced himself for a tight hug.
"You're not helping!" Sarah said, but she couldn't hold back her tears any longer. She wrapped her arms around Jim and held him closely to herself, hoping that he would change his mind about leaving, but she knew that was next to impossible.
After the tight hug, Jim gently rubbed part of his neck, something he always did when he was in a tight hug, just to show it was a little too tight, and he had trouble breathing.
"You're just...all grown up," Sarah said. "I mean, graduating, and your future is so limitless." She fumbled with her locket until she finally got it open, and it played small scenes of his childhood. The most recent scene was from a few years ago, at the grand reopening of the Benbow Inn.
"It doesn't mean I'm gone forever," Jim said, closing the locket and pushing it onto his mother's chest.
"When are you leaving?" Sarah asked, putting on her bravest face.
"Whenever you're ready," Jim said, picking up a bag Sarah didn't even notice he had.
Another wave of tears came over Sarah, but she put herself back together. The longer she had him, the harder it would be to let him go. She took in a final breath.
"Then I guess you should go," Sarah said, hugging him a final time. She wanted her arms to turn to iron, so Jim would never have to leave. She had always wanted her son to have his life turned around, so she wouldn't have to worry all day when he left home when he felt like it, or anticipate the robocops come crashing through the front door with Jim tightly in their grasps. She knew it was her deepest want, yet she found it hard to let go. She knew the only thing keeping Jim from having a successful future was herself. She finally let go.
As Jim and Morph made their way to the door, Sarah said her last goodbye, and so did Jim. His hand was trembling with excitement as he reached for the knob, but he finally opened it, and with a glance over his shoulder, he shut the door of the inn.