Slappy- Sleep Lab Results

He hooked up the eighth electrode. “Pleasant dreams,” he said. “I’ll turn off all the lights when I get everyone online.”
I followed him into the next curtained bedroom. Salazar talked quietly with all the patients as he attached the electrodes to them. Some of them appeared sleepy, but some seemed wide awake.
I wondered if I could fall asleep with all those wires connected to my skin. That might be hard. And I wondered how my mom stayed awake all night, watching the sleep patterns of six patients.
Salazar hooked up the last patient and pointed to the back room. “You can go see your mom now, Richard,” he said. “She’ll show you what she watches on the computer monitors.”
I nodded and started toward the office. And on the way, I had an idea.
It was a funny idea. “Mom, I want to try hooking electrodes to someone,” I said.
Mom laughed. “Why? Did that look like fun to you? It isn’t as easy as it seems. They have to go in exactly the right place.”
“I just want to try,” I said. I picked up Slappy. “Can I try it on him? Can I hook up Slappy?”
She squinted at me. “Seriously?”
I nodded. “Come on. Let me try.”
“Okay,” she said. “Why not? Follow me.”
I slung Slappy over my shoulder and followed Mom to one of the empty beds. “Put him down here on his back,” she said.
I settled him on the bed. His eyes stayed closed, as if he was already asleep.
Mom arranged the wires and electrodes on the table beside the bed. She opened a tube of the gooey stuff and poured it into a small bowl. “Okay, go ahead,” she said. “Dip the electrode into the gel and attach it to Slappy.”
I did it just the way I had watched Salazar work. I stuck a wire on each side of Slappy’s forehead. Then two on his neck. Three on his chest. And one on top of his head.
“Okay. Good job,” Mom said. She turned and fiddled with the computer monitor on the table. “Let’s see what we’ve got.”
We both gazed at the screen as it came to life.
Suddenly, Mom’s eyes went wide and she let out a loud gasp.
“Whaaaat!” she cried. “I don’t believe it!”
...

She blinked several times and then squinted at the wiggly yellow lines going across the monitor.
“This … this doesn’t make any sense!” Mom said. “I’m seeing brain activity. But that’s impossible! That can’t happen with a lifeless dummy.”
Mom stared at the monitor. I heard a loud blip, and then a crackling sound. Like an electric shock.
The jagged yellow lines rolled across the screen. She gazed down at Slappy again. “Impossible,” she murmured.
“I … I don’t understand,” I stammered. “Why are you upset?”
“Because a wooden dummy can’t send out brain signals,” she answered.
“Look at the lines on the screen. You have to be alive to send out those brain waves.”

- Slappy in Dreamland, chapters 2 and 3