The Dream (redone)

The Dream

Tears drop on his dying face. Then as the grimaces of his loved ones peer down, honoring his sacrifice, they drift closer shinning radiant, white light. I close my eyes and I close my eyes and open them again; I find myself in the pallor and depression radiated by a funeral home. An Open casket in the front that contains a somewhat familiar man, but I can’t see to make him out. People amble by in a single file line to kiss the man’s forehead. Crying and sentimental speeches permeate the air. Two women, one aged, and the other younger, both adorned with black dresses and veils, cry in the front of the parlor. The child beside the two women cried. This may partly have been due to the depression that hung in the air, and the carefully composed body lying peacefully in the casket. People of various ages come to celebrate the short, but bright, loving life he lived.

I finally get close enough to see him. He has a peaceful expression on his face, his nose slightly crooked. A cold, grim chill slithers down my spine; goose bumps infect adjacent skin, spreading the terror across my entire body.

            “It’s me!”

The sudden realization wakes me. I sit trying to remember the dream, but the more I do, the faster it evaporates to the dark recesses of my mind. I quickly bury the memory and doze back to sleep.

Three years later, the horrid dream still perpetually revisits nightly. I dread my unforgiving dreams. So much so, that every night, like daggers, thoughts stab their way through my mind.

            The question is always asked, “Will I Wake Up?”

I lay my head back on my pillow and fall into a dreaming trance. Pain ripples through my chest, I hear loud frantic retreating. A muffled screaming then I feels hands touch where the pain hurts worst. My eyes just focus on the stars. Trying to ignore the pain, I finally look down from the heavens to see a woman who even in tears with reddened features still looked gorgeous. Her tears fall onto my face like rain drops. I reach up and say something muted by the blood pulsing in my ears. She shook her head saying something back to me. The familiar faces come to my vision again. During the funeral I stood next to the woman wanting to comfort her and let her know everything was going to be alright. I finally awoke when everyone closed the casket lid that held my aged body. A cold wrapped around my body as I awoke, no matter what I could not shake the bitter cold. A poisoned dagger of a question stabbed into my heart.

            “Why is this horrid dream getting to me, why? When I am just a junior in high school?”

Almost a week after the latest repetitive dream, a new one appears. Gun shots ring out; I gaze at my bloody chest in shock.  Pain ripples through my chest. My legs weaken, then finally collapsing all together. The same woman screams and runs up to me in a crying frenzy.

“Hush, hush,” my gruff fading voices says, “Don’t cry my love, we will see each other again, and maybe it will be more peaceful.”

Her tears slowly trace her stunning face, dropping onto my imperfect face. The dream proceeds in its typical way, I wake up slowly crying, crying because even knocking on death’s door, I am still the kind hearted man I strive to be.

The next couple of years the horrid dream fades in existence. I had completely forgotten about it by the time I met a girl that knocked my heart out. She had a large burn on the side of her face caused by a fire when she was a young child, but she will still, and always will be perfect in my eyes. I finally got the gut to ask her out for a date, she hesitated thinking this was a prank on her and finally said yes when she saw the truth in my face and eyes. I cook a good home made meal of spaghetti and meat balls, candles, and the whole nine yards. She knocks at the door and I invite her in and escort her to the table. It was a beautiful evening, ending with us (fully clothed mind you) in my bed sleeping with our arms wrapped around each other.

A few years later we are married and already have a child. It’s a boy! He had my dark hair, her blue eyes, her beauty, and so far my attitude. Well her and I decided that we need a break so we got one of our friends to watch our son and we walked to a nice dinner, and then to the movies. As we heading back home, around midnight we took a shortcut through an alley, a man leaps out of a side alleyway and yells,

            “GIVE ME YOUR MONEY AND JEWLERY!”

Of course I say “Okay, everything will be alright please put the gun down.” I reach to my back pocket to grab out my wallet. Shots ring out. Pain rips through my chest, I fall and my wife screams and her tears fall on my face in the dirty alley. I wake up…Still in my junior year of high school.