Four Heaven's Sake

A true story.

          With my hair wet and combed back like a little boy I found myself standing

in a watercolor meadow.  Soft white clouds in a pure blue sky. Green grass on

rolling hills. It felt and looked like the most beautiful place in the world. In

my dream I switched from looking through my eyes to looking at myself as

another person. I was in my pajamas, fresh from a bath. My red hair was redder

than ever because it was wet. Fat cheeks splattered with freckles and

blue eyes, bright with delight. I was holding my favorite teddy bear and we were

about to take a ride. As in the way of dreams, things can suddenly appear, and I

was now standing at the bottom of a stair case. A moving stair case,

much like the fancy stairs they have in the malls called escalators. These stairs

were wood and although at four I wouldn’t have known they were oak, as a

grown up I am able to describe them as such.

          I could not see the top of the stairs as they ascended up into the heavens. I

was not scared, and neither was teddy. With my right arm gripping the fuzzy

bear, I stepped onto the first step and took hold of the rail with my left hand.

We started going up slow and steady. I looked around at the wonder of it all. It

felt wonderful, it felt right and I was completely happy. I took in all the beauty

around and (now) below me and thought the colors must be straight out of

my favorite crayon box.

          Me and teddy, we were getting pretty high and heading for the sky. I lifted

my face to look up in the direction we were heading and there was still a long

way to go. I didn’t feel fear as I looked up, I never even wondered where I

was going, I was just going.

And again, as in the way of dreams, I switched from watching myself

outside of myself, to looking through my own eyes again. I turned my head and

looked down. What I saw shattered my dream, shattered all my good feelings

about where I was and where I was going. At the bottom of those stairs a tree

had appeared. Not a green leafy friendly tree, but a big black gnarly dead tree

that seemed to be sending it’s vicious branches up to get me.  Long

knotty limbs were moving towards me, reaching for me, and grabbing at me. In

that one horrifying moment I felt the worst fear I would ever feel in the

subconscious or conscious world.

          I screamed, I screamed myself into waking up. Sobbing, sweating and

alone. Thirty years after, I finally shared that dream with my best friend, and

now I have shared it with you.

                                                          THE END

 

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