The Dream that changed my life

My legs felt like they were on fire. I constantly looked down to making sure my legs were fine while running across the corm field. My lungs soon felt like they burst into flames as well, my head pulsed after each step toward the withered shack ahead. BOOM! That nerve-racking sound echoed behind me. My heart leaped into frenzy, anticipation clouded my mind. The only thing that ran through my frenzied mind was survival, nothing else matters only my life. The shack is now only yards away; if only I could reach the shack before it’s to late. I would be safe from the deathly plane behind me. BOOM! The heat from the bomb tickled my naked back. I winced in pain as my wounds reacted to the flying debris. I am now only a few feet from my salvation! I am almost to the shack, excitement consumed me BOOM!! Then there was only darkness.

I awoke to my friend Allena shaking my body. Her face was grief ridden, “Oh not again, Breana.”
I am constantly having these nightmares. It has been three months now. Night upon night of blood and pain; I experienced every second as if I was in the place of the man. Allena was my very close friend and was the only friend I confided in about my dreams. It was also Allena’s idea of escaping to San diego for a week, which is why I was on a plane. I completely forgot that I was on a plane
“Are you alright?” Allena whispered, being careful not to disturb the others around us.
“I am fine, I just need to go to the powder room.” I stood up and wiped some sweat from my forehead.

“All right, were landing soon, so don’t take to long.”

I felt frustrated. I didn’t want to think about some creepy dream; I only wanted to stay on a beach and relax so I could forget about these nightmares! I reached for a paper towel and turned towards the mirror. I fell over. I had to hold my mouth shut to prevent myself from screaming. As I looked into the mirror I didn’t see myself, I saw the man! I could not comprehend what was happening. The glass appeared to be shattered and the eyes were not my own and the blood! There was so much blood! I touched the glass. not believing what I was seeing, I scrunched my eyes together and reopened them. The man was still there! I tried again. Still there!
I was startled by the sudden BANG coming from the door. “Hurry up in there! Other people have to go, you know!” a disgruntled passenger yelled
“Oh don’t get your panties in a wad, I will be right out!” I howled out to the impatient person, turning back to the mirror. The man had vanished and was replaced with my plain and familiar face. Heaving a breath of relief, I made it back to my seat. “I am going crazy,” I thought to myself.

“Attention, we are about to land, so if you could fasten you’re seat belts, thank you,” the smiling flight attendant required. Turning my head so I could fasten my seat belt as instructed, I turned back to my friend. However, it wasn’t Allena’s face I was seeing, it was the terrible man’s from my nightmares! I let out a shriek of horror, then I had no breath at all. I couldn’t breathe in or out. My heart raced, my vision began to get hazy, and my head felt light. I tried desperately to breathe again before I faint. I felt a hand on my shoulder. It made my heart skip yet another beat. It’s a miracle I didn't died of a heart attack yet. I felt relieved to hear the flight attendants voice. “Are you alright, miss?”
I looked up to give her my answer, and I screamed yet again despite my attempts to breathe. My mind was in a frenzy; the flight attendants face was covered with blood. Her once cheery face was replaced with the man’s, like my friend’s. As I looked around the cabin, I realized all the passengers had bloody faces and desperate eyes! Those infernal eyes! They all looked at me with pain and desperation in them. They all said in a terrible chorus “Help me!”
“I … I can’t. Leave me alone!” I tried to leave my seat “Help me!” They screamed. I emerged from the seat; all their eyes followed me. I didn’t understand how I could escape since I was in a plane way above sea level. “Help me!” Their plea grew even more desperate and loud. “Help me!” I made my way to the bathroom. “Leave me alone!” I screamed, my body suddenly jolted into the air by an unknown force. I found myself on the floor, confused as to how I got there. The plane didn’t shift; no one pushed me, so how could I have been forced to the ground? I was pushed by yet another mysterious force driving me backward against the bathroom door. “What the he,” before I could finish my sentence my eyes flew open to see Allena shaking my body yet again. Her face was back to normal. I quickly looked at the others and was relieved to see plain faces busy with the complications of their own lives.

“Come on, sleepy head, its time to leave. We landed in L.A,” Allena stated. She gave me a nudge of encouragement. I wiped beads of sweat from my head and retrieved my bag from overhead. I have always hated dreaming and waking up into another dream. It’s absolutely infuriating! What if I was still dreaming and I was still asleep in my bed and never left on the trip! I pinched myself to make sure and looked at the others, then back to Allena.
“Nope, I am awake,” I said to myself and headed out into the terminal.

From the airport, Allena and me went to the cottage we had rented by the beach. We didn’t do much but surf, shop, and hang out in bars. I refrained from sleeping because of my nightmares I have been having.
Then, out of the ocean blue, the unthinkable happened. Thursday afternoon, we went to the farmers’ market nearby, sick from all the fast-food places we have been going to. When we were browsing around some vegetables, I saw the man! He was selling corn! His face wasn’t bloody or distorted in any way.

“Great! I am in another day dream,” I said to myself. I pinched my shoulder and looked at him again. He was still there! Maybe if I slapped myself, I could wake up. Smack! Nope, he is still there. I must have bean making funny faces because Allena came over to me with a quizzical look on her face.

“Brianna, it looks like you swallowed a bug, I mean, your eyes are wider than a deer caught in the head lights!”

“That man over there. What does he look like to you?” I pointed at the man selling the corn.

“You are weird… but not your taste in men. He is cute!”

“I guess, but do you see a man with black hair selling corn?” Brianna was getting anxious.

“O yea, why do you ask?” Allena asked while rummaging through a bushel of apples.
“He is the man in my dreams!”
“He doesn’t look like a bloody faced devil that looks like this,” Allena pressed her hands to make it look distorted and then she made groaning noises like a monster in a zombie movie. She stopped after people began to stare and her cheeks turned a bright red. “Anyway, are you sure because that would be crazy?”
“I know he does not look ugly and bloody, but that is the man. I could never forget his face. Believe me, I tried.” I stepped closer, giving me a better look at his face.
“Brianna, what if you actually saw the future? I know. How bout you go and talk to him.” Allena gave me a push in his direction with a big smile on her face. I looked back and rolled my eyes as she waved her hand and mouthed “go on”. What am I supposed to say, anyway? ”Hi! My name is Brianna and I had a dream about you dieing in a cornfield. Thought you should know.” Yes, that would be a great way to start a conversation. I looked at my hands and contemplated my options when I hard my name.
“Brianna? Brianna Sultan, is that you?” The voice came from the man!
“Yes it is. Do I know you?”
“Yes. We used to go to school together when we were children, it’s so nice to see you again.” He seemed to be very enthusiastic for someone with a death sentence. Then it hit me. Andrew. He was my first kiss when I was a child. How could I have forgotten? I would have slapped myself on the forehead if he weren’t watching.
“I do remember you! Wow, how long has it been, thirteen years, right?”
“Fourteen, actually.” He gave me a half smile and rubbed his neck.
“That is so nice that you remembered me. I am sorry I didn’t recognize you at first.”
“That is fine. I am taller and more handsome, if I do say so myself.”
I let out another chuckle and looked over to Allena, she mouthed, “who is he?”
Before I could answer her, Andrew noticed and said, “I suppose I am keeping you away from your friend, but I was wondering if you would like to go out to dinner with me?” He bowed his head slightly and looked up with sweet puppy dog eyes, giving a sense of innocence. So, naturally, I had to say yes.
“Andrew, I would love nothing more.” He smiled
“That is great. I will come and pick you up at seven.” He gave me an awkward hug and walked back to his corn stand. When I walked back to Allena she asked a bunch of questions. “Did you tell him?”
“No.”
“What’s his name?”
“Andrew.”
“Did he hit on you?”
”Sort of, he asked me out.”
“Are you crazy?”
I paused and held up my hands like I was pinching the air, “Maybe a little bit.”

That night Andrew was at the house at seven. Right on time I could not believe this was the same kid who would tease me and pull at my pig tails when we were young. After 14 years he had changed into a handsome man and a complete gentleman. He opened the car door for me. When we reached the restaurant, he pulled the chair out for me like in those old-fashioned movies. He was also very interesting. He had been in the special forces and, after that, he went down into Ohio and started a farm in a little town. He had come to California to sell corn at this strange annual farmers’ convention.
However, as he talked more and more, I began to be convinced my dreams were true. Who was I kidding? I dreamed of a man dying weeks before my vacation, and it so happened that I not only saw him but I actually knew him! And he lived, literally, in a cornfield and he was in the army where he killed people whose family or group might want revenge. Coincidence? I think not!
As time went on and the dinner began to wind down, I began to think of ways to tell him without sounding like I should be committed. We made it back to his car and headed for my cottage. The ride was very pleasant with a lot of talk about movies and music. All the while, I waited for the opportunity to tell him. I didn’t want to tell him in the car, just in case he got angry and threw me out of the car, so I waited until we got to the cottage.
When we reached my front porch, Andrew looked over at the beach and exclaimed, “Wow… that is just beautiful. Do you want to take a short stroll along the beach?”
I looked over at the ocean. The sun was setting over the horizon making the sky a beautiful coral color and the ocean looked like diamonds rolling along the sand. I couldn’t imagine a better place to tell him he was going to die. As we walked along the beach there was hardly a word uttered. We were completely awestruck by the beautiful scenery. Andrew intertwined his hand in mine. It made me smile, but my smile quickly disappeared when I remembered why we were out here.
“Andrew, I need to tell you something.” I took both of his hands in mine and looked him in the eyes. He gave me a warm smile that made my knees feel like jello “ This is not easy to say.” I told him everything from beginning to end about the plane, my dreams, and the odd coincidences of his life. I poured out my heart to him and, once it was empty, I looked down at my feet. Andrew released his hands from mine. I looked back up and he looked confused and mad for the longest time, but then he did the strangest thing. He laughed.
“Brianna, I thought you were serious.” He through his head back, and laughed, he tilted his head forward and looked into my eyes, his smile faded “Oh, you are serious.” Without another word he turned and walked back towards his car.
“Don’t be mad. I am telling you the truth!” I yelled after him.
Andrew turned around and faced me “What! What shouldn’t I be mad about? I was either having dinner with a complete lunatic or a pathological liar.”
“I am not a lunatic I am telling the truth!” I yelled
“You only think you’re telling the truth.” He got into his car, gave me one last look. I could see the anger and sadness in his eyes; he shook his head, and drove off.
I wiped my eyes and went into the cottage. I was frustrated, angry, and really depressed. “Why are men such idiots? Sure, I sounded like a complete lunatic, but still!” I let out a cry of anger, I collapsed on the couch. There was only one thing to do in a time like this. Eat ice cream and drink cheap wine.
Come morning I felt more miserable than last night. My head pounded, my face was covered with dry tears and mascara, and to top it all off, I had no more ice cream.
“What’s you’re problem?”
I screamed and fell off the couch. “That you God?”

“Brianna, you idiot, it’s just me,” Allena said as she helped me up from off the ground. “What happened to you?”

“I told Andrew about my dreams.”

Allena slapped me upside the head “What? Are you crazy? You can’t tell a fine man like that about your dreams on the first date. You wait until after you’re married.”
I didn’t have the energy to fight with one Allena, let alone three of them. “Well it does not matter. Now it’s happened. Game over.”

“What were you thinking? Brianna, you could have just kept quiet, or maybe you could have gone home with him.”
“That doesn’t sound like a bad idea.” I got up and headed for my bedroom.
“Well, of course… whoa, wait! You’re not leaving? I was just joking.” Allena jumped up and followed Brianna out the front door “Brianna, no! This is crazy! You can’t just pick up and go.”
“Just watch me.”
“If this is because I called you crazy, I am sorry. you’re only drunk,” Allena belted out the door. A couple of joggers gave her concerned looks.
“Are you going to drive me to the airport or not?”
Allena rolled her eyes and got into the car.
(Andrew)

I finally made it back home, I set my bag by the door and went into the kitchen and collapsed into a chair. I thought about Brianna. “I still can’t believe that beautiful girl turned out to be a nut case. Man, I am a bad judge of character.” I grabbed A newspaper and flipped through it. There were a bunch of news articles about coyotes and corn and then there was one article about mysterious bombings.

I read aloud “bombings are accruing all over the United States, FBI discovers bombings were linked. Only either charred belongings or DNA testing identified four. The three men are Jordan P. Flak, Lamen Herm, Newt Jeremy, and Oliver L. Pindal. The FBI discovered all four victims were in the same platoon of soldiers and were involved in many of the same top-secret missions. FBI suspects the bomber or bombers are killing the platoon off. DNA tests are yet to be reveled on the other bodies.”
I ripped up the paper and threw the shredded pieces in the corner of the kitchen. I recognized all of their names Jordan, Lamen, Newt, and Oliver were all in his very same platoon. I served with them for seven years. Could this mean Brianna was right?

“Of course it doesn’t mean anything, even if someone comes and ties to blow me up I have a safe house in the back. It would protect me from famine to zombie apocalypse.”
I heard a small humming growing louder and louder. I walked to the window in the direction of the humming. I pulled back the blinds and in the distance he could see a plane moving across the stars and sinking lower and lower.

“Oh Snap!” BOOM
(Brianna)
I was disgusted. I spent two hours trying to find the small town of Evensong. I thought no big deal. It could only take a couple of minutes to get from the airport to here. But no! I had to walk in the mud, hitchhike in the back of a chicken truck. Now I had to find Andrew. When I asked for directions I only got answers like ‘we don’t take kindly to strangers’ or ‘you’re not from around here are you?’ and my favorite ‘what do you want do see him for? Are you one of those fancy hookers?’
I talked to two elderly men who were gumming sunflower seeds.

“Oh, little Drew? Yea, we know were he lives. It’s only a little ways up that road,” one of the old men pointed to a dirt road closest to the porch.
“But I wouldn’t go that way miss, you see many a folk died on that there trail. It was three years ago…”

“Oh don’t frighten the poor girl Zen. See here, little lady, that man by the blue pick-up truck can take you to see Drew.”
I thanked the old men and haled myself over to the man.

“Excuse me sir,” I tapped him on the shoulder “Those two nice old guys told me you could take me to see Andrew.”

“Going way up there, huh?” The man made it sound like one of those western horrer movies when the girl gets shot or eaten.

“Well … um…a…it crossed my…yes, I would like to go see Andrew, way up there.” I pointed in the direction of his farm.

“Well, ok then, just making sure. You can get into the back. But remember, I am not responsible for anything that happens to you.” He gave me stern shake of a finger and climbed into the rusty blue truck. I climbed into the back. There were two other children with me.

The truck jolted forward and bounced along the dusty road. The children stared at me, which made me a bit uneasy. I was not used to being stared at by six and ten year olds. Then one of the kids spoke, “You going way up there, huh?” The child whistled as he spoke, probably because he was missing his two front teeth.

“What is with you country folk and saying weird stuff like…I mean, yes, why do you ask?”

The child with the lisp breathed or whistled in deeply like most people beginning a long tale. “It was on a night much like this. A woman was looking for her cat along this road. It was dark and cold and she only had one small flashlight to see though the darkness. It was really quiet that night. Not even the coyotes dared to howl at the full moon. The only thing you would hear was ‘here Fro-Fro, here Fro-Fro’ Then after thirty minutes there was silence. The next day her cat turned up in town and, when one of her neighbors returned Fro-Fro, they discovered that the lady was missing. Some of the men got together to search for her and as they followed her tracks up the road for about three miles when all of a sudden.”
BOOM

The truck swerved to a stop I looked over to a cornfield ablaze.
“What in tarnation is going on!” the man in the truck yelled.
I didn’t wait a second. I leaped over the truck and ran toward the withered shack in the middle of the cornfield. I knew where Andrew would be. “Call nine-one-one,” I yelled back to the driver. Assuming he didn’t have a cell phone, I threw him mine.
“What, are you crazy? Come back here, that there is no accident. You’re going to get yourself killed!”
I didn’t care about what would become of me. I only thought about Andrew. Boom! Another bomb bellowed. I wove through the corn stalks. I could see Andrew ahead, running toward the cornfield. I ran faster, hoping I could catch up with him. I tried yelling his name. Boom! The scene was all too familiar. I knew exactly what was going to happen next. The plane would turn back for the final deathly blow in a matter of seconds. I ran faster. I ran and ran until I couldn’t even feel my legs. The plane dove back around. I could see the bomb being released in the red haze from the burning corn. I dove and pushed Andrew out of the way, leaving me in the explosion.

The sky was all hazy and my mind was foggy. Nothing felt real anymore. I did feel the terrible pain in my side and there was hardly any skin on my left shoulder. I saw Andrew. His mouth was moving ridiculously fast and he seemed to be crying. He cradled my head in his hands, and wiped away red liquid from my forehead with a mangled cloth. I assumed it was his old shirt. I felt the ground move I saw Andrew jump. I didn’t hear what he was saying or anything else around. “Go, Andrew. Get out of here. I only pushed you out of the way so you could get away, not come back!” I whispered, or maybe yelled, I didn’t know. His mouth moved even faster. Darkness began eating away at my vision. Andrew picked me up. He was very gentle around my wounds. My head spun with every step and it felt like knives were plunging into my lungs and in my heart. There was another blast of red and then my world went black.

I felt a cool breeze on my cheeks. The sensation made my eyes slowly open. The first thing I saw was a light. For a moment I thought it was the famous white light that supposedly sent you to heaven. Then I turned my head and I saw the window in the corner of the room. It was slightly open to show the trees. I closed my eyes and rolled my head back to the face the ceiling. My head hurt so much and so did my side. I remembered the fiasco of last night. I gave out an involuntary groan. I realized I was in the hospital. I hated the hospital! It was always full of sick people.

“Good morning sunshine.”
I opened my eyes again and shifted my head to see Andrew holding my hand. He had his other arm in a sling. He was not wearing a shirt, mostly because the bandages were covering most of him up. His face was bruised and scared but he still looked devastatingly handsome.

“You look terrible,” he said

I chuckled “Well, you’re not exactly a cream puff, either,” I whispered. I wanted to raise the bed so I wouldn’t have to strain my neck to see him. I tried to move my other hand, but my shoulder began to hurt. I looked over and it was also bandaged. Andrew could see my efforts. He reached over and pressed the button that made the head of my bed rise.

“Brianna words cannot express how sorry I am.” He kissed my hand. Tears were beginning to swell up in his eyes.

“Andrew it’s not…,” I began

“No, it is if I would have listened to you. It could have prevented all this.”

“I can’t blame you for not believing me. I did hold it against you for a while, but after a few hours I figured I would have done the same thing.” I smiled and wiped away a tear from his cheek with my functional. He smiled and cupped my chin in his hand and kissed me. This kiss wasn't the ‘you are so cute kiss.’ This was the knee weakening, heart fluttering kiss that people only write about in romance novels.

“How bout I take you home. You don’t mind if I stay a while since my house blew up?”

As it turns out, I was asleep, or in a minor coma for a week. By that time Allena came. She was more than happy to see me alive, but more pleased I was kissing Andrew. The hospital kept me over night to make sure I was adjusting well to the medicine. When they finally released me I had to stay in a wheel chair all the way up to the airport. The flight was pleasant. Allena kept me laughing with her sarcastic remarks about me being a gimp and Andrew holding my hand. On the plane I fell asleep and for the first time in weeks I didn’t have nightmares of blood or explosions. Instead, I had a regular dream about lush green fields and strange animals that talk. I had almost forgotten what a good night’s rest could feel like. When I awoke I was in the arms of Andrew. He was sleeping, and so was Allena. I lay back into Andrews warm arms. It’s a peculiar feeling when you know you did the right thing and that you are in the right place at the right time, it’s these moments that you would remember for the rest of your life. Even when you’re old and worn out you will remember the time you were completely and undeniably happy.
THE END