

The sound of laughter and singing fills the air with a heavenly call from the brightness of the sun. Everything felt so real, the smell of pies cooling on the window ledge and off to the side a few feet away from the house were bed sheets drying on the line. I couldn’t tell if this was real or if this was nothing more then a mere dream. The sound of my children’s laughter filled the air around me, I looked around and couldn’t see a single soul around me. I found myself standing just a few hundred yards away. My daughter runs up to me from my right and grabs me by the arm and leads me inside of my once lively homestead. “Daddy, Daddy’s home.” The voice echos through the air with a weird ripple, like that of a stone beginning, skipped across a pond. Slowly, I walked up the stairs and placed my hands on the railing. Everything felt so real and alive. I don’t know what happened or how I came to be here. But one thing for sure is I didn’t want to leave. I stood on the porch and looked around the place for a few moments. Then I noticed that the blue sky slowly began to grow with an over the cast of lightly gray clouds. I took a moment and thought to myself for a moment and slowly turned around and walked inside the house. Standing in the parlour room, I could feel my heart race with such intensity that at any moment I could leave my body and venture towards the great abyss. I wanted to cry, I wanted to collapse to my knees and thank the heavenly father of what was happening to me here today. “Are you okay?” The voice of my once living wife asked. Fighting back the tears and not knowing just what had happened, I began wondering if everything that I’ve experienced over the last time was real or not. Nothing felt real to me at this moment. Was it all a dream? Was it brought on by a fever? I don’t know for sure, but I could not allow myself to go back. “Yes, I am now,” I said. “Well good, case dinners almost ready.” “Dinner?” I asked. While I walked through the chilled house, every step I took felt more and more as if I was wandering through an ice house. I felt weak, I felt as if every step I took brought me closer to the unknown. I kept having to tell myself just how insane this was. That this couldn’t be real, every ounce felt as if I was back home, but how could this be? Everyone was dead, everyone has long since been dead, and how can they be here with flesh and blood? I was taken back when I saw my son running past me and racing towards the kitchen. Within a few moments, I saw my wife with her hands full, holding a pot with the apron, and placing it on the table. “No running.” She said with a raised tone. I slowly walked towards the kitchen and stood in the entrance way. The warmth of the fire made it unbearable but I wasn’t going to leave for a second. Making my way over to the kitchen table and taking my seat, I gently brushed the surface of the table with the palm of my hand. This, of course, draws the attention of my family. While I’m doing this without noticing that I’m being watched. I paused for a second and looked around to my astonishment that I hadn’t woke up yet. “Feeling okay?” My Wife asked. “What? Yes, yes I am.” She smiles and sends the kids out to the well and fetch some water for dinner. As she picks up the old wooden bucket from the floor and hands it to them, they both run out happy. As if they love doing this sorta thing. Though, a part of me always worried about them falling down the well, kids and wells especially young ones it’s always in the back of your mind. “What day is it?” I asked, wondering if I was dreaming or not. “Never you mind that. Just relax, you’ve had a busy day, and you deserve some rest.” She said, as she sat on my lap and gave me a kiss on the lips. I exhale slowly and everything felt so real. Everything, felt like it was actually happening. My mind began racing with questions. Was this real? Was I dreaming? Had everything up to this moment been recent of a fever brought on by a bee sting or that of a touch of sunstroke? “You seem so distant today.” “Yeah, I’m sorry. I just don’t feel so good, probably just a touch of something.” “Well, you better get better here quick. We got church tomorrow.” “Church? Church, yeah, we do have church in the morning.” “Don’t tell me you forgot now?” “No, no, of course not.” “Now mister, I know you’ve been working up a storm out there. But take a break. The kids still expect you to take them fishing here soon.” Just as she said that the kids both enter the kitchen both gripping the nearly full bucket of water. “We didn’t spill a drop.” My son said. “Well, I wouldn’t be saying that.” Our Daughter responded with. “So Pa, when are you going to take us fishing?” “Yeah?” I sat there with a grin on my face and before I could answer the bucket of water was knocked over. By who? I can’t answer that question as I look down the racing water spreading itself thin on the wooden floor. I stood up and pushed my chair in and as I look over to my children, I see a look of absolute horror. As their flesh has turned a pale blue and soon they began to rot before me like that of a horse left to fester in the sun. The stench of death quickly swept through the air and soon they faded away before me. Not knowing how to handle this, I shouted in vain to God himself for this not to happen. My entire life, my entire existence was for them and now they had retreated back into the crypt of cold Earth. “They died and you did nothing.” My wife shouted at me. I shook my head in disbelief and soon I was alone in the kitchen, all alone with all my thoughts, and as the room slowly faded to black. I was standing outside. A cold breeze cut through the land as I looked around and found myself alone in the middle of nowhere. Resting before I was three tombstones, three tombstones for three bodies. It wasn’t my fault I told myself, it wasn’t, they didn’t die because of me. I tried telling myself, I tried doing anything in the hopes of bringing me out of this. But I was flooded with so many emotions that I couldn’t save myself from this moment in time. While standing alone a cold hand firmly gripped my shoulder causing me to jump back in fear. There, standing before me was my wife. Looking as sickly as she did the moment before she passed. Her voice sounded the same as the moment we first met. “Alan, we will never stop loving you.” “What in the hell is happening?” I replied. “Just your mind running wild on you. Now, before you wake up, don’t forget to keep your head down.” She said with a smile. And as quickly as she appeared, she quickly vanished before my eyes, and suddenly I found myself back sitting around the fire. Holding my empty plate and with no explanation of what happened. Truly, it could be said that what I experienced was nothing more heat exhaustion or perhaps I was given a sign. But whatever caused it, I hope it doesn’t happen again.

