Dreams

Dreams

 

Friday 13 June 1967

Sitting at his desk he appeared lost in thought, until Janet, coming across to stand and looking at the blank sheet of paper in front of him said

“Are you with us or not this morning?”

“Sorry Janet, it’s just that I had a strange dream last night, or rather I think this morning.”

“How do you have a dream in the morning? Most people dream at night.”

“Well, what I mean is; it woke me up, woke me just before the alarm. Honestly it brought me bolt upright, and now I can’t get it out of my head.”

Janet hitched herself up onto the corner of the desk saying.

“Tell then; what was so special about this dream?”

“It was hot, not just ordinary hot like a summer day, but like I was in the middle of a flame, I couldn’t see, hear or even breath: there was just this pain, you can’t imagine that pain, it wasn’t just on the outside but  inside me as well. I was burning from the inside as well as outside, and then it was gone and I was sitting up in bed, Jane it was so realistic, I just can’t get it out of my head.”

“Well it was only a dream so come on we have to get all this work down for four this afternoon, and ready to print.”

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Friday 20^th June 1967

 “You had a bad dream again?” Charlie asked as he walked into the office.

“What makes you say that?”

“Well you don’t look your usual cheerful self; in fact you’re defiantly grey. It was that dream again wasn’t it?”    There was a nod as he slumped down at his desk before he replied.

“Yes I have but, it was different this time.”

“How do you mean different, different in what way?”

“More realistic more detailed, more terrifying.”

“In what way?” Janet asked seating herself on the corner of the desk.

“As I said there was more detail, and it was more realistic, and I can remember more about it.”

He looked up at the faces all looking at him, more in amusement than anything.

“All right just a dream or not, I’ve had the same dream two weeks running on the same night, waking me up at the same time, and about the same thing. What does it mean, that’s what I want to know?”

“It could be something you’ve eaten I suppose.”

“I don’t think so Charlie, I only wish it was. It’s starting to worry me, it was bad enough the first time, but last night, well I was scared, it was almost as if it was me that was on fire.”

“A premonition, if I was you I would?”

“No John, with the first one I didn’t get the feeling that it was me. It was as if it was someone else, someone who it’s happened to. It was bad last week, but this morning…. well I was really shook up.

Janet, I want Charlie to have a look in the back editions, see if there has been anything in them about fires. Big fires with lots of people dying. If it’s like John says, that it is a premonition, well after this last one, and if it is something that’s going to happen…. No this is daft, it’s going nowhere, and it’s just a dream. Let’s get some work done.”

“Say what you like, I think yours was a good idea to have Charlie check back over; what, the last ten years?”

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Friday June 27 1967

 

07:02 EST

Again it was Wednesday and the same time, seven am. When he woke to find himself sitting up in bed, drenched in sweat, and with the vivid memory of heat, intense heat, burning flesh, and one soundless scream from a seared throat, before a blinding white light, and then blackness.

Gasping for air, and with his heart pounding, he found he was clutching at a throat that felt as if it had been seared from the heat in the dream. It had left him sitting shivering in the bedroom that felt ice cold after the heat in his dream.

With a groan he turned to look at the clock on the bedside table, knowing without looking that it would be showing two minutes past seven, the same time as last week and the week before. But this dream had been different; in it he knew there had been death, someone’s terrible painful death.

With a groan he rolled out of bed, sitting holding his head in his hands waiting for the shivering to stop, and then jumping as the seven fifteen alarm sounded.

Cold, though in the June heat the room was over warm, he dragged himself to the bathroom where the mirror told its own tale. His normal face had gone, what reflected back at him from the mirror was grey and drawn, Panting and shivering, he stood waiting, holding onto the sink to either throw up, or for the sickness to pass.

This time it had been worse, more personal, he shivered again trying to block the memory. The first time it had been just a bad dream. A dream and the knowing of burning heat with nothing to see or hear.

Last week it had been frightening, personal, realistic, and not just as a watcher watching something happening. Last week, yes last week he had been there when it had happened. The burning had been real but it had been to someone else. This time it had been…. To personal…. to close….too realistic….but it had not been to him….or had it?

Shivering and not wanting to, but he couldn’t help doing it, he had to look at his hands, half expecting to see the skin burnt black. They were like his face in the mirror, grey and they were shaking. 

Was he was the one, but where, but when? There had been nothing to see, nothing to hear, just a terrible burning and an all over pain  

“Coffee,” he murmured as with shaking hands he splashed water over his face. A shave, but seeing his reflection in the mirror, he decided the shave would have to wait; coffee was what he needed, to settle his nerves and his stomach.

He was late, but with the memory of the heat and flames strong in his thoughts; he drove with more care than usual arriving a full twenty minutes after his usual time.  

“Again?” Janet said. He nodded. “What’s happened this time?” she asked as she hurried to take his arm steadying him as he made his way to his desk.

“You look terrible, John go and fetch a coffee, strong and black, with lots of sugar.”

Once he was sitting at his desk, Janet seated herself on the desk corner and said.

“I take it that it was the same dream again last night.” There was a nod followed by a whispered reply.

“Worse.” He looked up at the office gathering around him.

“This time I heard a pop and then there was a sudden total silence and a blinding light, and pain I couldn’t see or hear just pain, pain everywhere, not just outside my body, everything was burning. I could feel the heat burning the inside of my body, and then it was gone, just a blindingly bright white light and then nothing, and I woke up. I woke up but it was still there and it’s still there inside my head.” 

There was total silence in the office until Janet said.

“I think you should see someone about this. You can’t go on dreaming like you are you’ll end up not sleeping at all, too afraid to go to sleep. Go home and try and get at least some rest.”

“I can’t.” He looked around at the faces. “I can’t, I don’t want to be alone. Something’s happening to me and I’m frightened.”

“Janet’s right. “ Charlie said, pulling his chair over. “You need to see a doctor or at least someone, someone who, well I don’t know who, but you need to see someone.” Janet sliding off the desk asked.

“Where’s that coffee, I could use one myself, Where is he?”

As she started towards the door John burst in with the coffee wheezing and gasping to say.

“There’s been a news flash on the radio.” He looked around at the faces all turned in his direction. All but the one that drained of what little colour it had, leaving it a ghastly white.

“It’s NASA there’s been a terrible accident with an Apollo capsule, there has been a fire and all the crew.” The words .

“Oh my God.” Silenced him to be followed by a shout of.

“My brother, he was in that Apollo test today.”

 

Friday June 27 1967

 

09:40 EST