I got the message

I have been having a reoccurring dream for the last twenty years if not longer. The faces and surroundings always change but the situation is always the same.

In my dream, I have caught the eye of a male stranger while I am walking. Car brakes slam on and the car is thrown in reverse and I know what is about to happen. Or I have caught the eye of a stranger as we both walk and they stop walking and I know what is about to happen. There is a vertigo motion or sound that comes on in my dream as we make eye contact and then I know it is going to be one of those dreams. I always wake up before the attack, but it doesn't matter because the sound or the strange pulling towards or pushing away happens anyway and I know the end result.

I thought I was having one of those dreams again last night. I was in an old house in my neighborhood. It was a house that was for sale and it was filled with ornate beauty like a grand bath house. It had a marble pool inside that I particularly wanted to see. I heard men talking about it, they actually said they didn't want to show the pool to guests as it could be a liability in the sale of the house. Somehow I managed to wander in the house and find that room anyway. It was so beautiful, opulence that I would never live in but that I could appreciate. This place was from another time entirely. As I walked in the room, and started up some very narrow high stairs to nowhere, I realized this was not a good choice. I would be trapped with no way to escape.

Suddenly the sound came on and I remembered catching their glance when I walked in and I knew.... I tried to find a way out but I couldn't. I gave up running up the stairs further and started on my way back down, trying to avoid eye contact. When I turned around this time, it was not a man at all. It was a boy, perhaps about ten years old! I smiled in my dream and I walked on and out of the house unscathed.

I can't be sure if I have stopped that vicious dream cycle forever, but when I woke up I knew there was nothing to fear at all...

x.