I woke up in the hospital a week ago with a severe concussion.
The last thing I remember before the accident was sitting on my deck, eating a lovely slice of warm, homemade coffee cake and washing it down with a steaming cup of cinnamon espresso. I don’t remember climbing on my bike, although I must have. But I do remember thinking that since it was such a beautiful morning, I’d ride my bike to my job at the bookshop instead of driving.
The next thing I remember is waking up in the hospital from the worst nightmare I’ve ever had, with the worst headache I’ve ever had! I was lying in bed, hooked up to a heart monitor and an IV, and my cousin Elizabeth was hovering over me looking worn out and worried.
She told me that I’d wrecked my bike near the park. The police said that one witness had said I looked distracted and wasn’t watching where I was going when I clipped the curb with my front tire and was thrown off my bike – luckily away from the road and toward the Park. But, in the process I hit my head on a light post and fell unconscious on the grass.
How stupid and embarrassing is that?
I stayed unconscious for 32 hours! The, just when everyone was starting to really worry that I’d never wake up, I did. But, with that horrible headache and vivid remnants of the worst nightmare by far, that I have ever had. That nightmare was the stuff that horror movies are made of. Unlike most dreams where the memories quickly fade, this one is burned into my memory.
Of course it probably helps that I’ve had the same nightmare twice since the one in the hospital. And it never changes. I take that back. Each time I have the nightmare, I notice something new. The second time I had it, I saw the blue ribbon hanging from the top of the door frame. The third time I had it, I saw the weather vain hanging from the ceiling.
Does that mean that I’m looking around more in my dream? Or, are these new things being added. That’s just creepy to think that new things are added.
Anyway, this is my nightmare in a nutshell…
My eyes are open but all I see is blackness.
I’m freezing. Lying on my back in a dark room and I can’t move. A door creaks opens and light filters in but the warmth from outside the door mixes with the freezing air of the room and a fog quickly develops. But, not before I see shadows of bulky objects hanging from the ceiling above me.
I’m in a meat freezer and the objects are large pieces of frozen meat. Like half cows and pigs.
The next thing I know I’m being dragged by my legs through a large room. I can’t turn my head, but the ceiling looks like a barn ceiling and I’m dragged past a black stallion that’s tethered to a post. The stallion snorts and paws the floor nervously.
The man dragging me isn’t clear. Mostly a blurred figure. But he speaks to the horse, “Easy Boy”.
The ceiling turns 90 degrees and I’m drug under through a doorway that has a wooden top beam. A blue ‘winners’ ribbon is nailed to the beam. A horses’ stall?
I’m drug past a huge mound of freshly piled dirt and then the dragging stops.
The man’s shadowy figure kneels by my side and he pushes me. Everything rolls 360 degrees and I land hard on my back at the bottom of an open grave.
I can see the shadowy figure of the man standing at the top of the grave. I can see a weather vane hanging from the wooden ceiling rafters above me.
I can hear the sound of a shovel digging into that freshly piled up mound of dirt.
Then, I hear the man say, “Sorry Jewels”, and I can see the shovelful of dirt falling toward my face.
Everything goes black.
This is where I wake up every time, my heart pounding and gasping for air.
Just writing about it makes my heart speed up and my hands perspire. But I thought that putting it to paper might make it lose some of its terror. We’ll see…
It’s been a week since the accident but I’m still missing 3 days of memories, and I’m still getting the headaches and having the repeating nightmare. I’m losing sleep, and I’m getting irritable with people and things around me.
The doctor says the headaches should get better after awhile. I’m hoping sooner than later.
The nightmare on the other hand is spooking me. I’ve never had such a vivid nightmare. And never have I had a recurring one. It has a strange, realistic quality about it that my nightmares and dreams have never had. The details are so clear and feel errily familiar like they are more of a memory than a dream – which is absurd as I have never been buried alive.
That would only leave precognition, which would mean that the nightmare is a foretelling of something to come. Leave it to the writer in me to come up with that one. But I don’t know anyone with a barn or horses. And, if I meet a guy in the future like that, I’ll surely steer clear of him now. LOL
I’m beginning to ramble here, but that nightmare is really creeping me out.
At least physically, I’m fine. The bump on my head is almost gone. A new front tire fixed my bike. And, I took the doctor’s advice and purchased a helmet for my next bike ride. But I think it will be quite awhile before I ride it again. I get chills looking at it and thinking how much worse my accident could have been.
I’ll stick with riding in my Wrangler with the top off if I get the urge to feel wind through my hair.
Jewels
