Dream On

My scariest dream is one that I also had a very long time ago. It's a recurring nightmare that started sometime between the ages of six and eight. I was fifteen the last time I had it (that I'm aware of, anyway).

It's late afternoon on a summer day. My mother and I are somewhere in the middle of a line of women and girls that stretches as far as I can see in both directions. To my immediate right is a trench is about six feet wide by six feet deep. We are ordered at gunpoint to enter the trench and lay down.

I look up to see men and boys standing on the edge of the trench, looking down at us over what looks like a wooden slat fence. I see my father and brother directly above my mother and myself. They don't appear happy to see us. My mother is holding my hand but it doesn't feel right. Something is missing. I look at her face and watch a tear stream from her eye to her ear.

Another order is given and I realize that the men and boys are lowering the fence by using thick ropes which are tied to the crossbeams. The fence is going to crush us!

I ask my mother, "Mommy are we going to die"?

She responds angrily through her tears, "Don't be so stupid".

I feel the weight of the fence crushing my feet, my knees, my hips, pushing me deeper into the earth. Then, the weight hits my chest. I gasp.

And wake up.