Just a Dream

January 21, 2005 1

Last Night's Dream2

*** 3

Tawnya awoke in the tent, staring at her surroundings, bewildered. 'Where am I?' was her first thought, then, 'How did I get here? ...Where IS here?" then came the scariest thought of all... to her, anyway: 'WHERE IS MY BABY?' 4

She began to scramble to get up and her hand landed on something soft lying close to her. She looked down. There was the baby, sleeping peacefully next to her. Tawnya relaxed slightly. She pulled her 4-month-old child close to her and cuddled her. 5

She spoke soothingly to the child, though the baby was not raising any fuss at the moment, "Don't worry, Baby," she whispered softly, "Daddy's coming. Daddy will come and get us soon." 6

Tawnya could feel him coming. He and her children were all her mind could recall of "Before." That was what her mind called the time before she awoke to find herself and her children in the tent. She could not remember his name, only his handsome face, and that he never quite believed her when she told him he was handsome. "Your daddy will come and get us all, and we will be safe," she told the sleeping infant in her arms. 7

"Nobody's coming to get you," a querulous voice said suddenly, from above and to the right of her. She looked to where the voice was coming from. An old man stood there, looking at her and her children. He was about 5'10" by her judgment, and stocky, with long gray hair. His ice-blue eyes gazed at her blankly... hopelessly. "No one's coming," he repeated, "No one knows we're here. They brought us here after the fires came, burning down into the birms." 8

"Who are you?" she asked with a frown. She KNEW her husband was coming. She could feel him. Somehow, he knew where they all were, and he was coming to get them. She also knew he was madder than Hell that HIS family had been taken. 9

The man stared at her, still with that blank gaze, and didn't answer. A young man came up beside him and took his arm, "Come on, Gramps, leave these folks alone. They don't need your rambling." The old man let himself be led away without protest. 10

'Well,' thought Tawnya, 'at least I know a LITTLE more about how we got here, even though that old man is most likely crazy, and he didn't tell me much.' 11

She looked down into the brown eyes of her daughter, and cuddled the now fussing baby, putting her to suckle and hushing her absently. She looked around the tent. It was about 16 feet square, and around eight feet high in the center. At the sides, it was about 6 feet high. The khaki-colored canvas was supported by two-by-twos spaced at 2-foot intervals, with an mosquito-netting-covered window opening where the man had stood, outside the tent, talking to her. The floor of the tent was covered with blankets and sleeping bags and pillows. Her girls were sleeping not far away from her, as were her sons. 12

Her daughter was now comforted and sleeping quietly. Carefully, she broke the suction of the child's mouth at her breast. She stroked the sleeping baby's soft, black hair and laid her gently back down on the blankets. 13

Slowly, and as silently as she could, she moved to the door flap of the tent and surreptitiously peaked out. Across the camp from the tent, about 50 yards away, stood a log longhouse with woodsmoke curling up from the stone chimney. There were other tents like the one she and her children slept in, situated in a large circle with the longhouse at its northern boundary. In the center of the circle wast a huge firepit that was smoldering and smoking mightily, and she wondered how stupid these people were who held her and her children captive. It was obvious either they were stupid, or they didn't care who found them. Or perhaps they didn't think there was anyone TO come and find them. Tawnya knew they were very wrong on that score. Dead wrong. 14

The door of the longhouse opened and a tall, dark-haired man stepped out. "That's the leader," a soft, feminine voice said in her ear. Rachel. Her Guardian Angel was still with her. Why could she remember Rachel's name and not the names of her husband or children? She only knew that the four girls and two boys asleep in the tent WERE indeed her children, and that her husband was heading this way, to find them. 15

"He's the one who took us?" she asked, using her thoughts to communicate with the ghost. 16

"Not directly, but he's the one who started all of this. The fires and the burning. He's the one who gives the orders. The Seeker sent him," came Rachel's quiet reply in her head.17

"And he is the one who is going to die first," she told Rachel silently. For some reason, she did not ask about "The Seeker." She just accepted that Rachel's words were true and left it at that. 18

A white-hot wave of rage boiled up within Tawnya, as she watched the tall man speak to another man, "Get 'em up," he said authoritatively.19

"Aye, Sir," the other man said as he walked toward the closest tent. 20

Soon, the whole camp was awake, and the women were in the longhouse along with the children. Tawnya walked over to the tall man and stood silently in front of him, staring at him intently, barely containing her rage. 21

He looked up at her. "Yes?" he said arrogantly. 22

"Who do you think you ARE?" she asked him angrily, "What is the purpose of this... this..." she trailed off, unable to continue for the rage and hate seething within her. 23

"The purpose?" he said in mock surprise, "the PURPOSE, woman, is to own you... ALL of you," he waved his hand in a large circle in the air, indicating the whole camp, "I own ALL of you now. You just do what you're told, and you won't get hurt, and neither will your children." 24

Tawnya just looked at him. She didn't say that someone was coming, and HE would be the one who "got hurt." She didn't say anything for a full minute, just stood there, glaring at the man angrily. "Why us?" she finally got out. 25

"Because you were the ones who didn't struggle," he said matter-of-factly, "well... not as much as the rest," he added, looking at her strangely, "my men had to knock YOU out, or you would have gotten away. And we need you, Tawnya," he looked her up and down speculatively, "Yes... we need you," he finished with a nod. 26

Tawnya couldn't stand it anymore. She half-turned, preparing to walk away, but he grabbed her arm. She jerked out of his grasp. "Don't you EVER touch me again!" she said hatefully. 27

The man looked at her for a few moments, as if taking her measure. He apparently decided to drop the issue for now, as he sighed and turned away. He walked to the fireplace and lay down on the floor in front of it. Tawnya walked over to him and stood, looking down at him. 28

"I HATE you!" she hissed, all of her hate and rage dripping into her tone. 29

He looked up at her. "It was either that, or let them kill you," he said and half turned away. 30

Tawnya was taken aback for a moment, staring at him. Slowly, she raised her hand. Her thumb and index finger spread about 3 inches apart. "My hate for you just lessened about that much," she said and turned to walk away, but not before he gave her a leering smile. "Not THAT much," she said, wiping the smile from his face with her words, "I still hate you." She walked away, still seething hate for the man that had taken her and her children away from the one man in all the worlds there were, or ever could be, that she loved with her whole being. 31

Later, in the tent, nursing the baby, whose name she still could not place, she lay thinking, feeling her husband coming nearer and nearer. The baby squirmed and wriggled and fell from her arms, rolling outside the tent onto her tummy just outside the door flap. Tawnya scrambled to rescue her daughter, and discovered that she was still wrapped in her blankets, lying face-down on a sheet of plastic Tawnya had heard called "visqueen" when she was a child. She saw the rise and fall of the baby's breathing and noticed her face. Her eyes were closed in sleep, and though her black hair was tousled, she looked peaceful. 32

With a sigh of relief that the baby was alright, she picked her up and drew her back into the tent, laying her on the blankets close to her. The child looked like her father. If she could only remember... All she knew was that he was coming. 33

*** 34

And then she woke up.35