Dream Portent

Minutes wasted in the moment heading for the fence and sailing forth as I fumble trying to stay in the saddle. Bile in my throat as I dare not look behind me. The horse’s ears flick back and for a moment my grip on the reins falter as we sail over another obstacle. Wind causes tears to stream from my eyes, blurring my vision as we sail over yet another jump. Panic rises with every stride as we struggle to increase the distance from whatever or whoever is chasing us. The reins become sodden with sweat and my grip slips away and my body tumbles.

I bolt upright in a puddle of sweat, covers strewn about the bed from the tossing and turning of my body throughout the night. Disoriented for a brief moment, I moan and turn to look at the clock; it reads eleven forty-five P.M.. I get up and change the sheets and take a shower to wash the stench of my sweat off before returning to bed.

For months this dream has plague my sleep. Waking me just before midnight, my bed soaked through to the mattress. I am being chased by something, someone which eludes me the moment I awake night after night.

A friend suggested that I take some riding lessons, maybe it was a yearning from my subconscious mind to ride a horse. I tried to embrace the lesson. I learned about the different parts of the saddle and the reins and how to mount a horse. The end result was disappointing. I was told to mount and once I was in position with my hands on the reins, I looked up and noticed the ears twitching back and forth. The similarity to my dream caused such anxiety that I fell off the horse. The instructor advised me to seek counseling for my anxiety, and to return when I had conquered my fears.

Another friend suggested I pursue emotional therapy with a dream specialist. I was told during my session that I was suppressed and charged me sixty-dollars for the thirty minutes of “therapy”.

Yet, another friend suggested that I was feeling anxiety over something in my life and told me to start keeping a diary and to note every emotion I was feeling during the course of the week. When I came to the end of the week and showed the diary to that friend, she agreed that I wasn’t under any duress or emotional anxiety. That maybe it was a medical problem and I should seek answers from my family physician.

The physician could not explain the problem to me and said that my vital were great and that all my lab results showed a healthy woman for my age. He suggested some vitamins and supplements to help me sleep and sent me on my way. Needless to say that did not cure my problem.

I wasn’t able to find any answers to my midnight crisis, until one day last week. The clocks had recently rolled forward for daylight saving time. Upon noticing that it was still light out as I left work, I decided to take a detour through the park on my way home. I entered the park and an eerie silence fell over the park.

Something sparkled at the edge of my vision and I turned to see a veil of vines parting between some trees. There was a glowing path just inside the opening. I looked around me to see if anyone else was seeing this strange event, I noticed for the first time since entering the park that I was alone.

Now, I am usually not one to go traipsing along on a path that is deserted. But this seemed different somehow. The path was beckoning me. There was a faint smell of lavender and roses coming from the entrance. Two of my favorite scents that led me to believe that this path was a safe place. I cautiously approached the opening and peered ahead. The floral odor lured me in as a moth to a flame. I took a step closer. Then another, looking back and seeing the vines shift to close behind me. I rushed back to the entrance and could not pass through the vines. They had become an impenetrable wall. My panic was rising and I decided that the only way out had to be in front of me. I hurried down the glowing path the smell of lavender and roses growing stronger with each step.

A large cavern appeared before me and a horse, no, wait. It had a golden horn in the center of its face. It was a unicorn. “There’s no such thing!” My brain shouted at me, yet I was standing there staring at it. It was wearing a bridle and saddle and it beckoned me to mount. It knelt down beside me and gestured with its beautiful magnificent horn to mount. Gingerly, I put my leg across the back of this beast and it stood up slowly. I fumbled with the stirrups until my feet were secure.

I smiled because I had finally lost my mind and the men with straight jackets would be coming for me any minute. They would drug me and I would wake up and feel fresh and ready to face the day. I leaned forward and noticed that the ears looked familiar. The unicorn started moving then. It picked up speed. I grabbed the reins and screamed as the unicorn jumped a fence. The speed picked up and I felt the bile from my stomach in my throat as I struggled to hold on as the unicorn sped from the danger. My hands started to slip on the reins and I remembered my dream. I wrapped the mane of the beast around my hands and screamed as we fled. I closed my eyes.

I was discovered lying beside the path in the park the next day. The policeman who had found me questioned me at length, but I had no answers for him. I only knew that I was grateful to be alive. I never had the dream again after that night. My friends would not have believed me if I had told them what happened, so I kept that information to myself. I told the policeman that I had fainted on the way home, but I didn’t give any details. I only know that the unicorn saved my life from something. I guess I will never know what was chasing me that night.