DAY 70: Dream #46

Wendy was surprised to see Poppin standing there.  "You're still dead, aren't you?"

"Yes.  And I'm here to help you accept it."

Wendy froze in her tracks.  She was as the park pavillion again, waiting for the rain to stop.  She was wearing the pink rainboots she outgrew, and the heather-green coat.  She even had the barrettes in her hair that she wore that day, the ones she put in the coffin with Poppin.  "But I'm sitting right here, yes."

"So I'm dreaming again?"

"Yes.  The same dream.  It's time to change it, isn't it?"

"I- I don't know how."

Poppin offered one of her transcendant smiles, wide as the horizon.  "I know, dear.  It's not easy."

"Everybody says I should."

"Certainly.  You're so afraid of so many things.  Loneliness and guilt, and traffic and crowds, and cars and rain.  It's always going to rain again, you know... eventually.  Have I made you afraid?"

"No...  Hey, why are you talking to me?"

"Because no one else knows what happened.  Do they?"

"No."

"But they ask."

"...yes."

"And you don't tell them?"

"No.  I'm crazy enough already."

"Only because you're not talking, dear.  Fear feeds on silence, like oxygen for fire."

"But if I talk-"

Poppin leaned in, waiting for the rest of the sentence.  Wendy opened her mouth-

The rain had stopped. The park was smothered in that post-rain quiet.

"Go on, Wendy...  If you talk..."

Wendy got up.  "And now it's time."

Poppin stood with her.  "It doesn't have to be."

"But this is how it happened."

They walked, assuming the posture of happier conversations.  But Poppin continued.  "Do you ever remember what we were talking about?"

Wendy spun, holding her hands out for any remaining drops of rain.  "No!  I don't remember the last things you said.  I'm forgetting!  I'm sorry!"

Poppin walked onto the road with more difficulty.  "Don't be sorry.  I still love you all.  And I love you."

The cadillac fell out of the sky, onto Poppin's spot.  Wendy screamed, and ran to her, trying to glimpse her under the wreck.  From out of the shadow, Poppin's voice emerged.  "Next time, dear.  Next time..."


Inspired by Discover Magazine article, "Erasing Fears with Sleep"