Winter Season

Piece of work

Everything was moving in slow motion. Neither the splinters nor the bullet ever hit the floor. He watched them move, an inch seemed to take years to travel.

A crashing noise pulled Oscar’s attention back toward the door. It swung open, again in slow motion as a boot appeared just above the swinging dead door knob. A boot he knew belonged to Chet.

When he woke, he was in his bed. Chet was sitting in a chair in the corner working on a tablet.

“Hey sleepin’ beauty.” Chet grinned.

Oscar hadn’t found his voice. All he could do was shiver.

“My friend, your mother is a piece of work.” Chet groaned. “Hmmm, I know you have told me all kinds of stories about that woman but you never really understand until you experience it first-hand.” Chet noticed Oscar shivering. “I turned your electric blanket on. I’m afraid to turn it any higher.”

Oscar closed his eyes and tried to imagine that warmth he felt from his dream. Those legs and arms wrapped around him; the warmth from her body heating his. Her body. If only there really was a her. When that didn’t work, he tried the loving light of Jesus all around him. Holding him as only a father could. It must have worked because he was fading into sleep.

He woke to the sound of a scanner squawking. He followed the noise to his living room; where a deputy was watching a repairman fix his front door.

“Hey Oscar, the boss said when you get your wits about you to call him.”

Oscar nodded. So this hadn’t all been a bad dream. Some of it was very real.

It wasn’t long before the deputy and the repairman left. The repairman gave Oscar a new set of keys to his front door. He even cleaned up the mess left by the destruction of the old one. Oscar had to remember to give Chet a key. He thought he had to the other door.

Everything in the living room was just as Oscar left it. The glass of pop was on the coffee table along with two weeks worth of papers to grade. His blanket was wadded up in front of the couch where he had fallen. This was amazing, and very frightening. What if this happened again and Chet wasn’t near? How long would it have been before he came around? If he came around at all?

This was the first time that he had a panic attack over a dream. He had dreams much more real than this one. He couldn’t figure out why it was different. In a daze, he sat on the couch. A panic attack in his sleep. Heavens, how that scared him.

Winter Season