Swift Fish Net

I wake up this morning and take a quick glance at my clock. It is blank. It is still dark. In the bathroom now, there is a flash like lightning. The light doesn’t turn on. I grab my flashlight and wander through the apartment. Something is wrong. I shine my light around. In one spot, everything stays dark. I sense something about to attack!

I wake up again with another glance at the clock. This time there is a single number one with a few other glowing red dots beside it. It’s still completely dark, but I look outside and suddenly see lights. There is a crowd of people rushing by. That can’t be: I live three floors up from the ground…

A third time, I awake. The clock is still not right. There is a light glowing outside. I can see a patio across the gorge. My muddled mind knows it is all wrong. There should be trees out there! Why can’t I wake up?

I can feel I am breathing. I can hear my breathing. I concentrate on those sensations. I feel pins and needles in my arms and legs. Slowly, real awareness dawns as if from a fog. My eyes are open, and a gray light is streaming in from the window. I glance at my clock. It is 7:04. There are trees outside my window. Finally, I am really awake on the fourth try!

It fortunately doesn’t happen very often, but I find that dreaming about waking up is one of the worst and scariest feelings. In some ways it reminds me a little of that Groundhog Day movie but in a much shorter version and not on February 2nd. The last time this happened a few years back, it took my sister’s whippet jumping onto my bed to wake me up (the dog had passed away a few months prior to the instance and has never been in my apartment). If this really shows up on my website, I might start thinking I am still dreaming. I haven’t written anything on here in months.