Summertime June

Part 5: Daybreak

Someone was singing. Strange and ethereal, but singing. - That was the first thought that crossed my brain as it slowly shook off the black oblivion that had been my unconsciousness. And I had been unconscious. That was the only explanation for the sudden lack of awareness that had overcome me. I slowly opened my eyes to the unwelcome light as it pierced through my line of vision. The world came to me then in white and blue spots, and my head ached as though I had been hit with a hammer. I had enough cognizance to recognize that I was laid out flat on a soft feather mattress, a down pillow behind my head and a cotton blanket pulled neatly under my arms. 

"Oh thank the heavens! You're awake. I was beginning to think you'd never come back to earth." The sudden exclamation of June's voice cleared the fog from my brain; I finished opening my eyes and sat up gingerly. 

June was up and out of the chair she had been sitting in like a shot. She rushed over to my side and sat down with great care to ensure I was not jostled. 

"Where are we? What happened?" the questions poured from my mouth before I'd even really thought them through. 

I  saw June hesitate, it was slight, but it was there. 

"I'm not sure how to explain it all really. It's going to sound like quite the tall tale." she smiled uncomfortably as she said this, looking almost nervous. This seemed odd to me; June was never nervous. 

"Explain all of what, June?" I tried to keep the question light, but inside my mind was racing with possibilities. 

June stood up, graceful on her feet as ever, but there was a frazzled kind of energy about her as she began to pace around the room. I, for the most part, remained as still as possible. (My head did ache quite a bit).

"I..." "Well..." "The thing is..." she began and stopped three separate times before she took a deep breath and seemed to steady herself. 

"The stranger that appeared at the kitchen door. I told you that I knew him from somewhere. That was a lie. Well, not a true lie, but a lie of sorts."

My face must have reflected my utter confusion because June rushed on before I could offer any sort of further line of questioning. 

"I don't know him as I know you. You I can see and touch and I know that you are a part of reality. But him, I've only ever seen him twice before. And not in reality."

I felt a familiar shiver dance across my spine. Up until this moment, we had made it a point not to discuss June's premonitions. In fact, I quite liked to pretend that they did not exist at all; that my friend was normal. I was reminded of the cries that she could hear on Old Church Road that day we went to the swimming hole. 

"What do you mean, 'not in reality', June." my question was more of a statement. I couldn't quite keep the forboding out of my voice. My hands had clenched into the cotton blanket that still covered my legs, unbeknownst to me. 

June seemed not to notice. After her rather unusual statement, she had begun watching the rays of sunlight beaming through the window panes as they danced across the green wallpaper that hung behind the bed I was sitting on. I swallowed the impending sense of doom that was creeping up my throat and tried again. 

"June, what are you talking about. And can you please tell me where in God's name we are?" I nearly demanded.

My use of profanity seemed to shock her out of her reverie. "Ava. You know how I feel about swearing." she reproached. I rolled my eyes in response. 

"Oh very well." she huffed. "You know, I am sure, that I experience, well, premonitions for the lack of a better term." she sounded truly miffed that a better term had indeed not been invented. I nodded my head to indicate that I had heard her.

"Well, that's where I've met the stranger from earlier today. Except he's not a stranger. I've seen him twice. His name is Caleb. He's come to me in my premonitions before, but he's never spoken to me. He just is. Like a state of being. He doesn't speak, doesn't gesture, doesn't do anything. All I know is that he comes to me before bad things happen. Like a warning." she had stopped pacing and looked up at me, her eyes pleading for me to understand.

My mind almost couldn't wrap itself around what she was saying. Almost. Except I remembered the cries that she heard on Old Church Road that day we had gone to the swimming hole. And I remembered the ghost stories. 

"If this Caleb person was in your dreams" (I pointedly avoided referring to them as anything more sinister) "...what is he doing at our home...and why he is here now...and also could you KINDLY tell me where we are?" each word at the end of my statement had become punctuated with the sense of helplessness that pervaded my heart. 

June sighed, and it was the oldest sound I have ever heard. Her body went slack as she folded herself into the wicker chair that sat beside the bed. Oddly enough, they were the only two pieces of furniture in the room. 

"As to why Caleb has gone from my 'dreams', as you call them, to real life, I have absolutely no idea. That's why I panicked. There's no way that that could be possible. And seeing as I've only ever seen him before horrendous tragedies, it can't be because of anything good." her voice was ragged like it had cost her to say the words.

"I saw him before my father died. And I saw him before my younger brother was killed." her voice broke on the last word; two perfect tears dropped from her eyes onto the material of her dress. 

I felt my heart plummet into my stomach. June had never talked about the deaths of her other family members. It was just accepted that they did not exist. I shifted my weight so that I could move closer to her, leaning across the end of the bed to try to hug her, but she stopped me. 

"No, Ava. I have to get this out. And if you try to comfort me right now, I never will." she had stopped crying, but the sense of utter devastation had not left her. 

"I saw him, and I panicked. I couldn't tell at first if it was another dream, or if it was real. But then I could see that you had seen him, too. And then I really panicked. I felt vulnerable, terrified, and I knew that I had to get us away from him. So I took off into the pantry, but he followed us. I'm not...I don't know what happened next. I don't remember anything after seeing his face inside the pantry. The next thing I knew, I woke up on the floor here, and you were still unconscious. You slept for hours, I really did think that you wouldn't wake up." she sagged as she finished, as the words rushed out and left her looking lifeless. 

"I don't know how we got here, and I don't exactly know where 'here' is. I've seen this room once before, in another dream. Never in the real world though. I've tried to open the door, but it's locked."

At this point, it struck me that I had not thought about an exit strategy. It had not even occurred to me to look for a door, which I could now plainly see was situated in the far right-hand corner of the room. It had no bolt, at least none that was visible from our side, but I knew that if I attempted to open it, it would be locked just as June had said. As I sat there considering the locked door and our rather bleak circumstances, the rest of what she had said filtered through my mind. This Caleb person had somehow managed to infiltrate our life, our world. And regardless of whether or not I believed in June's 'dreams', it was apparent even to me that imaginary people simply do not transcend from dreams to reality. It does not happen. It was also apparent that June was not crazy. I knew that I believed her and took her at her word, she simply did not lie. It was not in her nature. The conclusion of which left me with a very serious sense of disassociation and a strange numbness in my limbs. As such, we sat. It was all either of us had the energy to do.