What Lies Beneath The Clearing

9.4

In the dream, my mom told me she hadn't been there in years, that she used to go all the time when she was young and now it was my turn to see it. When we got closer she asked me if I could feel it, like the closer we got to the house the more there was this...energy, I don't know. But I remember feeling drawn to it. Like I belonged there. And she looked into my eyes as if she was checking something about them, but hers were different. Mom's eyes were brown, the darkest brown, and when she looked into mine...hers were golden Jay, and it wasn't justthe light, they were glowing. I don't know, it felt like she was seeing if mine were the same. She wanted to show me the house, she said that...her mother had shown it to her when she was my age. I wanted to show my dad, I asked her if we could, and she got angry, really angry. I remember she held my hands so tightly that I wanted to pull away, said that we could never tell dad about it because it was ours, that he wouldn't understand. Our secret, she said. She had this key, it was bronze, old and rusted slightly. She told me that it was my responsibility to take care of the house, that the key was mine now to keep safe, just as her mother had given it to her. She said I had to protect it. Then I woke up."

She looked up from her lap, realising that a tear had fallen down her cheek as Jay sat forward.

"That's a pretty intense dream Len."

"Well that's what I'm saying, I don't think it was a dream. It felt too real Jay, and the more I think about it the more I know that it really happened. It wasn't a dream, it was a memory. My first memory of the house."