Dream Child

Chapter Five

She was running through the forest again, trying to find her way out. Tree's seemed to jump out and entangled her in them, bushes appearing on the pathway tripping her up.

"Amanda!" she heard her husband's voice calling through the trees.

"ERIC!" she screams, falling down over a bush and rolling down a small dirt mound.

Struggling to regain her bearings, she still feels herself being rocked though she is laying still.

"ERIC!" She screamed again.

"Amanda!" he calls again.

Suddenly she's waking up on the floor of her daughter's bedroom, her husband shaking her.

Sitting straight up in a panic, coughing, she wraps Eric in a vise like grip and starting hysterically bawling.

"Honey, what happened, what's wrong?" he's asking as runs his hands over her head and back.

"Why are you wet? What's going on?"

Amanda shakes her head and continues to cry.

Eric slowly stands her up and walks her out of Jenny's room, asking him to shut the door. He shuts the door and walks her into the living room, sitting her on the couch.

"Amanda.." he says, looking at her wet hair and shirt; her face is pale and drawn.

"I saw her!" she manages.

"Saw who?" he asks.

"I saw Jenny. She was in her room, she blames me for her dying, she tried to drown me!" she cried.

"What do you mean Jenny tried to drown you? That's not possible."

"IT IS!" she screamed. "Why do you think I am wet? It was horrible, she was gray.. and her eyes were black.. sh-sh-she said that I would pay! My baby said that I would pay for her death!" she began to cry all over again.

Eric stands up and stares down at his wife, wondering if she is backsliding. Amanda had been committed to a facility after the funeral; she was not able to function after burying their daughter. After they laid her to rest she had a mental breakdown, blaming herself for not being able to save her, and from what she had described about the situation, there was no way she could have. She wouldn't eat or talk to anyone except in outburst where she panicked and called out her daughter's name. On that fateful day, neighbors had heard Amanda's screams and called the police, though he wasn't sure how long it had been since the neighbor had called the police and when they had arrived. At the same time that police were pulling up to their house, Eric was arriving home. Together they entered the backyard to find her lying on the ground with Jenny wrapped in her arms; they could not remove Jenny from her mother to see if they could revive her.  By then Jenny had been cold and blueand Amanda was crying and talking to her, willing her to wake up, telling her over and over she loved her. When they were able to pull Jenny away, she gave the most heart wrenching and blood curling scream.

As though Amanda  knew what he was thinking, she stood up and looked him in his eyes.

"I am not crazy Eric, I saw her. She was drowning me in water. I was looking at her, and she walked towards me and then I was choking on water. I was coughing it up, it was coming out of me like on the day I was trying to save her. And when I was passing out she stood over me and she said that I would pay, and then she laughed! Eric, she laughed like she used to when she was being chased or tickled. She wanted to kill me." she insisted.

He didn't know what to say or what to do. He didn't want to believe her, but he couldn't figure out how her shirt and her head was soaking wet, why there was a puddle of water on the floor. But to believe that Jenny had come back to try to harm her mother was hard to comprehend. Jenny was such a loving and sweet child, she had the most amazing beautiful eyes and the most heartwarming and genuine smile that could melt steel. She would cry over commercials on TV where animals were homeless or being treated badly and become upset when flowers and leaves were dying and changing with the seasons.

"I believe that you believe you saw her honey. Just sit down and take a few moments and relax," he soothed her.

"No! Don't treat me like this Eric. I am not crazy, I am not losing my mind!" she snapped and stormed off into their bedroom to change her clothes.

Eric stood in the living room and watched her walk away, and then slowly walked into Jenny's bedroom and saw the puddle of water on the floor. Looking around the bedroom, he softly whispered Jenny's name bracing himself for an answer.

There came none.

Sighing, he left and came back with a towel and wiped up the water and went into the kitchen and waited for Amanda.