On The Edge Of It All

Chapter 3: A Flaw In My Plan

It was the night before the start of summer and my mother just ruined any plans I had for tomorrow. I had come home to find my cloths, what few I had, packed in a bag and, not being an idiot, went to find my mom and ask what was going on.

So apparently she wanted to surprise me with some kind of summer camp. Her reasoning was that she felt bad leaving me alone all day and that I needed to make friends. For me that was never an easy thing. I just nodded though, knowing fighting would do no good.

So I was off to camp, if nothing else I could find a way to kill myself there. It wouldn't be easy but I'm smart, I can do it. I walk back to my room and jump into bed, I don't want food. I drift to sleep and toss and turn in bed, of course I can't get a restful night's sleep.

The nightmare starts with me in the middle of a group of people with tears running down my face as laughter echoed from all sides. I pushed my way through the crowd and my vision tunneled until I was in the forest by a stream. The sound of rushing water soothed me and I relaxed 'till I heard a weird sound. I went to find the source of the sound and found a hydra, a Greek monster, something that doesn't exist. I wasn't afraid of it, even in my dream I wasn't afraid of death.

Not only was I not afraid of it, I walked toward it. Suddenly a boy with a beautiful bronze sword stepped in with someone who controlled fire (at least that's what it looked like).

Once they were done killing the thing the dream ended. I suddenly wondered if that would happen at camp. I have these dreams sometimes that are bizarrely accurate. Sometimes the dreams occur just how I saw them; sometimes it comes about in another way with the same outcome. Rarely does the dream ever just not happen.

So I had two ways to look at this, either the Greek monster were real or it was a metaphor for something. I was going to go with the second option; the first might just mean I'm crazy if I believed it.

Knowing I wasn't gonna get more sleep I got up and took a shower, I didn't know how far this camp was so I was ready for a long ride with my mother and music in my ears.

After my shower I pulled on a clean pair of pajamas and went to make sure there wasn't anything else I wanted to take. I ended up taking a so-dirty-it-was-gray stuffed dog; it used to be mostly white with a red heart around its eye. It was small and fit easily into my bag. The thing was, in a strange place with people I don't know, he was easier to talk to.

So after I was sure I had everything I changed from the pjs I'd put on into dark was jeans and a dark purple t-shirt. Then I got everything down to the car and in the trunk.

By the time my mom was awake and ready I had already made waffles and set the table. I was working on the last of the bacon in fact. I smiled when she came in, one of my fake-but-realistic smiles. They were what hid my hurt heart and what she was used to seeing so it wouldn't be that obvious.

"You didn't have to do this Melody," My mom said with a smile.

I winced at my name, not that I hated it but everyone always wondered if I could sing just because of my name and I always embarrassed myself because of stage fright. Not that I didn't have a beautiful voice when it wasn't shaking from fear. I was still better in the water, not that I got to swim much.

Where I live, I found out after breakfast, was a long way from the camp that I also found out was in New York, I live in that small area that sticks off of the bottom of Missouri. In my area we call it the Bootheal of Missouri. I live within a couple hours' drive of St. Louis, in a small town nearly no one's heard of. This was going to be a very long two day drive with my mother.