These Dreams of Truth

Why Not?

We headed straight to the cafeteria and my exhaustion was quickly being replaced with adrenaline.

"We'll be slightly early today," Silvia told me as we neared the large room. 

"Perfect," I said while I realized it was one of  the few times I'd said that statement without sarcasm.

I took my tray and usual table to sit in silence. The few other early kids sat with their heads down and nibbled at their food slowly. The presence they displayed struck me as though they were early often.

Unfortunately, I wasn't so used to waiting for my usual companions to arrive. My headache was beginning to return and it was getting worse by the second but I ignored it. 

Every time I would hear the subtle squeak of the door signaling the entry of a patient, my head would flick up and search the faces for Astella's. She came quickly enough and walked to me even faster upon seeing me looking at her. 

"Hey C-" She hadn't even sat down yet and I began spouting my theory.

"Free Dreaming, that's what they call it. It's an exercise I do where they force me into sleep and let me experience whatever dream my mind conjures up with little to no influence while they have me hooked up to a machine in a way that lets them experience everything I am seeing and feeling as well." I was talking just as fast as I was thinking and Astella took in the information with wide eyes. "I just came back from a session of it and it was the first Free Dream I've the entire time I've been here that was connected to another real person. Also, I've only had a dream like that twice before. Those were prophetic dreams. As in, the dreams that made my parents turn to professionals which eventually landed me here. I had a dream that had something in it that I'm positive belonged to my mother, a dress she wore one time for some special event. What if something happens to her?"

Astella appeared a bit overwhelmed but she cleared her throat and began to think. "Okay," She said. "So you said the dreams you had before involved very specific details in describing what would happen to this specific person as well. And this dream isn't quite that, as in you're sure the dress belonged to your mother, but you didn't have a dream about  your mother. So by that logic, I do think she's fine."

"What if something already happened to her? What if I'm seeing the dress because she died or something and my father is getting rid of it? Maybe, because something happened to my mother something happened to the dress, and then something-"

"Calm down, I doubt that's true. You refer to the dreams about people as prophetic, as in they happen before the things they depict. And taking that into account,  I don't think anything happened, whether it was to your mother or the dress. So, I think a good way to go about approaching this is thinking about everything in the dream that was possibly tied to the dress. Did you see the dress somewhere on possibly a clothing rack or anything?"

"No, I was wearing it. Plus it was a few sizes too big and hard to move in so I'm convinced it was actually the dress my mother owned, not just some other one that was the same model."

She stared off thoughtfully for a moment before responding. "Okay. So you were wearing this dress, was there anything else specific about the dress that you noticed?"

To save time and questions I gave a quick recount of the story including as many important details as I thought were necessary. Will had arrived at the table by now as well and was politely listening along. 

Astella was absentmindedly braiding her long blonde hair when she said "Well I know you probably don't know this because you were only one or two years old when this was happening, but do you think maybe your mother wore this dress when she was going to some sort of theater performance? And then it was perhaps a bad experience so the dream was sort of jogging your memory and putting you in her place?"

I tried to remember as much as I could but I was foggy about most things that happened before I came to the Facility. "Maybe. The only thing that clearly stood out to me was the fact that I'd seen the dress on my mother before. I don't know if she even left the house wearing it let alone where she went in it. Though I do have a memory of her crying in the other room after she went some place with my father, so they could have been connected."

"I'm sure your parents didn't leave toddler you home alone," Will piped up, "do you remember anything about the person who was home with you?"

"My aunt watched me a lot before, you know, dying, but I don't think it really had anything to do with her. Why do you ask?"

"I thought you'd say your aunt," he said. "How close was this to when you had the dream about her?"

I laughed. "Not a clue, sorry. Why would that matter though?"

"I thought maybe if this dream really was tied to your mother in some way it might tie to a time frame as well. If you said it wasn't your aunt watching you that time this wouldn't be relevant because I'd say it's safe to assume she was dead, but since you're pretty sure she was there I had another idea. Depending on how soon after this event you had the dream I'd say maybe this is an early sign of another prophecy thing. And I guess, why not? Why couldn't that be the case?"

I considered his words as Sebastian finally sat down to my right. "Are you saying you think this is an early sign I'm going to have a dream about something that will happen to my mother soon?"

Sebastian elbowed me lightly. "Whoa, might want to catch me up here but is your mom going down now too?"

I shoved him back slightly before giving a brief synopsis.

Sebastian swallowed a bite of his apple before saying "I hate to say this, but for the first time I think I agree with Will on this." 

Will took out and readjusted his hearing aids. "I'm sorry did I hear that right?" he asked with a smile. "You, the great Sebastian, agreeing with me?" Sebastian rolled his eyes and threw an orange peel at him. It was nice to see them actually get along.

We were all still a bit rattled from this morning and the Free Dreaming certainly didn't help but lighthearted jokes were always nice and the rest of dinner flew by.

Walking back to my room with Silvia afterwards was pleasant, and with the help of burn salves for my arms I was able to fall into a deep sleep despite all of the worries running through my mind.