The Runaway Dreamers

Chapter 11

I awoke on the floor. I felt my legs and arms ache as I swept the sticks and little stones off of them, they had dug in leaving temporary shapes on my skin. It was uncomfortable. It was as if no time had passed, like I had just collapsed for a second or so.

Still, I couldn't shake off that dream. Could it have a message somewhere in it? She was telling me to run. Run from what? I struggled to remember the nightmare, most of it was just a surreal blur now but it felt so strangely real at the time.

Suddenly, my mind snapped back to why I had come to Samuels Park in the first place. I had to find Helen. I scanned the park, in search of a friendly face or a familiar friend to talk to, or at least take my mind off of the episode I had just encountered.

My eyes were sore and glassy with tears, and I kept yawning although I wasn't at all tired. No one I recognised was in sight. Only a few lonely dog walkers or the odd elderly person, using their walking sticks the guide them everywhere.

I stood up, continuing to brush the sticks off of my clothes, they had stuck to the back of my skirt and it was now dirty with dust and mud. I started to walk but I felt slightly unbalanced, it was like I was learning to walk for the first time and walking without anything to hold on to, became more of a stumble or an occasional trip.

Once I had got the hang of it, I jogged through the park aiming for the end gate. Hoping I would go on through and see the children from the hospital or Helen. That's right, I would even be happy to see Helen at this point.

Despite my hopes, no one was there. The streets were empty to me, although there were strangers everywhere.

Not a familiar face in sight.

Everything was happening so quickly, what was going on today? I eventually realised that it would be best to just go home. This plan of mine was hopeless in this condition. Wait a second, condition. The voice! It mentioned something about my 'condition'. But what could that mean?

My thought remained, none the less, I needed to be back at the hospital before I could work all of this out.

I eventually got back home, after stumbling like a vodka addict the whole way. I was greeted by Denise who welcomed me with a fearful expression painted on her face, she tried her best to put her hands on my shoulders and steadily lead my inside, but she was like a china doll. She had a young face, despite her age, and she wasn't the tallest woman around. Although her rosy cheeks and jolly mood was always enough to brighten the atmosphere. But she's been different recently. She's not that little red glow in her cheeks, and her jolly mood had been replaced with a low toned voice which always sounded like she was upset or lonely.

She sat me down at the dinner table and told me how all the children were in bed and Helen had now gone back for her night shift at work. She felt my forehead a few times, I must of been cold because she heated up some chicken and herb soup for me, before feeding it to me from a tea spoon.

Once she had taken the empty bowl up to the dish washer, I examined myself in the tea spoon. I looked pale, almost ghostly. I dismissed it as just being tired but, deep down, I knew it was more than that.

"Denise, tell me something." I said bluntly. It wasn't much for her to answer, but she nodded hesitantly before I asked my question. "Is there something wrong with me? Like... Am I ill?" I didn't want to have to come out and say it like that, I wanted to be gentle with it and not too pushy, but all of that went out the window as soon as I realised how much I needed to know this.

She must have been pretty shocked. She dropped the china bowl on to the red time floor, it smashed in to what seemed like a million minuscule pieces. She looked at me sharply, her eyes glassy with tears she refused to cry. "No dear..." She cleared her throat quickly. "You're completely ordinary."

"I didn't ask if I was ordinary."

"Honey, please... Not now..."

"Denise, please. I, of all people, deserve to know. So I'll ask again. Am I ill, Denise? Is there something wrong with me?"

We stood there in silence for what seemed like years. She sighed a few times, breaking the awkwardness. "Yes." That was it. She said nothing more. After she had, she fled the room quickly, eager to leave, preventing any further questions.

I was concerned.

I needed to speak to Carlos but he would of come to see me of he was home, was he still out? Or was something wrong?