Once upon a Nursery Rhyme

Little Boy Blue

                                                                Little Boy Blue
                                                          Come blow your horn
                                                    The sheep's in the meadow
                                                        The cows in the corn
                                     Where is the boy who looks after the sheep?
                                           He is under the haystack fast asleep
                                                Will you wake him? No not I
                                                  For if I do, he is sure to cry

Connie was pleased to see me when I came downstairs the following morning, I say morning but in fact it was after twelve, I felt fully refreshed.

''Blue'' she stated ''blue, blue'' puzzled I looked at Henry,

'' I taught her a new rhyme - Little Boy Blue,  do you know it?''

I repeated the rhyme and Connie clapped along, Henry was full of praise

''You make it come alive, my Clara was the same, I can imagine myself there the way you say it'' Henry was lost in thought for a few moments then shaking himself,

''Right, best be off, don't forget I will be late tonight, Cheerio '' he kissed Connie on the top of her head, then eager to get to work, grabbed his coat and rushed from the room, closing the door behind him,

And with that Henry was gone, leaving Connie and I alone.

''Look at the time, you are late for your nap, my fault for being late down I suppose''

Connie was asleep almost instantly,  her eyes fluttered briefly and she murmured 'blue'', then it happened again.

I started tingling all over ...........

"What is happening?"

This time when I came to I was in a meadow, the sun was shining it felt warm on my face, I felt quite happy lying there enjoying the sunshine.

Then something  huffed on my face. I opened my eyes and sat up quickly, the sheep around me panicked, including the one that had huffed, I'm not sure who was more frightened, me or them, as soon as my heart stopped pounding, I stood up and looked around me.

In the distance I could see a church spire, I wondered if it was the village we had visited last time. On one side was a corn field and on the other a wood, Connie was nearby, relieved, I thought 'at least I don't have to look for her'

Once she realised I was standing up she toddled towards me,

" baa baa" she declared pointing at the sheep, she grabbed my hand

"Blue" she announced.

She pulled at my hand, "blue" she insisted and led me toward the cornfield,

"blue" she said again as she pulled me into the field. The corn was quite high, I couldn't see over the tops of corn,,

'Mooooooooo ' it sounded very close, a bit too close for comfort, I jumped back and Connie laughed delightedly, "Moo moo'' she said gleefully and pointed to a cow, who was stood chewing the cud and watching us placidly but with interest.

I had been brought up in the town so had no idea whether this was a cow or a bull, it had horns, if that helps. I checked that neither Connie or I were wearing red, we weren't.

"Time to go" I told Connie pulling her away ' better safe than sorry ', as we left the cornfield a blaze of blue caught my eye, curious we went to investigate.

A boy of about ten was curled up asleep near a haystack, he was snoring gently, I stepped closer,

"Hello?" I said cautiously, the boy did not move. I took a step closer, Connie obviously thought I was being too cautious

"Blue" she shouted, slipped her hand out of mine and flung herself at the boy.

That certainly woke him up and with a howl,  and without checking to see what had happened he started yelling,

"Help, help, murder, help, I'm under attack "

I tried unsuccessfully to calm him down, I mean, really, do we look like murderers. I can understand it must have been a shock to have been woken up like that but what a racket he was making.

With all the noise he was making i could hardly hear myself think but slowly  I became aware of another noise, gradually it rose in volume becoming  a hubbub of noise, a noise that was heading towards us, I peered over the hedge, looking in the direction of the noise.

I saw a large group of men, women, children and dogs were heading towards us, they were all armed with whatever was at hand, muskets,  pitchforks, brooms and saucepans. They were all shouting angrily.

"Help help" bellowed the boy encouragingly

"Will you please Shut up" I told the annoying boy, and turned my attention back to the crowd, I noticed the group had picked up the pace.

"Help help, we are under attack" shouted the boy warming to his theme.

As calmly as I could considering I was starting to get annoyed with the boy,  I called to Connie,

" Connie it's time to leave,"

" it would be good if we can leave now" I told whatever force had brought us here.

Nothing happened,

I picked her up and started to run, I  retraced our steps, maybe it would get us back if we were in the meadow again, we went back through the cornfield,  avoiding the cows ' do you know, I never knew they were that big, they look alot smaller on television ' nothing happened once we got to the meadow so we carried on running through the meadow heading for the woods, scattering the sheep and all the while the band of villagers were getting closer.

The delightful boy had pointed out which way we had gone and this had spurred on the villagers thinking they had routed the enemy,  I picked up the pace.

" Oh, Connie, what are we going to do? How do we get home? Can we make it before these angry villagers catch us?"

My fear communicated itself to Connie, she started to whimper.

"Shhhhhhhh, it's okay,  we'll soon be home, safe and sound," " hopefully " I added softly.

We had just entered the woodland when I heard a shout behind us, foolishly I turned to  see how close they were and caught my foot on a tree root, the weight of Connie in my arms pulled me forward, as I was about to hit the ground the tingling started, "thank goodness " I cried as I braced for impact.

I came to with a jolt next to Connie's bed.

Connie was still asleep, tears running down her cheeks

"It's okay sweetheart, its just a nightmare  that's all, nothing to worry about, you are safe now"

I stroked her tearstained cheek and felt her relax, ' what was happening? ' I wondered, I looked down at Connie, 

Whatever it was, we were both involved somehow, but what triggers the dream? Why do we go, where we go? Is it a dream or is it real ?, it feels very real and I shivered.