Feeling Foreign : A Short Story

The air is murky. The streets are lined with lights that quiver. Strays are kept in shadows. The moon peeking behind a mass of stretched soot. Sounds echo up the streets as children play secretly inside their dwelling, a mother, aggravated by the dull town. With her husband out at war, Janet couldn't bear taking on the task of her two daughters alone.

Janet leans back against the wall, sliding down it, her hands carrying her heavy head. She lets out a cry. With the war going on, only time can tell when David will come home. She wishes she could wake up in the morning, David next to her, wishing to live as a normal family again, cleaning up breakfast as the kids follow their father out the door to head to school.

Brrrrrnng Brrrrrnng Brrrnnng. Janet looks up from her hands. Across the kitchen, a pale yellow phone rings. Brrrrrnng Brrrrrnng Brrrrrnng. The phone rings, ending abruptly. A croaking from the upstairs emerges. Janet briskly get up, clearing her watery eyes.

"Ma, me and Emi can't sleep. The phone keeps ringing but no ones on the other line." Janet's younger daughter, Anya, leans over the staircase in her elegant pearl nightgown. "And the noises outside are scaring us." Janet hurries to the staircase and hugs Anya. She takes in her scent.

"Darling, it's okay. Just think about the pumpkin patch we went to last summer. The warm breeze that nearly swept you off your feet." Anya hugs back tightly.

"Now let's go get back to bed, alright? It's already midnight." Janet gestures Anya forwards. "You girls have a big day ahead, heading back to boarding school where it's safe." Anya nods as both start up the stairs.

As Anya climbs back into bed Janet notices Emi already fast asleep. Janet walks to Emi, pulling the blanket over her body. In Emi's arms is a tattered doll. Janet softly raises Emi's arm and takes the doll into her hand. She rolls it over in perplexity. How could her doll have gotten so dirty? She loved this doll more than anything! Janet puts the doll on her daughters nightstand and heads to bed.

The next morning, after her two daughters are on their way to boarding school, Janet prepares tea for her mid-morning brunch with her neighbor, Kamlyn.

Kamlyn was Janet's only friend. She could be harsh at times, but only wanted what was right for Janet. When David left for the war, Kamlyn was by her side, helping with everything from taking the girls out to picking up some groceries for the house. Janet had very little to offer, but Kamlyn seeked nothing in return.

"I had another one of those dreams again." Janet utters. Kamlyn sighs.
"Janet, any more of those and the town will think you've gone mad! You need to find a way to overcome them." Kamlyn sets her tea cup down and stares at Janet.

"It just isn't that easy and you know it. I can't help when my mind wants me to know something." Janet explains as she looks out the window that's covered in dust.

"Can you at least tell me what happened? Was anything different from the rest? Anything that should, if it must, spark my interest?" Kamlyn asks. Janet looks down at her feet and slouches back in her chair. She blows a piece of hair out of her face as it falls gently back into place.
"I was back at home and somehow, my parents, they were with me. But they weren't fully there. You see, they were looking at me from a distance and I couldn't quite tell what they were trying to say to me. They were yelling, I know that." Janet hesitates. "It wasn't until halfway through the dream when I looked down at myself and saw that I was a girl again, no older than eight. When I looked back up, my parents were closer, much closer and surrounded by others. That's when I woke up. That's when I always wake up." Janet pinched her nose.
"And that is why the town thinks you're crazy. Why can't you just be normal and dream normal dreams?" Kamlyn insisted.