dreams... {1}

This was not based on a true story

Dedicated to my friend Kristina, and her new baby Brennon Alexander (2/11/09)

Chapter 1- The dream…and the beginning

There I was, running for my life, frantically looking back to see if it was following me. Well it was, it was  right behind me, gnarling at me, snapping at me, then it stopped, and so did I. "Why am I stopping" I thought "Why am I not running from it.

Suddenly it jumped at me, and almost instinctively I put my hand up, and it stopped in midair, then the whole picture spun around, and I was looking all around it, at all angles. It was now that I realized, that I had paused time.

 I jerked awake, covered with sweat, “it was only a dream” I    said sort of relieved. “John, breakfast is ready” I heard Susan call.

“Okay, be right up” I said enthusiastically.

“It’s on the table” she said.

“Thanks” I said.

I started to get dressed.This isn’t the first time I’ve had that dream,it’s pretty much normal for me now, I only wish it were true, sort of.I wouldn’t want to be being chased by anything with giant teeth that’s gnarling at me in real life, but pausing time would be fun. I raced downstairs, and stared around, breakfast was on the table, but susan wasn’t there.

“Sue, Susan! Where are you!” I yelled.

“She went to work today, duh…”  I scolded myself.

I get off on Saturday ,but sue doesn’t, she gets Monday, and Sunday, off. See susan worked at the hospital, she was a surgeon. It kind of got in the way of our relationship, like last year on our anniversery,she got called in. At the worst possible time to, we were on a ferris wheel, we had to stop the whole ride, just so she could get off, then we had to hail a taxi, because someone stole our car, ironically the police found and returned our car that afternoon, aparently the theives just left the car in the parking lot nextdoor. Anyway it made having a realtionship difficult. We grew up together, and went to the same schools, even the same college together. You could say it had been a thrilling life so far , sort of. Today I felt like going swimming.

 “I know I’ll go swimming” I thought to myself.

 I finished breakfast, grabbed my clothes, my wallet, and my cellphone, and drove to the pool. I showed my pass to the lady at the desk, and went in, the pool was nearly deserted, and one of the diving boards was broken as it had been for sometime now, in fact I know the kid who broke it. It didn’t matter, I liked the other one better, it was bouncier. I was a great diver, and always made great air. I also loved  to challenge myself with new and exiting dive,today I was going to try a backflip. There was some liitle two year old on the board right now, which was fine I waited patiently. He’s done ‘my turn now, I climbed the ladder, positioned myself backwards on my toes, and jumped. It felt awesome till about mid jump I was upsidedown almost to the water when I heard my cellphone ring.

 “That must be susan” I thought to myself.

And just as I was wishing I could pause the jump, and get my phone, I threw my hand up, and everything stopped.

“Woah” I stuttered

I finished the flip, climbed out, and grabbed the phone.

“Hello” I answered so quickly that I choked on it.

“John, I need you to come to the hospital quikly” said an unfamiliar voice “something’s happened with susan”

“I’ll be right there” I said as I hung up.

And I was just about to storm away to the hospital, when I remembered everyone was still paused. I took a breif second to think up a plan the tested it. I got onto the diving board, posed, and flipped off backwards again, and all I thought about while I dove was time “turning back on” my hand went up and the sound flooded in like a hurricane. I felt my self bounce back into reality, as I plunged into the water. When I came up I was back in moving time.

I chuckled to myself, I’d already made two dives, you could say I did them at the same time. I quickly rushed away to my car. I soon got to the hospital, but they made me wait. They told me her condition was unstable.

“I should be able to see my own wife” I protested

“You can” the nurse replied “after her condition stabilizes”

“Can you at least tell me what’s going on with her” I pleaded

The nurse nodded and said “I’ll try” then dissapeared into a door, down the hall.She returned a moment later and told me that what susan had was tietze’s syndrome.

“Well whats that mean to me I have no idea what that is” I asked dumbstruck.

“It means your wife is in trouble” she said apathetically

“I know that, just tell me what to do to stop it” I replied

“You can leave her with us that’s the best help you can be” she said annoyed and stormed out.

The next morning I woke to the eirie silence of a susan-free house. “This sucks” I said to myself.

The phone rang in the middle of breakfast.

“Good moning, how may I help you” I answered.

“Yes Mister Dow, I’m doctor Micheal yosse, im calling with bad news about susan, and you are not going to be happy.”

“Oh no” I swallowed hard.

“She’s died of a massive heart attack” the doctor explained.

Tears welled up in my eyes, suddenly my stomach felt and chest felt tight, my whole body tensed up and I collapsed to the ground.

“Sir” I faintly heard the doctor say.

Everything faded out.

“Sir are you okayyyyyyyyy” I heard in the distance.

The word “okay” seemed to drag out forever.

I woke up in a hospital, I was in cold sweat, the was people nurses and doctors rushing around everywhere I looked. I sat up ,slowly and painfully. My chest was still tense like it was locked up or something. A nurse rushed as soon as she saw I was awake. She started unwraping something, a shot maybe. “Susan” I remembered.

The nurse tried to comfort me but all I could think about was that susan was dead and the last thing I said to her was that I’d be right down. The nurse explained to me that I blacked out because everything flooded in just to fast for my brain and it sort of overloaded, with fear, stress, anger, and aggression. She gave an innflamatory shot for my broken wrist, I broke it when I fell, she put a splint on it and sent me home. I sat at my kitchen table for two maybe three hours it felt like forever though without susan my life was ruined.

With all these thoughts of what would I do without her, will I go, will I stay, every decision just seemed so hard to make without her. I figured id take a walk to clear my head, so I walked up to the park and sat on the bench and watched all the happy people pass me. This just made me feel mad and depressed I decided to go home, but soon after leaving I fell to the ground and began to cry. I didn’t know what to do, or where to go, I didn’t want to go to the park or go home. Nothing seemed right to me, everything was just turned horrible in the blink of an eye. My wrist began to ache, i remembered that I broke it when I fell. I just sat there on the side of the road, knees tucked in head down. Suddenly cold overflowed my body. Somebody driving past poured a bucket of water on my head. They were hollering and laughing, they were drunk off there feet, you could just tell. I wished I could stop them and give them a piece of my mind, then I remembered the pool, time, I could pause it. I threw my hand up they stopped, I ran in front of the car, unpaused time for a breif second then repaused it. So they only saw a glimpse of me.

“Hey man what was that” one of them said retartedly.

I paused them again and climed into the back seat of there truck, unpaused time and tapped on the drivers shoulder, he looked back with wide eyes.

“Hey buddy wat you up to” I asked smoothly.

He about choked on his own breath. I looked just in time to see a tree right in front of the car. I paused time again climbed out of the car,pulled the two guys out, and climbed into the driver seat. The car was paused in mid-skid, it looked really awesome and deadly all at the same time, if I had unpaused it, it would have crashed into the tree, but I had a better idea. I shut the ignition off, then turned it back on, shifted to reverse, and backed up till I was straight again. Luckily the car was only going about ten mph. I unpaused time and the car zoomed forward, I stopped the car, then paused it again. Next I put the people back in it then hid behind the very tree they almost crashed into, and unpaused time. From the truck he heard the one guy say “Whoa, I am never drinking again”.

They probabely thought they’d gone mad, I figured, thinking about it I realized this is what they saw. A person they just poured water on randomly appeared then dissapeared from in front of your truck, then he was instantly in the back seat asking you how it was going, then your on the road and see him driving your car, then your back in the car and its stopped, and he’s knowhere in sight, and this all happened in about ten seconds. I’d think I was insane too.

After putting a lot of thought into it I realized that I can save peoples lives, I could be like a superhero without a mask. And nobody would ever know, because no matter how long it took, It would only ever actually be a matter of a second or two. It would be great, but who am I kidding I can’t be a superhero.