THE DREAM AND THE DREAMER

When we sleep, we are not only the dreamer, but we can also be the dream. Sometimes we don't always know the difference between a dream and reality or tell that we are in a dream moment or a moment of reality. Have you ever woken from a dream where something bad happened and immediately think, thank God, it was only a dream?

I was so tired going to bed one night that when I fell asleep, I began to dream that I was tired and with this in my dream, I once more made my way to bed and within this dream, I fell asleep again. I usually keep my mobile phone under my pillow to my right side when I rest, so if I get a call I can answer relatively swiftly. Sure enough, being with the fact that I was so very tired and that I could really do with some sleep, my phone would ring and of course I awoke and answered. A very familiar voice but one I could not place said to me 'you have to go'.

'What?' I asked not at all being happy about having been disturbed from my sleep.

'You know you have to go' spoke the voice once more.

The call ended. For some strange reason, I got up, got myself ready and off I went.

I went over to the local shopping center, hopped onto a tram, went into the city center, got off at Abbey street, walked up O'Connell street and took a 16A bus all the way to the airport, got myself a ticket and boarded a plane which very soon after took off. I have no idea where the plane was going, or where I was going. It felt as I was living in a moment where absolutely nothing mattered and as well as that, I had nothing with me but myself. Once again, I would hear this familiar voice say 'you have to go .... you know you have to go'.

I didn't know where the voice was coming from, and I seemed to be the only one on the plane who could hear this voice. However, I did need to go to the toilet, so I got out of my seat and made my way to the toilet, but the room I entered was not the toilet, I had walked from the plane straight into my own bedroom only to see myself sleeping in my own bed and saying in my sleep 'you have to go, you know you have to go'.

In a waking moment, I simultaneously was standing looking at myself in bed and I was in bed watching my standing self. I rubbed my eyes and now from the position of laying in my bed, being dazed and confused, I could see that there is only one of me in the room. There is no standing version of myself in the room. However, I still did have a need for the loo.

Having been so tired, I had gone to sleep to have a dream of going to sleep so therefore the phone call, if there had been one, woke me from a dream within a dream and the familiar voice I heard was that of my own talking in my sleep from falling asleep in the first place. I have no explanation for simultaneously seeing myself, a dream and reality clashing for a brief moment in time.

At this very moment my phone once again began to ring. There could be no way I am actually calling myself, can there?

A VISIT

Edward awoke and checked his watch, ten thirty on a Monday morning and how good it felt to him knowing that he did not have to get up. On any other weekday morning, he would be already seriously late for work, though on this particular morning he was well covered. So, turning over was nice knowing that he could stay right where he was for as long more as he wanted though as he closed his eyes, something caught his attention. Ed was not alone. There was a young girl in his room.

Propping himself up slightly Edward looked over towards this girl who stood near to the bedroom door which at this particular moment was closed. Without a word being spoken Edward somehow knew things about this girl with whom he had never seen before. He knew that her name was Mary-Lou Kelly and the word 'was' also seemed appropriate. Edward also knew that this girl had also been known as Betty and that she was twelve years old but the most disturbing thing of all was that he somehow knew was that this girl had died sometime in the mid to late seventies.

This may be a strange moment to say the least, though at the same time it felt perfectly normal.

'Hello' spoke the girl.

'Hi' responded Edward not knowing how else to act.

'My head hurts.'

'Oh.'

'I like your long hair.'

'Thank you.'

Edward sat back against the headboard of his bed; Mary-Lou took a comb off of the dresser next to her and moved over to begin combing Edward's hair.

'My head hurts' spoke Mary-Lou for a second time.

'I wish I was able to help you with that.'

Just as Edward somehow knew the things he knew about the girl in his room, he knew that there was a large man out in the hallway. Ed could feel the presence of this man though he could not see him. Mary-Lou put the comb down on the bedside locker.

'My father is here; I have to go.'

'OK.'

Mary-Lou made her way over to the bedroom door, she stopped and turned.

'Bye.'

'Bye.'

Edward watched as the girl walked right through the door. He closed his eyes for just a moment then opened them sitting up quickly thinking 'what the hell just happened?'

Was what just happened a real moment or just a very vivid dream? It had felt real. The comb going through his hair had felt real too. When he looked, Ed noticed that the comb was not on the dresser where he had left it; it lay on the bed side locker just right where Mary-Lou had put it down.

So, if the moment was real, was Mary-Lou a ghost? Did she really die sometime in the mid to late seventies? If she had, could a head injury have been the cause of her death? As this visit was occurring, it felt in no way out of the ordinary, the strangeness of how it should have seemed only came more as an after effect.

Edward got up out of bed and quickly made his way through his apartment, just to give it a quick once over. He was alone. If he had indeed been visited by a spirit, he would be unaware of any previous or subsequent visits, if there ever had been others at all. How very odd.