P - Paranormal - #AtoZChallenge

Crystal nervously got out of her boyfriend's car. She couldn't take her eyes off his house and the fear was growing as she pictured herself going inside.

"Hey, are you okay? What's wrong?" Brian asked.

It must have been showing how scared she was, but she also felt silly. She chose not to tell him what was going on inside her head. Plus, she knew this was an important night. She couldn't blow it because of her paranoia.

Brian slid his arm around her waist. "It's going to be okay. They'll love you. Especially Mom."

He bounced up the stairs and opened the door for her. He reached for Crystal's hand and gave her a warm smile. She felt a bit embarrassed and took his hand. He led her into the living room and she froze as soon as she stepped inside.

She was panicked as her eyes darted around the room. The brown-green shag carpet, the painting of the dead tree hanging on the wall, the old green recliner, the console TV, and the bookshelf filled with plants. It was all the same. This couldn't be happening.

Her eyes snapped to the other end of the living room as Brian's smiling mother appeared with her arms spread wide. "Oh, good. You're here. It is so nice to finally meet you." She came in close for a hug, but Crystal jumped back, her eyes wide with fear.

"No. No. No. No. This can't be happening. This can't be real," she said quietly as she dropped her head and closed her eyes tight. Brian and his mother looked from each other to Crystal and back again.

"What's wrong, dear?" asked his mother.

Crystal tried to stifle tears as she shook her head. "I'm sorry. I have to go." She turned and ran out of the house down the street.

Brian's mother looked at him and he shrugged his shoulders before he ran out after her. She had gotten a block away before he caught up to her.

When he caught her, she was trembling and pulled away every time he tried to touch her.

"Hey. Talk to me What is going on?"

Between sobs, she struggled to get out the words, "I want to go home."

Brian had never seen her like this, but didn't question it. "Okay. Let's go back to the car. I'll take you right now." He reached for her hand.

She screamed, "No! Go get the car and come get me."

"Okay. Okay. Stay right here. Don't move. You're scaring me." He ran back to the house and shouted an apology to his mother before hopping in the car to pick her up.

Crystal didn't speak all the way home. He got her to the door and had to defend himself to Crystal's father that he hadn't done anything to her and didn't know what was wrong. He drove home very confused. 

After trying to convince his parents that he hadn't been dating a crazy person, he called Crystal's house. Her mother answered and said she was fine, but he could not speak to her yet. The following Monday, Crystal was not at school. Brian continued to try to connect with her over the next few days, but he was always thwarted by her parents. She didn't come back to school all week.

On Friday night, Crystal's father came to Brian's house to explain to the family what had happened. He told them that Crystal had just been admitted to the hospital for a possible nervous breakdown. It had been caused by coming to their house. Her father explained that when Crystal was about 6 years old, she had started having night terrors. It involved terrible nightmares where horrendous things happened to her. Sometimes she was tortured, her family was murdered in front her, and often there were hideous monsters. She had these nightmares for over four years. They were so bad, she had to see a psychiatrist and be admitted for a period of time to get therapy. It had taken some time, but the nightmares came to an end.

It had now been over six years since the last time she had one of those dreams. They were just an unpleasant part of her past. She was fully recovered and seemed to not have any lingering psychological effects from it. 

"That doesn't explain what happened last week," said Brian.

Crystal's dad sighed. "I know this will sound strange, but it explains everything. While a variety of things happened to her in those dreams, they all happened in the same location. When you pulled in the driveway last week, one look at your house scared her because she thought it was the house from her dreams. She told me that she knew it couldn't be true, so she came in. And then seeing this room pushed her over the edge. The swears that this house is the setting for those nightmares."

Brian's mom spoke up, "Oh, the poor thing," and squeezed her husband's hand.

Brian asked, "When can I see her?"

Crystal's dad shook his head. "You're not going to. Sorry. She is having the nightmares again and they are worse than they ever were before. Even if we get them back under control, you are now a possible trigger to bring them back. Right now, even the mention of your name starts a cycle that ends in hysterics. My wife is accepting a job transfer and we are moving to get Crystal out of this town. We're sorry."

---

I don't know if this story is really Paranormal, but it was the story I had to write. While this story is fiction, it is based upon something that actually happened at our house. The girl who came to our house lasted lass than a minute before she was back outside trying to catch her breath. She told us her story about our house and demanded to leave immediately. She never came back.

 

 

All this month, I am participating in the A to Z Challenge. A new post will go up every day (except Sundays) using a letter of the alphabet as the starting off point. My theme for the month is literary genres. I am writing in a different genre of flash fiction each day. Today's letter is P for Paranormal.

What Do You Want From Your Life?

Two years ago many people thought my wife and I were crazy when we went to Turkey for our vacation despite the recent bombings in Ankara (the city we went to) and all along the Syrian border. We went anyway and had the best vacation I've ever been on.

Two months after returning from that trip, we sold all our stuff and moved to Beijing, China so I could teach English to primary school children and start using my degree in TESOL. Something I was having great difficulty doing while living in the States.

After 20 months in Beijing, we packed up again and now live in Danang, Vietnam. Despite living in Vietnam, I still work for the Chinese. In China.

The last couple of years have been a whirlwind of new adventures, crazy stories (I'm all about collecting new stories), challenging stereotypes, personal growth, and stretching our perception of people, culture and the world. It has been absolutely amazing. I can honestly say that I love my life. It still has difficultes, but that cannot be escaped anywhere.

At least once a week, I hear from someone saying something to the effect of "I am so jealous." OR "I wish I could travel all the time." And my response is always the same.

"Then do it."

This doesn't just pertain to travel. I heard the same when I went back to college after I had started my family. "I wish I could go back to school."

I would suggest they go back to school. I would then get a long list of reasons why they couldn't do what I did.

• My kids are still in school
• My job is pretty demanding
• I don't have the money
• I've been out of school too long
• I don't have the time 
• My dog's about to have puppies

I completely understand the fear that comes with every one of these excuses (except the puppy one) because I had the same issues in my life. I had kids and barely made enough money to meet my rent. I was working several jobs to get that money. I was pressed for time and hadn't been to a school in years. However, I made a simple choice and it was the same choice that every person makes every day.

What are my priorities?

We ALL have responsibilities that take up our time and our thoughts and our effort, but somehow we manage. Many of us have limited incomes, but we still have to decide where we spend that income. Any time we have that is not dictated to us by our jobs, sleep or responsibilities is decided by us on how we spent it.

If you choose to use your money to buy a $100/month cable package, that is your business. Good for you. However, if you have that cable package and then claim that you can't put back $100 a month to save for a trip or a college class or whatever, it's just not true. You did have the money, but you made a choice about what your priorities were and it was cable TV.

I know a guy who always complained about how broke he was and he didn't appreciate me pointing out that he didn't have to drive a brand-new $800/month car all the time. There are much cheaper cars out there. This same guy took his wife out for VERY VERY nice dinners every Friday night, but then had trouble paying his power bill.

Whether we are talking about money, time, effort, energy, or anything else, we all only have a finite amount and how we choose to spend it is up to us. If you really want to do something, do it. Make it happen. Make your choice.

So many of the people who tell me they would love to travel more use lack of money as their excuse for why they don't. However, I cannot seem to convince them that they often make much more money than I do. And it's true whether they choose to believe it or not.

The main difference is…travel is a priority to me. Because of this, my financial decisions are made with future travel plans in mind. I recently turned down a job offer because the schedule would be too restrictive to allow me to travel freely. Travel is a priority, so I design my life around it. I personally know a girl who prioritizes travel, makes only $1,200 a month and travels all over the world. In the last year, she's been to a dozen U.S. cities and seen China, Bali, Indonesia, Malaysia, Scotland, Germany, Spain, and others. Don't tell me you can't afford to travel.

Whether you realize it or not, you are already doing the same thing. The places you choose to put your money/time/effort/emotions are the priorities you have chosen. You might not have put that much thought into it, but you have done it. The thing you need to consider is: are you being intentional about your priorities or are you just floating along letting life take you where it wants to.

If you have something you really want to do, then make it happen. Believe it or not, you probably do have the means to do so. Sit down. Make a plan and figure out you how may need to restructure your life to acheive your goal. Whatever that goal may be, it is probably not just going to fall into your lap. Go get it.

 Whatever it is

Go back to school ✯ Take your dream vacation ✯ Build that house you always wanted ✯ Write your book ✯ Get in shape ✯ Learn woodworking ✯ Volunteer at that animal shelter ✯ Take that cooking class ✯ Move to the seaside ✯ Go live your life

You have more control than you have given yourself credit for.

If you have something you want to do and you choose not to, that is fine. It is your life and I believe you should be able to live it however you choose. However, don't complain to me about the reasons you can't because I will challenge you to change your thinking.

D is for Dreamer

As a participant in the A to Z Blogging Challenge, I will be making my way through the alphabet all month.

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I have this problem inside my head. I don't know if other people have the same issue because I've only ever been inside my own head, but I know it causes problems for me. My have great difficulty keeping my mind on task. It's not that I'm easily distracted. It's that my mind tends to wander. And it wanders far. Like "goes on epic quests" far. It's all over the place in my head.

I don't know how many times I will be telling my wife about how I plan to tackle a possible future scenario that will probably never happen. I know that I have something coming up in the future and have already considered all the possible outcomes and how I will approach them. I have also dreamed about all the reactions I may get from other people and how I will specifically address those concerns. She lets me talk for a long time without pointing out that I have stepped very far from reality.

It's like I checked out

Luckily, I have a job where my mind can go on autopilot. Soon after I start my task, my brain takes me for a ride. I remember old conversations and play them over and over in my head. I replay them with me responding in different ways to give it a better outcome. I think about movies I've seen and imagine how I would have responded if in that situation.

It just doesn't stop

When in school (elementary, high and college), something said by the instructor would send my mind on an adventure. I might be fighting pirates, killing zombies, delivering the perfect pick-up line to the cute girl in front of me, riding a polar bear or playing an awesome guitar solo in the gymnasium.

I also have a tendency to start to think about something in the future and my mind gets so far away from me that I start making plans as though this has actually happened. For example, winning the lottery, book getting published, my car being vandalized, etc. I have to snap back to reality and remember that I just took a trip for a few minutes. Stop and look around at what's real.

Lately, since I am working on a book, my mind tends to drift straight to it as soon as it has a chance. When I'm at work, I come up with scores of possible scenarios and have the time to figure out how to work them into my story and how to solve the problems of my protagonist. I'm starting to think having this wild imagination may finally be starting to work in my favor. I just have to keep it focused.

Sandman, Bring Me a Dream

Yesterday was St. Patrick's Day, but that day doesn't mean much to me. I stayed home and watched a DVD with my daughter. (The Rum Diary, if you want to know. It sucked.) I really don't frequent bars or go to wild parties. I did those things years ago and like to say I outgrew them, but sometimes I wonder.

My life changed. I had children. I have other lives that I am responsible for. I had to make some changes and some of them involved staying home and taking care of my family.

You know how some kids go off to college and then go nuts because they are no longer under the roof of their parents. I wonder if that will be me in a couple of years when my daughter leaves for college. It will just be me with no responsibilities other than myself. That kind of freedom can be dangerous in the hands of a man that hasn't seen it for eighteen years.

My leash is a little longer.

I am not suggesting that I feel that I am shackled down. I love being a dad and wouldn't trade it for anything. I also understand that the parenting doesn't just stop when they move out. However, to have the daily responsibility suddenly lifted when the last child moves out is a little scary and yet I look forward to it as well. What will happen when I don't have to get home because I have a daughter there? Will I actually do anything different? I have no idea. We will find out in a couple of years. My daughter will be leaving for college in the fall of 2014.

Until then, I am happy to be at home. I get into my share of trouble every now and then, but it stays fairly tame. Half the time, I have her right beside me for any trouble I encounter, but last night we played it safe and stayed home.

After a night of emails, TV and checking Facebook I headed to bed. That is when the adventure started.

Like most people I dream in my sleep. Sometimes I remember my dreams and sometimes I don't. On the occasions that I do, it is usually little snippets here and there. However, last night, I pursued the same adventure all night.

I will tell this dream as best as I can remember how it happened. The dream will be in blue. I will add my commentary and possible reasons for these images in regular text.

As soon as I fell asleep, I started dreaming that my daughter and I were sharing a meal at home and talking. She was telling me about her date the night before with her boyfriend. At some point in her story, she gave me the impression that her boyfriend was doing drugs on their date. He does not do drugs, but in the dream, I was aware of the fact that he did. It was not a problem as long as he did not do them in her presence, but he did that night.

I was upset with him for doing this and upset with her for allowing it to happen by not calling me. I was also upset that she acted like nothing had been done wrong. Despite her protests, I had to report this to the police. While she was getting ready, I stepped outside. In the dream we lived in an apartment in a large city. 

There were hundreds of people going from our apartment into a building across the street. I walked across to see what was going on over there, but was stopped by a policeman and asked to show my wristband. Apparently, to prove that I had paid for the event. I explained that I was not going in, but was just curious to see what was going on. He would not answer any of my questions, but I got him to believe that I was not going in.

When my daughter finally came out, we began walking to our car. Due to the shooting that had happened a few blocks away, (I did not see this, but was aware that it had happened) the parking garage was full of panicked people trying to get away. There were also many forklifts carrying some large blue crates. The drivers could not see in front of them, so we had to dodge them to get to our car. We barely made it.

We couldn't find the police station, so we drove to a woman's house to visit with her. This woman had hundreds of cats dressed in varying outfits. However, the cats were the size of large mice. They were on the back of the couch, on shelves and running everywhere on the floor.  My father was sitting in an easy chair trying to dress one of the cats in a fire fighter outfit. 

After marveling at several of the costumed kitties, I eventually became bored and began to photograph the children that were running around the house. I don't know where they came from, but it seemed normal in the dream. Every time I would get ready to take a picture they would make a terrified face, wait for the shot and then run off laughing.

Eventually, my youngest brother Trevor came out of a back room with one of the children and said it was time to leave. I climbed into the back of a police car (driven by John Kiselewski, a deputy I worked with at the Sheriff's Department) and we sped away.

Actual photo of strip mall in Harrisburg, IL
40 miles from my home. (3-1-2012)

After several minutes, I noticed we approached a town that had been destroyed. Trees were knocked down and houses were decimated. The devastating Midwest storms from a couple of weeks ago happened 40 miles from my home. It was raining furiously. I asked where we were and he told me, "This is Yellow Ash." I have never heard of Yellow Ash in real life. There is a White Ash 30 miles south of here. In the dream, I was familiar with it and it was way off course from where I wanted to go.

When we stopped, I was asked to wait inside a high school. My daughter and I stood in the kitchen discussing where her boyfriend's drug use took place. Finally, we got back to the purpose for this adventure. Once she told me where it had happened, I realized that I had been trying to get to the wrong police station. I had been trying to get to the county police department, when the offense had happened within the city limits. This meant we should have been headed to the city police department.

As I was trying to explain my mistake to my daughter, a Secret Service agent walks in to the kitchen and asks us to stand back. As I step to the side, people begin filing into the kitchen. One of them was Rick Santorum. Santorum had just been in our town that day delivering a speech at the airport. This was a current presidential candidate, so I wanted to shake his hand, but he had a coat covering it. I reached out and pulled the coat away as he passed. Despite the dirty looks from the Secret Service agents, he knew what I wanted, shook my hand and walked out the back door.

At this point, I woke up.

---

Now, I am left with the dilemma of trying to figure this out. Was this dream trying to tell me that I need to find out more about my daughter's boyfriend? Why was the type of drugs never mentioned?

Why was the shooting only a side note in the dream?

Was it telling me who to vote for...or not vote for?

Is it guilt for not volunteering to help with the relief efforts in Harrisburg?

Since Red is dreaming about me, why did she not make an appearance in my dream?

Of all the cops I have worked with, why was Kiselewski the one driving the car?

Why did the cat woman's house suddenly fill with children? Why did we go there to begin with?

Why did the children make the horrified face before every picture?

What was the significance of the coat over Rick Santorum's hand? Does it matter?

Someone help me out here.