Nightmare

Shelley ran along the river excited.  I loved watching her play, curious about everything around her. 

Droplets of rain started falling and I glanced at the unusually low dark clouds.  We needed to head home.  “Shelley, it’s time to go home!” I called to her.

As any typical six year-old, Shelley glanced at me and kept running like she didn’t hear me.

A low rumbling filled the sky, but it wasn't thunder.  I followed the sound, looking up river and saw a huge wall of brown water swallowing up the embankment as it raged toward us.  Flash flood!

“Shelley!”  I screamed.  The embankment suddenly disappeared beneath my feet, throwing me into the mud-mixed blender.  I looked in Shelley’s direction just in time to see her little blonde head disappear beneath the surface.

“Shelley!  Shelley!”  I screamed, looking for any glimpse of my baby.  The water violently pushed me along as I desperately shoved away debris trying to suck me under.  Panic filled me.  Find Shelley, find Shelley, I have to find Shelley, my mind screamed over and over.

“SHELLEY!  SHELLEY!  SHELLEY!”  The sound of her name filled with the fear exploding in my chest.  I was sucked into the darkness.

Popping to the surface again, I screamed.  A deep, agonizing, guttural sound escaping my lips.  I jolted straight up.  I looked around in the quiet, darkness of my bedroom.  A dream, a bad one.  I covered my face with my hands and sobbed uncontrollably.