Bad Dream

Bad Dream

Incessant ringing, it woke me up. I’d been dreaming of a doll running about. This doll couldn’t find the phone. The doll looked everywhere, turned over every stone, every stick, even every brick from a nearby unfinished house.

Then suddenly the doll stopped. It looked directly at me. Its huge black eyes bore into my soul. I could read its mind. It told me to wake up. I thought about this in my dream.

An idea that dolls could have a mind, the thought that a doll could run around looking for a phone.

But the doll was insistent. ‘Wake up!’ was its message. So I woke.

“Hello?”

“Is this Mary?”

I didn’t recognize the voice. “Yes?” I was a bit hesitant.

“Congratulations! You’ve just won a free trip to Hawaii!”

I hung up. Crank call. Then another ring.

“Hello?”

“Are you quite contrary?”

“What?”

“You know, like the rhyme. You have a free trip. This one is to Fiji.”

I hung up.

The doorbell rang.

The mailman handed me a package. When I opened it, the doll inside had a note attached to its hand.

‘Congratulations! This ticket is for a one-way trip to Tahiti.’

I threw the doll with the ticket in the trash. Who was playing a bad trick on me? Had someone found a voodoo doll?

I crawled back into bed. Maybe I was still in a dream. And just like that, I woke up on an island. Sandy beach, palm trees, ocean waves, and a gentle breeze. A man leaned over and asked me,

“Mary, do you know what happened to all the bagels? I’m late for work.”

W/C 277