Castle Dreams

Twenty-four Seaside

Dreams.

She’d had a doozy last night. Crazy stuff.

Linda poured another cup of coffee, added a dab of milk. No sugar, and she hated the substitute. She drank and looked out her kitchen window with its view of palm trees, Santa Monica beach, and the wide Pacific. The moon was still up, setting in the west.

Crazy dream about a castle.

The phone rang and she reached for it.

“Hello?”

“Hi! Up early, are you?”

“Hello, John, dearest. I had a nutty dream about you last night.”

“Oh? Sexy, I hope.”

“Well, sort of. You were a king in a magic castle.”

“Great. What were you?”

“A witch, I think. I could do magic. So could you. And then … it got scary.”

“What, the dream?”

“Yeah. I don’t want to talk about it. Something happened to you, and I woke up in a sweat.”

“You okay?”

“Sure. It was just a dream. Listen, do you want to do lunch today?”

“Why not? And dinner. And more.”

She smiled. “I like the “more’ part. I love you.”

“I love you, Linda.”

“Are we still on for the trip up to Tahoe?”

“You bet. We leave Friday night.”

“It’ll be nice. I’m glad I met you, John.”

“Been nice so far, hasn’t it? Me, a king? You know, that doesn’t sound so bad.”

“It was strange — the dream, I mean. It was so involved. Did you ever have a dream that seemed so real and so detailed that you think, Where am I getting this stuff?”

“All the time. I dream all the time, Linda. In fact, last night I dreamed that I died.”

“Oh, how awful. Are you okay?”

“Sure. But how can we tell when we’re dreaming, Linda? Maybe this is a dream.”

“I’m getting such a weird feeling hearing you say that.”

She looked out the window. Palm trees, bright sun, the bright blue Pacific. Didn’t she belong here? What could be wrong? What could possibly be …?

“John? Hello?”

The phone had gone dead.

And now night was falling. The sun sank into the darkening ocean. The moon fell out of the sky and the stars threw down their spears.…

“No!”

She dropped the phone and screamed.

She awoke screaming.

The room came into focus. Her room, her suite in the Guest Residence, at Castle Perilous.

Arms wrapped about herself, legs crossed, she sat on the bed and trembled for several minutes. Then she got up and went to the bathroom.

When she came out she poured herself a drink of water from the pitcher on the night table. She gulped it down.

She collapsed back onto the bed and pulled the covers up snugly around her.

And fell back into dream.