Surry Investigations

My client – the one I was supposed to be working for the day that I had my accident – called yesterday and is understandably upset at the case of mistaken identity. I sincerely apologize for botching the job. I should have been more prepared for the situation.

I discovered when I went to the pharmacy that my wallet is missing. Are you there, God? It’s me, Mikey. Cut it out. Please.

I had more nightmares last night. Two were so vivid that when I woke up, I couldn’t be sure I wasn’t still dreaming – or that the dream wasn’t the reality.

First nightmare: I’m in a forest – a gorgeous, lush forest. I hear music, so I walk toward it and find a campsite in a clearing, beside a road. There are several campfires, and around them are what I think were Vardo wagons – brightly painted in reds, blues, greens, yellows. I can hear laughter and music, but there’s no one there – just the fires with cooking pots over them, the wagons, the smell of food… No horses to pull the wagons.

You know how in dreams, you know when a nightmare is about to start? I got that chest-constricting, mind-numbing feeling, and I tried to run, but I was standing on a platform, tied to a post, and a girl in a black dress trimmed with white lace was standing below me.

She held a torch that smoked. Her hair was black and wild and ragged, but she had gloves that were pure white. She looked like a normal child, but she frightened me – beyond the fright you get when you’re standing on a pile of wood that someone’s about to light. She smiled, and her face blurred, and all I could see were teeth, sharp teeth. She tossed the torch into the woodpile, and there’s fire all around me, and I’m burning…

Second nightmare: I finally drifted off again towards morning. I swear, my skin felt singed, or sunburnt. In this next dream, I saw my son playing on the beach. It was near sunset, and the tide was coming in, and the wind felt cold and wet, like it was autumn. He looked so small at the edge of the water, but he’d built a sandcastle taller than himself. It was sculpted into these amazing towers, flying buttresses, everything. There were flags at the top of the castle, but one of them blew off in the wind.

I was going to go get it for him, but I saw a woman in a black dress bend down to pick it up. She walked toward my son. I started to run toward them, but they were so far away, so small, and my legs felt rubbery, and I couldn’t run very fast. I couldn’t speak above a whisper, couldn’t call to him. The tide was lapping at his heels now, washing some of the castle out from the bottom, and I was afraid it would fall on him.

The woman in black put the flag back on top of the castle. I heard my son say, “That’s not the right flag.” She picked him up, and they suddenly got smaller and smaller, until I could see that they were going into the sand castle. I heard sea birds calling overhead, and the sun went down, and the light was twilight. And I’m still running toward the castle when a huge wave comes up and crashes over the top of it and washes it away.

My ex-wife was less than thrilled that I called her so early in the morning, but I had to check, you know?

There were other nightmares, but I don’t remember those. My head still hurts.