Mar
15
TAP! Tap,tap tap!
Toby half woke up, listened, decided to ignore the sound, and pulled his pillow over his head. Go away! he thought, drifting back to sleep. He wanted to get back to his dream.
The same one had come to him several times, each seeming more real than the last.
They began after Nan died, when her old dog, Jasper, curled up in his basket the next day and never woke up. That was last Easter.
They had walked through the woods together since he was old enough to manage the narrow pathways. Now every time the dream came, he was following Nan, only she was just around the bend where he couldn’t see her. Occasionally, he caught a glimpse of Jasper’s spaniel tail wagging wildly, but it disappeared as he broke into a run, even though he knew they were both still ahead of him. Please wait! he called silently, hearing his Nan’s chuckle and Jasper’s excited bark as he found a rabbit hole. Wait for me! he called in each dream, but Nan never did.
This dream was different. The woods were dark and shivery, and he tripped several times over long brambles and tree roots snaking across the paths. Heaps of dead leaves smelt of wood mould, and the stream flowed silently without any tree reflections on its black surface. Toby knew Nan was up ahead somewhere, and he started to hurry. Then, for the first time in his dreams, he heard her voice: “Go back, Toby! Go back!” and suddenly, there was a great tree in his path with outspread branches that seemed to prevent him from following her. Reluctantly, he turned away, and gazed, startled, at a strange figure just disappearing around a bend in the path leading back to the house. Whoever’s that? he thought, catching sight of a long billowing robe, but as he hurried after the tall figure, it vanished from sight.
TAP! TAP! This time, Toby was fully awake, and pounding the pillow in exasperation. He desperately wanted to talk to Nan, and to see Jasper. He missed them a lot, and it was amazing to be able to dream about them so clearly. Now someone was interrupting - it was maddening!
“Go away!” he groaned out loud, rolling over to see what the noise was all about.
Open mouthed, he gazed at the figure standing in front of him.
Very tall and straight, with long silvery grey hair and a beard flowing down to his knees. A thin stern face, with strange brilliant eyes, like the smokey quartz in Mum’s ring. A pale lavender robe the colour of wood smoke in Autumn swirling gently around his feet, and in his hand, a long carved stick of black wood tapping impatiently on the floor. This was encrusted with pale gleaming stones glinting in the half light of the moon. On the hand holding the stick, Toby could see a ring with a huge oval stone upon it that seemed to change colour from sparkling emerald and turquoise to a flashing red and orange. Toby dragged his eyes away from it as the figure spoke to him.
“Sit up straight,” he said. “I want to talk to you.”
Toby lay on the pillow with his mouth open. He desperately wanted a drink of water, but neither his arms or legs would move. He gave a small croak.
“Speak up.” The voice sounded encouraging.
“Who - um?” managed Toby.