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Dream

Original - March 31, 2010

Time had been needed for me to adjust to my new bed and the height that I would reach once arriving at the top. Afraid of heights, I would clung unto the mattresses upon each trip up and down the bed. High upon a stack of different sizes and lengths of mattresses, I laid. Such an idea for a mattress seemed to be inspired or taken from the story of the Princess and the Pea; the design had seemed familiar under my first look.

With tired eyes, mind, and soul, I fell into a deep peaceful-like sleep.

I awoke in the middle of the night, roughly three in the morning. The carpet below glowed - a reflection that came from the liquor store's lights from across the street of my bedroom window. It was unknown to me of why I awoke from my sleep, yet it was not long until I realized that sleep would not be coming back to me anytime soon. The events of my wakings in the night had occurred over the recent weeks, and each time more challenging and difficult to fall back asleep - it was always roughly around three in the morning at each occurrence.

Lying quietly, eyes shut, and unmoving with a blank mind did not allow me to fall back asleep. Nor did sipping some warm milk help in any way. I tossed and turned slowly on the mattresses, fearing I would fall if I tossed or turned to quickly. A table beside my bed caught my eye. I did not recognize it, nor had I seen it in the other nights that I awoke in. The table was located on the right side of the bed, enveloped about the shadow that had be cast by my high bed. A small lamp and some papers were on table in a beige color. I reached for them.

As I brought the papers close to my face, I discovered that the papers were laminated and looked a little worn out. I grabbed the lamp, hoping that it had enough electricity in the batteries, and turned the switched. It lit up. The words "ENDANGERED AND EXTINCT BIRDS" bold and in caps, appeared on the laminated paper. I stared quizzingly at the papers before me. With a publisher's name and author's name at the bottom of the sheet, the title and the design of a dove taking flight out of an image of Earth, it seemed to me that the stack of paper I was holding was some kind of book that came unbound, but laminated.

The second page was a table of contents. The next few pages after the table of contents were what looked like reports on birds with illustrations in photographs along with descriptions of the bird, the current number of population, its characteristics, its food, the lifestyle and where such birds would be located. Some of the descriptions were interesting, such as the Eurasian Tree Sparrow and Black-Chinned Hummingbird. After perhaps ten minutes of reading the first couple sheets, I began skimming the names of the species of birds and looking at the illustrations.

On the tenth page or so, an illustration caught my eye. The artwork had a beautiful background, unlike the previous drawings, and was colorful and detailed. The drawing was of a single bird in flight over high towering trees with a setting sun on a red, pink and orange sky beyond the horizon. It was a beautiful drawing, and as I stared at the magnificent drawing, the setting of my room seemed to begin to change. Strangely, I felt a slight breeze brush by me and looked up from the research papers and found myself overlooking the same high towering trees as was seen in the picture.

I gasped. Looking at the illustration and holding it up to compare, they were exactly the same. Somehow I had imagined the illustration in my mind and my room had altered itself to the image in my head. It was astonishing and frightening at the same time - I was beginning to get chills running up and down my spine as I shook with excitement.

Looking back at the research papers, the bird in the illustration was called a Restless Flycatcher.

"The Restless Flycatcher is most known for its graceful flights and landings and its calling (or calling signals) for other birds of its kind. Restless Flycatchers were located in Australia and were on the endangered species list for nearly half a century before the species went down to only one surviving Restless Flycatcher in 1992. What lead the species to extinction was habitat loss and predication. The last surviving Restless Flycatcher was named Andre."

I looked at the forest before me. I noticed that more than half of the trees and forest was gone in space between the setting sun's horizon and where I was. Practically out of no where, but somewhere close to my head, something flew by. It flow down to the trees and can back up. I was suspicious that the bird was Andre, the last Restless Flycatcher that was mentioned in the paragraph. He was magnificent and glided gracefully with the breeze, flapping occasionally.

I turned myself back to the papers and continued reading from the article.

"Due to the then-failing economy in depression, laboratories, organizations and government agencies were unable to help the Restless Flycatcher during the latter half of the years of being endangered. Many other endangered species faced the same ending as the Restless Flycatcher.

Andre had been discovered to be the last surviving Restless Flycatcher by two scientists, Thomas Randolf and Ami Nakasuka, who had then just raised enough funds to go count the population of the species. The photograph of the Restless Flycatcher was taken by Nakasuka of the last surviving bird.

Unfortunately, Andre was killed by a 400 lb. snake.."

I was in shock, and was about to continue reading when something jumped or flew over my head. Quickly looking up, my eyes widened and I froze. There was no mistake that a four-hundred pound snake had just jumped over my head, aiming at Andre. It was a brown snake with black and white checkered patterns on its back. My mouth hung open as the snake opened its mouth to reveal large and sharp poisonous fangs.

I watched the scene of Andre's gruesome death as he was bitten and eaten by the falling snake with terror. The snake seemed to land close to my high bed. I was confronted by large snake eyes when I leaned over my bed to see below. Its tongue flickered several inches before my nose, my eyes widened and I let out a silent scream in my mind. Numb with fear, I gathered courage to lift my arm in hopes to successfully hit the snake off of the mattress it was on.

It was a dumb idea. The snake suddenly jumped and when I turned to grab the laminated research papers, I faced the snake. Its eyes were about two inches away from my own. I felt paralyzed and weak. I had never faced a snake ever in my life, much less touched one. If I survive this, I thought to myself, I will not have nothing to do with snakes, ever as long as I live.

The snake slowly inched closer to my face and its tongue flicking, nearly touching my nose. Beige colored irises with black slit pupils stared as goosebumps went up and down my spine when I realized that I had left my mouth open. Oh, I was going to die if this snake bit me anywhere. I couldn't shut my mouth closed; my mind was full of fear and numbness that I could not control the rushing emotions that filled me.

Unknowingly I lifted my right arm. It was a matter of life and death.

The snake was about an inch away from my face, flicking its tongue every five seconds or so. I aimed for the snake's neck with my hand, hoping that I would grab the reptile before being bitten by it. The snake stopped moving towards my face.

I quickly made a grab for the snake's neck, and I found myself paralyzed. The snake had bit the top of my tongue just as I grabbed its neck.

I tried to let out a scream, or any other sound I could make but my voice disappeared. I felt my nerves trying to move my arm, to pull the snake out of my mouth and to throw it down and off of my bed but my arm would not move. I am going to die, I am going to die, I am going to die, I am going to die went my thoughts.

I was scared. I wanted help, but it was in the middle of the night and no one would be awake! I tried to shake my head, hoping to yank off the snake attached to my tongue but my head barely moved five centimeters and the snake wasn't moving from its position.

I was doomed.

From the Author

This was based on one of the dreams that I had. You can probably imagine how frightened and strange I felt when I awoke from that dream. This was not meant to frighten anyone but you would have to agree that it was some wild strange dream right?