With Bare Hands

Chapter 1: Touchstones

"Dreams are the touchstones of our characters." - Henry David Thoreau


Psychologists and philosophers have attempted to translate dreams for centuries. They've tried to understand why people dream. They want to know how people dream. They want to know what these dreams mean. They want to know how these dreams reflect our lives. They've tried their best to understand dreams and they say they know about them. They say they know about dreams. They think they know.

These psychologists and philosophers have never met me though.

People can dream about any emotion they're feeling while they sleep. People can dream about worry, stress, happiness– pretty much anything. Those dreams can be pleasant. Those dreams are usually the ones with no rhyme or reason. Those dreams are the ones that are bearable by any means… usually.

The only emotion that people can't dream about is fear. No, fear is reserved for nightmares. Fear is what instigates a nightmare. Nightmares are what have people waking up from sleep with blood surging through their veins. Sometimes you wake up with drops of perspiration forming at your hairline and onto your forehead.

Have you ever had a dream? Have you ever had a nightmare?

You'd think that question to be rhetorical. You'd think that question to be pointless. Everyone has dreams, right? Everyone has had at least one nightmare, right?

Wrong.

There is something to be said about dreams and the dreamer, but is there something to be said about the one who doesn't dream? Is there something to be said about that person? Is there something to be said about me?

You see, I don't dream. I don't have nightmares. That is, I don't dream for myself. I haven't had a single nightmare that I can claim as my own. I cannot recall a time that I've ever dreamed, but I can probably recall almost every dream that my mother has dreamed in the past seventeen years. I can probably recall almost every nightmare that has belonged to my dad in that same time frame.

I call myself a dreamcatcher… but I also call myself Bella Swan, and I literally know what it's like to be… in your dreams.


What do you think?