The Midnight Surfer
Three o'clock. Grandfather clock chiming. Streetcar honking below in the street. Birds flying, forming a triangular pattern above in the cotton candy blue sky. Vendor selling multi-colored and multi-shaped balloons and baggies of salty popcorn. Callie. More honking. Blaring of heavy metal music. Screeching. Swerving. Glass shattering. Callie. Car wreck. NOOOOOOOOO!
Bradin awoke to the sound of his own panting. His heart was throbbing up inside of his throat and his forehead felt as if it had its own heartbeat. He was sweaty all over his body and his arms and legs were shaking profusely.
"Honey, what is it?" Aunt Ava dashed into the room with a metal baseball bat. "Who's in here?"
This made Bradin chuckle quite a bit. "No, Aunt Ava," he said, sitting up in bed beneath his sham, "no one's here. No robbers or anything like that. I just had a nightmare…"
"Oh? What about?" Aunt Ava sat, quite intrigued, on the edge of his bed.
"It was real scary, is all I know. Callie had just gotten her license and was with her friends in this hot rod. She was going the normal speed limit, about 25 mph, and suddenly out of nowhere a crazy drunk driver smashed head-on into her car. It left her body wrangled and her car totaled…" Bradin stopped short, because he found himself trembling again.
Aunt Ava took his hand into her own clammy one, "Aww, Bradin honey. Thank God it was only a dream. Now try to go back to sleep if you can so in the morning you aren't quite as-"
Bradin cut her off, "Sorry, Aunt Ava, but once I'm awake I sadly cannot return to sleep again."
"That's understandable enough, since I myself have the same problem! I've been given these special insomnia pills from my doctor, but I don't think I have an symptoms of insomnia… I myself say it's my awful mattress. Would you like me to go put on a pot of chamomile?"
"Yeah… that'd be good. Thanks, Ava."
"No problem, dear. Come down when you're ready. The tea will be ready in about 15 minutes. No rush." Aunt Ava picked up the tail of her bathrobe and scurried out of Bradin's room and down the back staircase into the kitchen. Bradin sat up in bed for a few moments, trying to rethink the entire nightmare he'd had only moments ago. He also thought it strange that when you're having a dream, they seem to last for hours and sometimes days or years. But in reality, dreams only last a mere few minutes or seconds.
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"Tea ready, Ava?" Bradin slipped onto a stool at the wooden island in the center of the kitchen.
Aunt Ava nodded, pouring him a mug of steaming chamomile. "Yep. Just the way you like it, too. Honey and extra sugar."
"Mmm, this should wake me up!" Bradin licked his lips, blew on the tea, and took the daring first sip. "Delicious, as always."
"Why thank you, dear. And if that doesn't wake you up, I always have an entire stash of Snickers in the top drawer of my cupboard beneath a bag of tampons…"
"Umm… Aunt Ava… I kinda didn't need to know that. Thanks," Bradin said, quite disgusted. "Now I'm kinda scarred for life…" He gazed down into the deep sea of tea and sort of lost his thirst at that moment. "Uhh… I'm gonna go get dressed now and call Callie. Hopefully she's still… alive."
"Of course she is, Brae. Remember, it was just a dream."
"…Okay. Thanks, Ava." Bradin brought his mug around to the large brass sink and dumped the remainder of the liquid down the disposal. "Thanks again for the tea. Seeya later today, around lunchtime probably."