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I originally posted this short story as a response to a writing challenge on another site.
The idea was to write a story about a dream
"What"? Queried a very groggy Hutch.
"Mmmm, just tryin' to figure out par'ner, what's the matter with you this morning."
"Nothing" snapped Hutch
"Nothing huh?" replied Starsky, raising his eyebrows.
"Okay, okay enough. If I tell you, will you then get off my case?"
"Sure, sure. Come on tell your old pal what's up"
"Well…the past few nights. Actually maybe more than a few, I haven't been able to sleep. When I was a kid……..Starsk' you sure you're not gonna laugh?" quizzed Hutch.
"No, now will you come on" replied Starsky, getting more than a little impatient.
"Okay." Hutch took a deep breathe and continued, "When I was a kid, I used to have this dream that I was running through all these hills. Big, dark, black hills. It was raining and I was being chased.."
"What by?" asked Starsky, interrupting
"What by what?"
"What were you being chased by?"
"Starsky I'm tryin' to tell you. Will you listen!"
"hmmm"
"I was being chased by some kind of animal. Big, dark…"
"Black!" interrupted Starsky again
"Yes dammit, black.! Any way this animal would chase and chase me and I would run and run and it never caught up with me. Never. Until this week."
"What?"
"This week. I started dreaming about it again. I was running, it was chasing and it never catches me. Then last night…." Hutch visibly shuddered. "This week it caught me. And I felt it Starsky, I swear I really felt it."
"What, what did you feel?"
"It's nose"
Starsky resisted the urge to laugh. "It's……nose?"
"Yes it's nose. It stabbed me in the stomach with some kind of long snout, like a sword fish or something."
"Hutch, that has gotta be the craziest dream I've ever heard. And you think I'm wacky!" Starsky let out a small chuckle, but held it quickly when he saw his partner's face. "So what it feel like?"
"Like I've been stabbed. I got up this morning. I was in agony, I was sweating all over, so I went to take a shower and saw this."
Hutch lifted his shirt. Starsky gasped when he saw the obvious bruising to his friend's abdomen. "Oh Hutch" he soothed.
"What does it mean Starsk'? I'm scared, really scared."
"Hey buddy, I guess we've been working too much lately, maybe you need a break? It's been kinda rough on both of us. That's probably why you can't sleep." Starsky smiled.
"And the dream?"
"I bet if you think about it you always had it when you were stressed or tired, hey?"
"Maybe"
"Well there you go then. You just need a break, is all."
"But what about this? How do you explain this?"
"Probably you tossed and turned during your sleep and knocked it, huh."
"Yeah maybe. Well come on then. We'd better go or Dobey will have a fit if we're late again." Hutch said, satisfied that Starsky, of all people, had come up with a rational explanation.
As they left the apartment Starsky didn't mention to Hutch that he had been having the same dream for the past few nights too.