In my other dreams I was disconnected from the events that I saw, watching. This dream began differently. It began with me awakening on a cot in our small family room. I was covered in blankets and a huge fire was roaring on the hearth, yet I couldn't get warm. I shook with cold until my teeth chattered, and then someone came to stand beside me. I wasn't able to see who the person was because my eyes were blurry, but I could tell it was a man. He bent over me and placed his hand on my forehead. His fingers were like ice and I moaned a little because the sensation sent another chill racing down my spine. If only I could get warm!
"She's still burning up," a voice droned above my head. It was so deep and slow that it almost hurt my ears to hear. It was nonsense, of course, I was freezing, not burning. "We can't get the fever down."
Another voice came from somewhere behind the man. It was high and fast. "They shouldn't have been near the men who were ill if they'd never had it themselves."
The slow voice answered, "They felt it was their duty. After all you did for the father…"
The fast voice broke in, "Shh! I still haven't told them."
"Told them what?" asked the painfully slow voice, but it faded as it spoke, and the reply from the fast voice was too soft to understand. I lay there silently, the chills had begun to make my head ache, and the light from the fire hurt my eyes.
"Mother?" came a rasping voice to my left.
To my surprise I answered, "I'm here," but it wasn't as if I had decided to say that. I felt more like a visitor in someone else's body. It hurt to talk, though, my throat was swollen and burning.
"I think – I'm dying," murmured the voice. A wave of mixed pain and sorrow flowed over me like black night, and the next thing I knew I was standing again in my own body on the hill behind my home, looking at three tombstones. As I reached down to brush away the dirt and read the names I awoke.
This time I did not try to brush off what I had dreamed. I knew that they were a message, a warning. My family was in grave danger and all I could think about was how to get back and help them.