Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: SNOOZE (07/20/17)
-
TITLE: The Curve | Previous Challenge Entry
By Terry Bovinet
07/27/17 -
LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE
SEND A PRIVATE COMMENT
ADD TO MY FAVORITES
The alarm had not awakened her. A recurring dream, more like a nightmare, served that purpose. She drove recklessly on a secluded road that threaded through a dense forest. The location of the road? No idea. That mystery would occupy her along with the reason for the dream.
The road would curve sharply to the right. Her car didn’t. Not that she tried to correct its momentum, however. She sat back and awaited the inevitable. Steel crashing into wood. Car versus trees. The trees would always win.
Her thought as she plummeted into the overgrowth that enveloped her car: “No one will ever find me down here.”
Usually she could fall back to sleep after giving herself some assurance that she rested safely in her bed without the prospects of car, road, or forest.
This night differed. This night sleep escaped her while the bright numbers from her radio clock informed her of the minutes that dredged on. And on.
“Why the dream?”
At 6 a.m., the radio broadcast the local news and broke the silence. Heidi heard its noise, but did not listen. She had anticipated the alarm as her incentive to get out of bed. She thought about ending the charade of sleep and doing something productive with the empty hours, but she did not possess the strength to escape her temporary prison with its only bars the ones she had constructed in her mind.
The alarm had inspired only one movement on her part.
“Take that. See you in seven minutes.”
Eventually she managed the energy to swing her legs out from under the beige cotton sheet and dangle them over the edge of her bed. Her labored breathing surprised her.
“I need to get some exercise. And a life.”
She closed her eyes and struggled to bring her mind into the present.
“Let’s see. Thursday. No, that was yesterday. That makes today Friday.”
She scrolled through her phone to find any appointments for the day.
“Jenny. Noon. Yuck.”
Her calendar, rather empty since she lost her job five months ago, reminded her of the isolation she felt from people, purpose, and money.
“Maybe today.”
She said that in mornings long ago when her job prospects seemed real to herself, if to no one else.
She desperately wanted to maintain the discipline of getting out of bed at the first sound of the morning news, but her fingerprints had heavily smudged the Snooze button from its use since the morning after her manager called her into his office. The HR director seated next to him told her everything she needed to know.
Overcoming the urge to crawl back and make a cocoon from her bedding, she stood up, looked to the heavens, but could only manage a sigh.
She spent the morning before her appointment sending resumes’ into the black hole of cyberspace realizing that if she received some response, it would arrive from the infamous and impersonal “Auto Reply.”
Still ever punctual, except for getting out of bed, she arrived at Jenny’s 10 minutes before her appointment.
“Heidi, that is some dream.” Heidi could sense Jenny’s empathy when she finished telling her the dream that had robbed her of sleep for those two hours.
“Okay, O wise vocational counselor, how would you interpret it.”
“Well, since we have not met before and I don’t know you at all, I would give you my generic sense of it.”
“Which is?”
“Take the curve.”
“What, that’s it?”
“Yes, take the curve. Going straight has only landed you in a spot from which you cannot recover.”
“What does that look like?”
“You think going straight, or what you know, is safe when in reality it can lead to, at best. the same results. And disaster at worst.”
“Help?”
“That’s what I’m here for.”
After discussing the situation for the rest of the hour, the two developed a plan of action with measurable steps for Heidi to follow.
“Where were you five months ago?” Heidi said with a tinge of frustration in her laugh as she stood to leave.
“No, Heidi, the better question is ‘where were you five months ago?’”
The next morning, Heidi slept until the alarm and rolled out of bed - without hitting the Snooze.
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.
Accept Jesus as Your Lord and Savior Right Now - CLICK HERE
JOIN US at FaithWriters for Free. Grow as a Writer and Spread the Gospel.
