I’ve been having nightmares for awhile.  Too long. If I had my choice, it would go like this instead…

Its raining, and I’m sitting on the beach with the waves washing over my feet. It doesn’t matter that my clothes are getting wet. It doesn’t matter that there’s a storm coming. I just get to sit there and feel the water, warmer than the air, licking up my legs. It smells faintly like fish and sunshine, but you can only smell the sun once its gone down.

There’s a line of trees at my back, fortressed with dune grass. There are scratches on my legs because I came running from the woods to sit at the water because you can see everything when you’re sitting on the beach. Nothing can sneak up on you. Pull the rug out from under you.

I hear the soft crinkle of damp sand nearby like the muffled sound of a dull knife sliding into an apple. Chrisp chrisp, cricrisp. A bunny sits next to me, settling his soft cotton tail in the wet sand just past the water line. He looks out at the water.

“I wasn’t chasing you,” his little pink nose twitches as a water droplet lands on it.

“I know.”

“You always run from me.”

“Do I?” I looked down at the bunny, his sandy fur slowly becoming matted with rain.

“Well,” he re-adjusts his hind legs, “you try.”

A particularly large wave rushes up the shore, soaking my shorts. The bunny has to stagger his tiny front paws to stay upright, the lake water coming up to his chest and back.

“I’m not going anywhere,” he sputters.

Among all the rain, one fat drop lands on my cheek and I close my eyes. Chrisp chrisp, cricrisp. He is sitting closer to me, his wet fur sticking to my right arm wrapped around my folded knees.

“I’m not going anywhere.”

I open my eyes, and I’m on a beach. Its raining. The water is warm, and I have a bunny stuck to my side making a promise.

Lucy, 24.759 dreaming…