Bad Dreams

by Jason Ryan Qualls
(Elkhart, Indiana, USA)

It's scary when you think your best friend is going crazy. That's what I thought about Lara at first. She would tell me things, deep dark things that no one else knew. Secrets that made chills run up and down my spine. Then I found out the truth about the bad dreams. And now I'm worried. . . .

Lara kept the dreams to herself for a long time. I knew something was really wrong with her. Her face had gotten a drawn, worried look that never went away. And I could hardly remember when I'd seen her smile last. Then, one morning in English class, I realized how sick Lara really was. She was sitting at the desk right across from me, staring out the window and looking like the world had come to an end.

I tore off a piece of paper and wrote her a quick note. It said: "Why are you acting like somebody died?" Lara jumped when I nudged her and passed the note. She opened it and seemed to stare at it forever. Then she looked at me with the most frightened expression I'd ever seen on anyone's face. Just then, our English teacher asked me to recite the first stanza of Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven. I stumbled on the first line of the poem but finished the stanza without any trouble. It's one of my favorite poems, but today its eeriness unnerved me.

When the teacher asked someone on the other side of the room to recite the next stanza, I looked over at Lara again. She had a note ready and slipped it to me when the teacher wasn't looking. I unfolded the paper and read the short sentence inside: "There's going to be a bad accident."

Right away, I looked up from the note to Lara's face. She was staring at me with her big brown eyes full of fear. I looked back down at the note and read the sentence again. Lara had written it like a statement of fact, not a guess or question. I wondered what kind of strange game she was playing with me. I tore off another piece of my homework paper and wrote: "Are you crazy?" Then I folded it up and threw it onto Lara's desk.

I didn't think Lara could look any worse than she already did, but I was wrong. As soon as she read my note, her face twisted up like she was being pinched with pain. She quickly tore off another scrap of paper and scribbled something on it. Then she passed me the note without meeting my eyes. As I opened it, I realized my hands were shaking.

"You'll see," the note said.

Lara avoided me in school all the rest of the day. I couldn't find her at her locker when classes were over, and I decided to walk home with someone else. That night, I thought about calling her, but something inside held me back. The next morning, I met Lara's eyes the minute I walked into English class. She was staring straight at the door, as though she were waiting for me. But after I walked into the room, she kept on staring at the same spot. I passed by the teacher's desk and noticed a substitute teacher was standing there. The whole class was buzzing with talk. As soon as I slipped behind my desk, the substitute turned around in front of me.

"Your regular English teacher and his wife was in a terrible car accident last night," she whispered. "And they were killed," she said sadly.

I felt tears welling up in my eyes for our English teacher. He had been married for only a year. Suddenly, I felt a shiver pass through my body, and I looked over at Lara. Her dark eyes were shining like hard jewels. And there was a weird little twisted smile that played across her face. "See, I'm not crazy," she whispered to me.

I shrank back from her glittering stare. I couldn't believe that this was my best friend whom I'd known since kindergarten. She didn't even seem to feel sorry for our English teacher. Then the truth hit me like a shock wave.

Somehow, Lara had known about the accident before it happened. She had written about it in her note yesterday. I felt so sick that I couldn't look at her all during the rest of the class. I ran from the room before she could get her books together. Then I hung around with a big group of girls for the rest of the day so I wouldn't have to talk to her.

On the way home from school, Lara finally caught up with me. I heard her voice call out my name from down the street, and I wanted to start running. But instead, I slowed down and tried to stay calm.

"Wait," Lara called again. "I need to talk to you."

I stopped and waited for Lara to catch up. She was panting in a funny way, as though she were out of breath, when she came up to me. Her eyes looked wild. "Thank you for being my best friend in the whole world, and I love you for that... Please keep me in your heart." she said in a shaky voice.

Lara's face twisted up again like something was torturing her inside. "I seen something horrible in my dreams," she said. "My dreams are of me being killed from a car accident."

All of a sudden, I couldn't stand the way she was acting anymore. I reached over and grabbed her shoulders and shook her.

"What are you talking about, Lara?" I asked, staring straight into her cold, shiny eyes. "How do you know about these horrid things?" Lara pulled away from me and ran off down the street, never turning around to look back.

The rest of the way home, I tried to decide what I was going to do. I could tell my parents about the things she said, or I could talk with the school counselor. But what if they all thought Lara was crazy, too?

That night I stayed at home. I had just finished my social studies project. Finally, I couldn't stand the thoughts that were crowding my brain anymore. I ran to the telephone and dialed Lara's number. After two rings, her mother answered. She told me that Lara couldn't possibly come to the phone. "She had almost died in a car accident that evening," her mother told me still crying. Now she was muttering strange things as though she were delirious.

I quietly hung up the phone, and for awhile just stared blankly at the wall. Then I started to cry and cry. The next day at school, all the other kids were gossiping about how Lara almost died from a car accident. I went through my classes in a daze, torn between wanting to keep Lara's secret and wanting to blurt it to anyone who would listen.

Finally, the last bell of the day rang; and, while I walked home alone, I decided to tell my parents about Lara's bad dreams. But as soon as I walked through the front door, I saw my mother waiting in the hallway with a worried look on her face.

"Lara is dying sweety," my mom said softly. "She's very ill. And she's been asking for you."

I felt a chill run through me as I dropped my books on the hallway table and followed my mother out to the car. I wanted to do everything I could to help Lara, but now I was really afraid.

We drove to the hospital in silence. Mom tried to start conversations, but my mind was occupied with thoughts of Lara.

As I walked into Lara's hospital room, my heart started to pound at the sight of her on the bed. Plastic tubes were all in her. Her face had been drained of color, but her eyes were shining like bright little stones with a glint of red in the very middle. When Lara saw me, she smiled faintly and beckoned to me to come closer.

I walked up to the side of the bed and leaned over her. But Lara reached up and pulled my head down even closer to hers.

"It says I'm going to die," she whispered in my ear.

"The doctors?" I asked in a trembling voice, afraid to meet her eyes.

"No the dreams," Lara said. "I had dreams about dying in a car accident."

I was shaking now and wanted to run out of the room. But Lara had been my best friend, and I knew she needed me.

"Not all bad dreams come true Lara," I said, trying to calm her. "And you're going to get better real soon I promise."

BUT PROMISES BECOME BROKEN AND BAD DREAMS DO COME TRUE.

I pulled my head away to look at her. The little twisted smile gave her pale face a scary expression.

Suddenly she grabbed the back of my neck and pulled my head down next to hers. Then I understood what she meant. I screamed and pulled my head away. Then I stared down at Lara as she slumped against the pillow with her eyes shut and a smile of contentment on her face.

That night the dreams told me that I should say goodbye to Lara, because it would be the last time I would get to see her alive.

Lara was buried a week later.

After that I thought if I stayed awake long enough and took lots of pills that the bad dreams wouldn't come anymore, but they always do. I have been having bad dreams for several months now. And I'm worried. Everything that I dream about comes true. And lately, I have been dreaming of a horrible car accident. But I can't see the person in the car clearly.

The Bad Dreams are trying to make me guess who the victim will be.

But I think I already know.