A short story involving my theme for this weeks blog - dreams:
The Dream
Sandra knocked on the old wooden door. Fine splinters in the aged timber grazed her knuckles and she noticed the door's faded red paint was peeling. Her gaze drifted around the bungalow's portico as she waited; the place she had spent so many happy hours playing hide and seek and hop scotch and many other childhood games. Lush green foliage surrounded this little nook near the front door, so thick that the street beyond it could not be seen. Fragrances from jasmine and roses and even lemon hung heavy in the still cool air and Sandra drew them into her lungs in a long deep breath. This was the place where she felt happy and safe. Safe from all the worries in the world and especially in her own life lately.
Footsteps on the wooden floor beyond the door grew louder and heralded the arrival of her grandmother, Hilda Mellors. The door opened.
"Sandra', the slim elderly woman with silver hair and laughing eyes looked up at her grand daughter, " I'm so glad you're here. You're a bit early today but I've just boiled the kettle. Come in darling".
"Hello gran', Sandra replied, following the older woman through the house into the kitchen. She had noticed lately that her grandmother's gait was slower and she seemed more feeble than usual. She had taken to using a walking stick and Sandra realised with disappointment and a degree of surprise that her grandmother was now quite elderly. She worked through some numbers in her head and decided that she must be around 81 years old.
The kitchen was typical of the 1920's bungalow style. Unlike renovated houses in the suburb with young families increasingly moving into the area, this kitchen was almost as it would have been 90 year earlier. The cupboards were off white, wooden with battered silver handles. An old sink sat up one end of the kitchen adjacent to a small window which looked out onto a large metal clothes-line in the back garden. An ancient oven sat against another wall next to few more cupboards, and a large battered white fridge stood in a corner. No modern conveniences made their way into this kitchen. There was no dishwasher or microwave oven or mobile phone. Hilda liked things the way she had always known them to be; familiar and comfortable.
Sandra sat down in her usual seat at the large kitchen table. The same seat that she would sit in on all of her weekly visits here.
"How have you been Gran?"
"Fine dear".
"Did you have a nice time in the volunteer shop at the hospital yesterday or were you taking the book trolley around the wards?"
"I didn't go this week", the elderly woman placed two coffee mugs on the table and went back to get the biscuit tin from one of the kitchen cupboards.
"Why not ?" Sandra's voice was high pitched and she felt a slight panic in her chest. "Were you sick? You should call me if you're not well..."
"I was just a bit tired dear"
Hilda shuffled back across to the tabled and sat down holding onto the chair and her stick for support. Sandra's anxious eyes studied her. This didn't look good. She wondered if her grandmother might need some extra care. She had offered to move in and look after her but Hilda wouldn't hear of it. "You need to look after Ethan, and you are more comfortable in your own house", she had said. It annoyed Sandra that her grandmother was so independent. Although, Sandra knew that she always had been. She was a strong and independent woman - even now.
Sandra knew that her grandfather, John, had died as a young man in WWII. He'd been a navigator in the Australian airforce, but he'd died soon after her own father was born. Hilda had never remarried. She had said that her husband, John, was her soul mate and he was the only man for her. She always said that she was happy alone.
"How have you been, dear?"Hilda smiled across the table at her grand daughter.
"Fine gran".
Sandra took another sip of her coffee and took a Nice biscuit from the tin. She couldn't tell her grandmother the truth. Things were not good in her own life. Studying medicine was hard - especially this year - her fifth year. She had only one last year of study after this year and then it would be her intern year and then she would be a doctor. The big problem was that she had begun to think medicine was not for her. She had been thinking of deferring and travelling overseas. Her brother Ethan was 18 now and able to take care of himself.
Their parents had been killed in a car accident three years earlier, when she was 19. Sandra's parents had left Sandra and her brother well provided for financially. However, she and Ethan had been still quite young, so soon after the accident her grandmother, Hilda, had moved in with them. She had stayed for 2 years and then she'd moved back into her own home, a 10 minute drive away.
For Sandra, deciding what to do about her future and her career was hard. Was she suited to be a doctor? She had started to doubt it.
The afternoon wore on and Sandra eventually realised that two hours had passed. She got up from the table, hugged her grandmother, kissed her cheek and picked up her bag and keys to leave.
"I love you gran," she said as she walked out the front door. "I'll see you same time next week. Do you need any help with anything? Would you like me to come by tomorrow?"
"No darling. I'm fine. You take care and give a kiss to your brother from me."
Sandra laughed. She knew her grandmother was teasing her. She would not kiss her brother for her gran or anyone else. They weren't 'kissy' type siblings. But she would send gran's regards to her brother as she always did.
The following morning Sandra woke with a start. She's had just had the most vivid dream of her life.
In the dream she had been sitting in a beautiful garden with the scent of jasmine, roses and a hint of lemon filling the air. She sat on a white marble bench and a across a small lawn a young woman had waved to her. The woman was wearing a white dress - in a 1940's style. Her hair was made up also in a style of that era. She didn't speak but she sent love somehow; Sandra could feel it. She also felt pressure around her arms like someone was hugging her, although she could see no arms around her body, and she felt a kiss on her cheek, although again no-one was there to kiss her.
Across the lawn Sandra then saw a young man in an air force uniform walk toward the woman. She ran to him when she saw him and Sandra heard the word, John. The couple hugged each other for a long time. They both then turned again to Sandra and waved again before they walked away
However as they left the young woman turned and threw a photo to Sandra. The piece of paper wafted through the air, like a slowly gliding paper plane, and then it fell softly into her hands. Sandra caught the picture and looked down at it. It was a picture of herself. She was wearing a doctor's white coat and a stethoscope hung around her neck. She was smiling in the picture and another young male doctor had his arm around her waist. Two young children stood next to the couple in the photo - children aged around four and two years of age Sandra thought. A small number was in the corner of the picture. It read 2024. It was a date. It was 10 years from now. Sandra looked up and the young couple were gone. She felt happy and content. She heard a young woman's voice then speak gently to her. "Goodbye Sandra. I love you and I'll be with you always. You'll find happiness. Things will work out. Your grandfather and your parents are here and they all send their love to you as well. We'll always be with you."
Sandra woke and sat up in bed. The dream was so clear and unlike most dreams it stayed with her after she woke. She looked at the clock. It was only 5am. It was still dark.
She wondered if what she had experienced was some sort of premonition. She decided to stay in bed. She knew if she got up now she would only be tired all day. Soon after she woke again to the phone ringing. She looked at the time. It was now seven o'clock. She wondered who would ring her at that time of the morning. Slightly annoyed she picked up her phone from her bedside table.
"Hello," the voice on the end of the phone was that of a woman. It was no-one that sandra recognised .
"Hello, Sandra Mellors here", Sandra responded, wondering what this could be about.
"I'm Doctor Gray at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. I'm afraid I have some bad new", the woman continued. "Your grandmother Hilda Mellors was admitted to hospital last night. She had phoned for an ambulance herself. Chest pain. She has listed you as her next of kin. I'm afraid she had a massive heart attack in the early hours of this morning. There was nothing we could do. I'm sorry to have to tell you that she died at 5 o'clock this morning. I am very sorry."
Sandra felt cold. The phone fell from her grasp. She remembered her dream. It was her gran... She had sent a message. A last message.
The tears flowed down Sandra's cheeks but she couldn't feel too very sad now. Not now that she'd seen how happy her grandmother was in her dream. Her dear gran was with her beloved husband, John, finally after all these years; and also Sandra's own her parents. She knew it would be selfish of her to wish her gran was still here with her - no longer independent and in her own house. Sandra knew that her grandmother would never have been happy in a nursing home as an invalid. She was just glad that she got too see her on her last day and then again they got to see each other in her dream.
Sandra also knew what she would do. Her gran had given her a glimpse of her future. She would become a doctor.
The End
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