Springton Lake eighth-grader Karolina Urban has long served as assistant editor here at The Squid. This time around, she’s contributing even more; she’s gifted us with a story of her own, “All a Dream”, wherein Laura, a girl whose life has crumbled around her, is being haunted by a recurring and most disturbing nightmare…

"All a Dream"
Written by Karolina Urban

Again that night, it came out of the wall of white fog. And again that night, Laura ran.

She feared to look behind her, for she knew what she would see: a rotting corpse with what looked like a trail of maggots behind it. The corpse was eyeless and the smell of death surrounded it. Laura, running as fast as she could, just couldn't get away from it; the faster she ran, the faster the corpse floated towards her. Suddenly, Laura tripped over an unseen rock and stumbled.

Then corpse was looming over her, its bony, skinless fingers reaching for Laura…

#

Laura jumped up, heart pounding. The bed was soaked with cold sweat.

All a dream.

The dream again. Ever since her mother had been killed in a car crash four months ago, she had been having this terrible dream, night after night. And every night, the nightmare seemed more and more real, until it was as real as a slap on the face.

As if her life hadn’t been enough of a slap in the face.

Before her mother's death, Laura had been as colorful as spring, a happy, twelve-year-old girl bright as blossoming flowers, but now her wardrobe consisted only of gray, black, and white. Before the accident, Laura had been living in Montana with her mother, who had never married. Since Laura's mom was gone now, she had to move in with her only living relative, her grandfather in Maine.

Grandpa was a very thin, gray-haired old man. Even at the age of seventy-nine, he was tall as a tree, towering above Laura. His long face was hairless except for two big, gray, bushy eyebrows. When Laura was little, Grandpa had been very nice -- full of laughter, stories, and jokes -- but the accident had changed him, too. He had already lost his own wife. When Laura’s mom died, something in Grandpa died, too. He hadn’t spoken since. He spent his days on the porch, gray as a thundercloud, unspeaking.

Occasionally, Grandpa would come inside to drift silently past Laura like a tumbleweed. The silence was unbearable.

Laura got up. It was a chilly November Saturday. She walked to the kitchen where Grandpa was making lunch (Laura had slept in until 11:30). He was making chicken-noodle soup. Grandpa gave a short-meaningless smile to Laura, then gave her a bowl of soup.

When Laura finished her soup, she went outside on Grandpa's small porch, sat down, and started reading a huge book she had checked out from her new school's library. It was called "Crossing Over".

Laura borrowed this book to see if the dream she'd been having for months now meant anything. Could her dream be a warning of death? The book seemed to contain no answers.

Laura was thinking that maybe she was cursed. She had no mother or father or aunts or uncles or even a Grandmother! Just Grandpa. Laura didn't even have friends because she had just moved from Montana to Maine. In school, she was labeled as an outcast.

Grandpa's house only added to the depression. It was a small ranch-style house, dusty and crammed with junk, with six small rooms that smelled heavily of garlic and onions. The bathroom was wet and slimy and filled with the stench of old soap. Laura's bedroom seemed to be covered in a foot or so of dust. Worse still, the heater was broken, and Laura didn’t dare to venture under her moldy, bug-infested blankets.

Laura had been so caught up in her book that she barely noticed it was getting dark.

Laura went into the kitchen where a plate full of rice and chicken was waiting for her. Laura sat down and ate it. Then, having nothing else to do, she took a shower and went to bed.

Laura was lying in her bed, knowing that she would soon be chased by a corpse, when she remembered the night of the accident...

#

It had been raining that night. Laura was home alone waiting for her mom to come back from work. "Mom must be working late again," Laura thought. Without thinking of anything else, she fell asleep, but was awakened a few hours later by the ringing of the phone. The clock read 1:03 A.M. Laura grabbed the phone beside her and sleepily said, "Hello?"

A man's voice replied, "Hello, is this Laura Coley?"

"Yes." Laura said, confused.

"I am very sorry, but there has been an accident. Your mother…"

At that moment, the sky rumbled with anger, and flash of lightning illuminated the sky, the rain hammered the roof.

Laura’s heart drummed louder than the rain. "W-What?"

"I'm sorry Laura, but…” And the officer explained the facts. Her mother had been driving home from work. It had been rainy. Foggy. A drunk-driver crossed the center lane and…

After the call, Laura couldn't move. In shock, she sat there, still pressing the phone to her ear, as tears ran down her face and dampened her shirt.

The day of the funeral was the saddest. It was another stormy day, like the sky was crying with Laura, Grandpa, and many others. At the funeral, Laura brought her mother's Christmas present, and put it in her casket. It was beautiful, a nightgown of white silk. Laura had saved and saved, knowing her mom would love the present, but now Laura would never know…

#

Laura made herself stop thinking about that awful day, then closed her eyes and slept.

It came out of the fog. Walking at first, its arms outstretched, like it wanted to grab her, trailing that strange whiteness behind it.

And, as always, Laura ran. She’d stood longer than usual this time, trying to get a closer look at the trailing whiteness. It used to look like maggots, but now it looked almost like a fabric…

Almost like silk…

But Laura was running and the corpse was chasing, and there was no time to look back. It was right behind her. She could smell it, feel its breath on the back of her neck. Then she tripped over the unseen rock, and the corpse was bending over her, reaching…

Laura jumped up in her bed, her heart racing, and for the first time, Laura was wishing she could see that dream again, for she had looked straight at the corpse this time, really looked, and she couldn’t believe what she saw.

Suddenly she had a plan.

Laura walked up to Grandpa and said, smiling, “Hi, Grandpa. Good morning. Um… I was wondering if you could show me where you keep the cleaning supplies? My room’s a mess, and pretty much the whole house could use a cleaning.”

Grandpa stared, with a confused expression on his face, then pointed to a nearby closet.

In the closet were old rags, several spray bottles, and a broom. Laura grabbed a bottle and smelled the contents, which smelled exactly like a cleaner her mom used to use. With no objection to the smell, Laura began cleaning. She spent hours scrubbing, but her work was very successful; she now had a clean room -- she even washed the sheets, too! -- and an almost clean bathroom. Laura finally had lunch, which she decided to eat on the porch.

While eating, she saw two people jogging past. They were from her school. Laura bit her lip and looked the other way, then smiled and waved. Surprisingly, they waved back. Laura smiled a smile that had wanted to come out for months.

Finally, that night…

Almost instantly, Laura fell asleep, and found herself standing in front of the wall of fog. As always, the figure came out of the fog, trailing what Laura knew now to be white silk.

But Laura didn’t run. Wouldn’t.

The corpse came closer, arms outstretched.

Laura took a deep breath and, smiling, stepped into the embrace…

And suddenly it wasn’t a corpse wrapping its arms around Laura; it was her mom, just as she had looked the last time Laura had seen her alive.

"Laura," her mother said.

"Mom?" Laura replied. "Is it you?"

"Yes, Sweetie," Mom whispered with a smile. "Sorry if I scared you, but I came back to say thank you for the Christmas present. I love it, and Sweetie, I love you." Tears were running down her mom's face as she said, "I have to go now, but I'll meet you in heaven." Mom choked out.

They hugged tightly.

“I’m glad you’ve decided to take charge of your life, Sweetie,” her mother said.

Laura nodded, smiling through the tears.

Breaking the embrace and stepping backward, her mother said, “Don’t give up on Grandpa. He needs you."

Laura reached for her mom, but Laura's hands went right through her. She was fading away, back into the fog. "I love you," she said.

"I love you too," Laura whispered as her mom slowly faded away.

#

Laura woke up. It was a weekday, but instead of getting ready for school, Laura walked to the kitchen where Grandpa was making eggs. "Hi, Grandpa. Good morning. Breakfast smells great!"

Grandpa stared at Laura, confused, but looked as if he were holding back a smile. Before she had time to say anything else, he turned and walked out onto his porch.

Ending the silence after so long wouldn’t be easy, Laura knew. But she also knew that she wouldn’t give up. She would help Grandpa out of his depression. Today – the almost smile – was already better than yesterday. She would get him to talk, and she would make the house nice, and she would make friends with kids at school. Her mother was gone, but she was still here, and she was going to live life the way it should be lived, no matter what…