Becoming my worst nightmare …

while trying to wake me from one, wasn’t what my sister had in mind when she heard my obvious distress during the night.

I was, as has been the case over the past couple of weeks, right in the throes of my own personal hell and she meant well; meant to comfort me … when she came to my rescue.

It didn’t go down that way.

We were spending the night in a motel and planning to go to Dollywood the next morning.  Since having both of my nieces in the same bed is like trying to sleep with a team of mules, my youngest niece slept with me.

At some point during the night, my bad dreams came on full force; I began to talk and cry out in my sleep.  It woke my sister and she decided she could be the most help by simply waking me up. Naturally, she came up beside the bed and began gently shaking me.

I woke, as I always do from these dreams, in a panic; heart pounding, breath ragged, eyes wild …

and looked at what could only be my worst fear … the hell in my nightmare had come to life.

The horror of the dream images usually recedes when I open my eyes, but low and behold, there the creature was.

Beside my bed.

In shadow from the dim slash of light that seeped into the room.

I put my arm out to shield my niece, who was closest to that thing, while at the same time, trying frantically to climb the wall.

I tried calling out to my sister, and actually said her name several times, but stark terror froze my voice in my throat.

I couldn’t utter an audible word.

The commotion of the unfolding events in the middle of the night woke my niece.

My sister spoke soothingly to her.

The soothing voice had come out of the hideous face standing beside my bed. It was then I realized that my nightmare had not morphed into my reality after all.

The creature WAS my sister … she had simply forgotten she still had her CPAP mask on.

Terror then became hilarity and we laughed ourselves silly.