The things that scare us in the night

My dream that was interrupted last night, was one of social rejection.  In the dream I had joined a group; a religious organization or a club of some sort. And I was not being accepted into the group.

It was subtly done. They took my donation check, but wrote on it that I had failed to show up for the volunteer meeting (although I was at the volunteer meeting when I handed them the check). They had no lunch for me, when everyone else was provided lunch. They ignored my attempts to say anything. So I was crying on a metal folding chair in middle of a meeting room, my daughter attempting to console me, when suddenly…

I awoke to the screaming of a little dog.  I know that it’s convention to say a dog is “crying” but this dog was definitely screaming in terror or wild pain. Our minds always try to guess the causes of the unexplained, and I envisioned a dog having partially dislodged or chewed a plug and electrocuting.

I have not jumped out of bed so fast in 25 years, not since my own children were babies and I slept with one ear open to the sounds of coughing, puking, crying and the things that go “crash” in the night.

Still asleep, but somehow wide awake, my feet took me in the direction of the screaming, as I shouted, “I’m coming, I’m coming!” with John running right behind me.

There she was, my littlest, my oldest, my frail and graceful Rosie who never makes a sound, dangling by her hind leg as if in a trap. She had somehow gotten caught in what I thought was a completely dog-safe house. I picked her up, and all was instantly well again.  She was not injured, only briefly terrified.

Perhaps the theme of this post is not terror in the night, but consolation by those who love us.