My creative juices must have once again begun to flow, because all of a sudden I am having extremely vivid dreams that stick with me long after I awake. Dreams the likes of which I have not had since I was in the midst of writing the Behold the Eye trilogy.

I don’t mind the good dreams, but some of them, well, I would prefer to let them fade away with the morning light. They are just too disturbing.

Take last night’s dream. I was in my car with three of my four daughters (which three is fuzzy). I was driving across a bridge, only, it was like no bridge I have ever seen. I got halfway across when it suddenly dipped down at an angle that any roller coaster would envy.

I struggled to slow the car, but it was no use, we were out of control. Terror became the overwhelming feeling as I realized that a part of the bridge was washed out and we were careening uncontrollably toward water. There was absolutely nothing I could do about it.

We hit the water and fear quickly became panic. I struggled to catch my breath as claustrophobia kicked in. How could we get out? Were we going to die, trapped under pounds and pounds of suffocating water?

That was when I noticed that one of my daughters had managed to open a door and was exiting. Hope vanquished the claustrophobia, and I was able to take a deep breath before following my daughter, expecting my other two daughters to do the same.

I swam to the surface and climbed up onto the bridge, struggling all the while to catch my breath. Relief that we had escaped helped to calm the intense shivering that had overtaken my body, but that relief was short-lived when I looked around and discovered the terrible truth that only one daughter was by my side.

Again I panicked. I jumped into the water and dived down as deep as I could, but I could not reach the car. It had sunk too far. I was too weak.

Waiting for help to arrive was torture. There was nothing, absolutely nothing I could do except pray that some miracle would occur and my children would find their way out of the sunken car to the surface. The despair I felt drained every ounce of energy from my body, and all I wanted to do was curl up in a ball and hide away from the world.

Finally, after what seemed like days, a tow truck arrived that was able to reach down into the depths of the lake and pull out my car.  By this time my heart was so broken into bits that I did not know how I could still be alive.

Tears poured down my face as I waited for the police to open the door to the car. I had lost two of my daughters, life would never be the same again.

Only, I had not lost two of my daughters. When the door was opened, it was discovered that a miracle had happened and air pocket of sufficient size had been trapped in the car. My unconscious daughters were alive and well. After they were checked out it was discovered that they both only had a few bumps and bruises. They were perfectly fine.

The dream might have turned out well, but it was still rather disturbing. The emotions I felt were deep and broad and felt very, very real.

I have to wonder if there is a message in it for me.

Maybe that I should be more careful of what I eat right before bedtime.