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Fiction: To see is to believe part one
Who knew what the dream was telling her?
Claudia had been an optimist. Wherever she walked, it was as if a river of tranquillity wound its course beside her. Her face radiated with such purity and innocence that when she smiled she glowed with a sincere warmth that was comparable to the sun bursting through the cling film of darkness to deliver the dawn to our doorstep. She could light up a room better than floodlights in a field at night. It was no wonder that she was engulfed in the light’s warm embrace.
Claudia’s first visit to the doctor was when she was only thirteen. Her mother sat with her in the cramped waiting room and tried to act natural. Claudia decided to pretend that she could not see her mother’s eyes dart towards her rapidly every few seconds like an animal backed into a corner. Annette Newton was a lady of class and elegance, and a successful business woman who had the personal imprinted black brief case to prove it. She worked ruthlessly long hours, sipped cocktails in bar lounges with her colleagues on Friday nights and got her weekly French polish on Saturdays. Being in this environment unnerved her; as if it was damaging to be seen here. As they sat there wordlessly, she tapped the magazine against the leg of her power suit impatiently.
Annette shook hands firmly with the grey haired, blue shirted doctor before lowering herself onto the leather recliner on the other side of the desk. Glancing disapprovingly once more at her blonde haired daughter she sighed “Claudia has been having some nightmares lately doctor….”
For the past few weeks, as her conscious drifted from her body to the realms of sleep, the same dream visited her. Water. Water breaking through barriers, destroying buildings, pulverising fences and gates. Waves, advancing like great white horses, sweeping across the land. Nothing could stop it; anything in its way was swallowed up and became part of the parade of destruction. It was sp crisp and real that she would awaken to her own screams.
The doctor scratched his chin thoughtfully before passing a small brown container with a white lid to the older woman. “These should help, probably just some mild insomnia related issue, hormones can bring it about” he mumbled, jotting notes onto his clipboard. He didn’t even look up as the door creaked and thumped behind them. Just another patient.
The next time she visited the doctor; Claudia’s mother folded her arms across her chest and angled herself to the left, so that her back was mostly to her daughter. Those smooth little white pills with the “p” indented on the surface hadn’t been able to block the dreams. They had instead given her constant headaches that felt like someone was consistently chiselling away at her skull. Claudia hadn’t taken them since her fifteenth birthday three months ago.
As her head lolled to one side, her mother spun and gruffly shook her “For the love of God would you stop that” she snapped with her mouth pinched. Blinking a few times to refresh herself, she yawned her apologies quietly to the back of Annette’s navy Gucci cardigan.
Annette’s black patent high heeled pumps clicked purposefully across the doctor’s spotless polished floor, as Claudia shrank into one of the large chairs, the leather cold on her skin. “We have tried everything the last two years with these” she began, whisking the little pot out of her purse and shaking it in his face. No introductions today. “She’s tried taking them before bed, first thing in the morning, with water, without a drink, before meals, after dinner, everything!” she puffed, standing over his oak desk. “And every night I have to get out of bed and wake her up from her infernal screaming. Look at her, she looks like a ghost. She can’t even take a nap before she’s tossing and turning and wailing” she spat. Annette paused and inhaled deeply collecting herself. The doctor sat back calmly.
“The water…” Claudia’s eyes were almost popping out of her sockets as she shook her head back and forth “There’s just so much water…..the people drowning….beads, beads, we need to use the beads!” she whispered tears rolling down her cheeks. “Mommy you need to use the be….” “Will you stop with your nonsense girl! Do you see?” she pleaded with the doctor.
“Claudia” he breathed in a good lungful of air “We need to up your tablets. I’m prescribing you three new kinds of pills. Now if she doesn’t improve, come back and see me alright?” he answered waving the green and pink slip at the pair, before he resumed his ape like position hunched over his paperwork.
By: Soracha O’Rourke
