Curtains and Witches

* I had tossed my pillow to a side when at first I couldn't sleep; better a cramped neck than a sleepless night,I told myself.I awoke a short time later and found myself feeling around the bed for the pillow-it had fallen to the ground.With my head on the soft pillow,I snored away to dreamland,only I didn't arrive at dreamland.The land I arrived in was dry,deserted and very dusty-a tormented place,my high school? It was also really bright,illuminated like a surgical theater.I saw a familiar building and I was teleported to one of its top-floor rooms.There were people there,people I know.I was looking for somebody,my eyes slid about the whole place,I don't know who it was that I was searching for.Then I saw her; Naya,my high school classmate,sitting at a table with some other girls who I thought looked familiar.She was wearing our school's uniform,I think it was our school uniform.The uniform's short skirt seemed to be a flowing gown though.Her hair was very long too,much longer than I remember.When she called my name in an ethereal voice that seemed to come from miles away,a strange cold gripped me and I felt strangely naked.Naya started to walk towards me and my mouth opened in a silent scream-She had no legs! I turned and tried to run away from her but she was so much faster than me despite her lack of legs.I heard the girls at the table laughing at me.Why was I slow? I was already at the balcony,climbing the rails to jump down but I couldn't move anymore.I looked down and saw that I had no legs too! And then I fell,a long fall that seemed to last forever.I woke up with a start.Looking around the room,I saw only darkness.I was sweating,it had been so long since I had a nightmare; the last time I was still a child sleeping in my mother's room.It must be all the stress from the day's work,I told myself.Falling asleep again,I remembered the very long and very angry voice message, Naya,my ex-girlfriend,had sent me the day before.Someone had been laughing in the background.What had she been angry about? She had been whining away about her legs;I searched my brain but in my state of half sleep I couldn't remember what I had done to her legs. I heard my name again.This time the voices were clear:voices of my friends from church,a whole crowd of them.We were all running;they were a distance ahead,calling for me to run faster and I was behind,sprinting in that ever unnaturally slow speed that is natural to dreams,trying to catch up with them.I saw them all disappear into a small car and then I was running after the car which also disappeared from view.The sky became dark,it became windy and I realized I was barefoot but I was still running.I slowly opened my eyes in the darkness.Wind was rustling the leaves on the masquerade trees outside.I was scared,not of the dream itself but of not knowing the meaning of the dream.My mother had always told me that all dreams have meanings.Whatever the dream meant,I knew for sure I didn't want to be left behind by my friends.Fully awake,I lay face up and heard my mother's voice in my head- 'whenever you have a bad dream,boy,say a prayer and decree that it will not come to pass'.My mind wandered for minutes and I remembered a story someone had told me as a child,of a man who kept having nightmares because a witch always appeared in his room,either as her human self or as a cat,to watch him while he slept.I thought of that evening I had incidentally looked out my window to see a large cat perched on the fence and staring straight at me.I again heard my mother's voice, 'Pray,boy!'; She made it a point to always remind me of how spiritually immature I was.I mumbled a prayer and buried myself in the blanket.I slept off and shortly after found myself in my mother's room.She was angry,fuming and I was kneeling before her.I felt fear-a kind of fear I hadn't felt since childhood,like the fear of imminent punishment.My mother was scolding me,words like acid raining on me,scalding me.Then she stopped suddenly and began to apologize and I started to cry.I woke up with that fear causing my insides to twist and my head to bang.I found myself praying,deep words of prayer,why did I keep having nightmares? When my breathing had calmed,the room was silent,silent enough for me to hear a muezzin in a distant mosque calling for the five a.m prayer.Then I saw it,for a moment I was too frozen to do anything:my window curtain was slightly open,allowing a small streak of moonlight into the room.It must be the wind,I thought.But what if it wasn't the wind? What if I was having nightmares because that cat was back,sitting on the fence,staring at me through the gap in my curtain? I felt sweat balls roll down my neck to my back.What if the cat was just the feline camouflage of a human-a witch? After some time,I convinced myself to get up and close the curtains properly.The wind had picked up;it was about to rain.Air rushed in the window,billowing the curtains,making the gap wider and wider,I could see the fence- there was no cat.Cool relief washed through me and I felt silly for entertaining childish fears.Maybe the rain would help me get an hour's worth of good sleep before the sun came up.I pushed off the blanket and slid out of bed. * * * As I walked to the window,I heard the shuffling of feet behind me.If it had been on any other morning,I immediately would have picked up something to defend myself from the intruder but I wasn't in the mood for childish fears.I turned really slowly and felt my heart stop.In the moonlight pouring in from the window which was now wide open,I saw her.She had an obscenely large head dress with complete witch apparel and was cradling a kitten which seemed to be a replica of the fence cat.Everything about her screamed horror and sent shivers down my spine.Her eyes were normal human eyes though.Normal with very dark pupils.Normal and sad;sad with the sadness of a mourner.I thought I had wet my pajamas.Then she smiled-or snarled,baring yellow teeth or fangs and then I screamed-I think I did.