Tales of Olsen

2

The beeping sound of the alarm clock woke me. Letting out a sigh of relief I thanked my lucky stars that it had only been a dream. Although it had been strange and vivid, it had only been a dream I told myself reassuringly. The day ahead was going to be tough, the last thing I needed was to lose my mind so soon before leaving for college. I was moving to another state to study medicine but so far, the fear and anxiety I felt over the move had been causing the nightmares over the last few weeks. First, it was the one about being chased down by stethoscopes and the most recent one where I discovered a talking medallion. I threw the covers off and began to climb out of bed when I noticed something amiss. I was in my jogging clothes and I was certain I hadn’t gone to bed in them.

Holding my breath, I looked down at the foot of the bed and right there I saw my jogging shoes. Instantly I knew that I hadn’t been dreaming. Jumping from the bed, I ran towards the door when something on the nightstand caught my eye. Turning to face it, my skin went cold. It was the medallion.

Instead of the glowing lights that had been there last night, it seemed like any regular trinket, only I knew that it wasn’t. It was then that I began to wonder how I had made it from that spot back here and why all that had happened. There was no logical explanation and yet here I was, dressed as if I had been running and the medallion was sitting on my table.

“Eloise!” my mother called from downstairs.

I jumped back, surprised at the sound of my mother’s voice. It was something I had heard every day for the past eighteen years but suddenly, it was different. I could pick up a hint of sadness and anxiety in it. How strange was it that I had never been able to hear that before?

“I’m up,” I shouted back, “I’ll be down in a few minutes.”

Quickly I changed into my nightgown and ran down the steps. My mother stood in the kitchen waiting with a suspicious look on her face.

“Is everything alright?” she asked

I nodded and looked away. My mother, Angela, was a cop. She wasn’t just any cop but the best detective in her squad. There weren’t many cases she didn’t solve and what made her even more impressive was that she had been the only black woman in our town who had made it to a position like that.

“I know we said we’d do dinner at six tonight, I’ll have to push it back to seven,” she said obviously ignoring my suspicious beha+vior.

“What’s up?” I asked

“Nothing, I just have a lead on a case,” she replied, “your father’s gonna take you and Matthew to the restaurant.”

I nodded.

“Eloise,” she said

I turned and looked at her. She looked heartbroken but they all knew this day had been coming. I had prepared myself, but it was clear that my mother wasn’t ready to let me go.

“Mom,” I said, “I’ll be alright. It’s only five hours away.”

“By plane,” she added, “but I will miss you. I just wanted to let you know just in case I didn’t get to tell you before you left.”

I nodded but as my mother pulled me in for a hug, something strange happened. I felt as if I had been thrust into a pool of emotions. I was beginning to feel things; sadness so deep that it almost drowned me, and I pulled away from my mother before it did just that. The moment my mother released me, the feelings left.

“Is everything alright?” she asked flashing me a look of concern.

“Yeah, I, I just feel a bit tired.” I lied, “maybe I should get a few more hours of sleep while I still can.”

“Just make sure all your things are packed for the flight later tonight,” she said, “we go right to the airport after dinner.”

“Will do,” I replied

I waited until my mother was gone before rushing back to my room and calling Jordan my oldest childhood friend and the only person heading to Harvard med school with me. We were both leaving on the redeye flight later that evening to Boston.

“Eloise, I’m dying!” Jordan exclaimed, “why didn’t we decide to fly in the daytime like regular people?”

I laughed picturing her expression at that moment. It was my preference to fly at night but Jordan had objected. The compromise had been made to let Jordan choose the flight back home.

“Are you done packing?” I asked

“No!” Jordan replied, “how do they expect us to fit all our things into two suitcases. It’s impossible.”

“You don’t have to take all your thing,” I replied, “just the necessities.”

“Everything’s necessary!” she replied dramatically, “do you have space for a few of my shoes?”

“No,” I answered, “can you calm down for a second, so we could talk about something?”

“Fine go on,” Jordan replied

“I had a weird dream last night,” I began, “when I awoke I realized it wasn’t a dream.”

“What does that even mean?” Jordan asked

“I thought I had dreamt about that old park where they’re building the new apartments on Jane Avenue,” I began, “I went there and found some old medallion and it talked to me.”

I knew that if someone had told me that story I would have recommended they be committed but I had no explanation for what had happened to me.

“Elo,” Jordan said, “are you sure you’re not going crazy because of the move?”

“I would say the same thing,” I replied, “except when I awoke, I was dressed to go jogging, my shoes were at the foot of the bed, and the medallion was on my bedside table.”

Jordan was silent for far too long.

“Are you there?” I asked wondering if she was still listening.

“Maybe you were sleepwalking and had a lucid dream.” Jordan said, “or maybe you went jogging before you went to sleep, and you don’t remember.”

“We were talking last night before I fell asleep,” I insisted, “I know what happened, or I know most of what happened.”

“So, you got out of bed last night fully conscious and went to that old creepy place on your own?” she asked

“I did,”

“Why’d you go?” she asked

“I just felt like it,” I replied, “it was as if my body just knew what to do. Plus, there were voices telling me to go.”

“And you jogged back?” Jordan asked

“That’s the odd part,” I replied, “I must have fainted but then I woke up in bed.”

Jordan laughed.

“You’re too old to still be playing these games,” she said

“What do you mean?” I asked,

“I mean, you used to do things like this as a child.” She answered, “You’d say you ran off in the night, found something and then wound up in your bed.”

“I don’t remember that,” I replied,

“I figured you didn’t,” Jordan replied, “but you used to make up crazy stories as a child.”

I thought about it for a moment. If I was being honest, I didn’t have any memory of doing any of that and yet in the back of my mind, the same voice I had heard last night kept telling me that it was in fact true.

“What were the stories?” I asked

“You would say you met a lady, she took you to somewhere and showed you medallions.” Jordan replied, “you were obsessed with medallions it seems. The lady told you that you would have to find the very last one someday.”

“What else?” I asked

“I don’t remember for sure,” Jordan replied, “only that once you kept saying that the fate of the world depended on it. I thought it was a bit dramatic.”

I shook her head hoping that maybe a memory would come but nothing came.

“I found a medallion in that park,” I replied, “I’m almost sure it’s pure gold.”

“I think I have an old drawing you gave me once,” Jordan said excitedly, “my mom keeps things like that. Maybe I can find it and show it to you later when we meet up. We can compare the drawing and the real thing.”

“Still doesn’t explain my weird dream,” I said

“Maybe you went jogging and had some sort of vision, I can’t explain any of this, but do you want to talk to my mother?”

The idea of talking to Jordan’s mother didn’t make me feel any better. The woman was weird, to say the least. When Jordan was younger, I had been her only friend because her mother insisted the others had bad energy. As we grew older, I realized her mother had been right all along about the others having bad energies but there was still something off with Mrs. Devine.

“Just bring the drawing so I can see,” I replied not wanting to say plainly that I didn’t intend on speaking to her mother.

“Will do, now please let me finish packing,” Jordan said before hanging up.

Putting down the phone, I decided to take another look at the medallion. It was just sitting on the desk like another trinket but as I approached it, the groves began glowing once again.

Reaching out, I picked it up and ran my thumb over the groves. There was a line of text around the edge of the medallion on both sides but once again I couldn’t distinguish the language. Setting it down, I decided to finish packing. Whatever happened, I wouldn’t let this throw me off.