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“What is it, princess?” a voice says without turning over.
My scream is loud and piercing… and it is what wakes me up.
I shoot up in bed. My heart is jack hammering in my chest, and I clutch it as if this could calm it.
I frantically glance around. Single bed, tiny desk, a door to an even tinier bathroom…
I let out a long breath as I realize I’m in my shoebox.
It was a dream, just a dream.
Am I going crazy now? Are Claudette’s riddles messing with my head?
As my heart slows, my body is still trembling and highly charged.
Jeez, I think I actually came in my sleep. Now there’s a first.
“Good morning, darling,” Claudette greets me way too chirpy for seven o’clock in the morning. “You look puzzled. Why?” she asks, as she sits down at my table in the staff cafeteria.
“It’s nothing. I just had a dream.”
It’s so not nothing. Ever since I woke up, I’ve been going over what happened and what it could mean. But I don’t want to discuss it with my psychic-extra-ordinaire. Though, she’d probably have plenty to say about it.
“Oh, tell me more.” She looks excited, and it’s like I can see the wheels in her mind turn in anticipation. Have I mentioned that she’s also a dream interpreter? After leaving her cabin last night, I read her pamphlet which lists her many talents.
“It had like a black swan in it. It wasn’t always a swan, but it became one. Perhaps my last encounter with one triggered this?”
Yes, that’s got to be it! Trying to save the cygnet and being chased by its angry parents is the reason for the dream. Why didn’t I think of that earlier?
“Hmm, maybe, but it doesn’t really matter what triggered it,” she tells me as she stirs milk into her cup of tea, observing the mixture carefully.
“Black swans are an omen that something astonishing is on the horizon. They’re usually a sign of good things to come.”
Well, I like the sound of that. God knows, I need more good things turning up in my life.
“That’s surprising. I wouldn’t have thought that good things are associated with the color black.”
“The world is full of surprises,” Claudette winks. “Now tell me, what happened in your dream? And be precise.”
Heat rises into my cheeks and I’m certain I’m as red as a tomato. I’m so not going to talk with her about this.
“Hmm, not much happened,” I deflect.
“A swan swimming toward you means a new relationship is coming your way. And you know, swans mate for life.”
I look at her, wide-eyed. “Good thing then, it wasn’t swimming toward me. A new relationship is the last thing I need.”
I’m trying to get over the one I just ran away from. And I’m not sure how successful I’m going to be with that.
“What was the swan doing?”
“Uhh, at first it wasn’t exactly a swan, but it came charging in, but then slowed down and waddled toward me, opening its wings and engulfing me. That’s when I knew it was a swan.”
“Hmm,” she smiles. “Interesting, don’t you think?”
Goosebumps race across my skin. She’s unnerving me. There’s a reason I didn’t want to talk with her about this. But too late now.
Claudette notices my discomfort but chooses to ignore it.
