Happy St. Patrick’s Day. I’m not doing shamrocks or green beer. Today’s discussion is on a new series for writers called Channillo. I have a once a week feature called Four Hundred Words or Less. Each Wednesday I post a story that is four hundred words or less. I have often said that what I do to relax or when I’ve reached a roadblock on something is write short stories. So now I have an outlet to do just that. Here is the debut story. Hope you like it.

The Dream by John W. Howell © 2015

Gerry wakes up from a wild dream. It was only a minute ago, but the memory of it is fading already. How hard it is to deal with irrational dreams when the only real thing left after you wake up is the cold fear, he thinks. Wiping his face with his hand brings away more sweat than he thought is there. Reaching for the clock on the bedside table he sees it is four o’clock in the morning.

It is the fourth morning in a row in which a dream wakes him. Funny thing too it is always four o’clock. There are at least two more hours until he has to get up, so Gerry puts the alarm back and pulls the covers up and turns on his side.

A quick flash of the dream jerks him as if he is falling. He looks up and sees the cargo door of the airplane slowly rising up into the sky. His brain is telling him to look down but as the airplane gets smaller he is afraid of what he might see. His stomach feels like he is on a fast-moving elevator that is going down rapidly. The wind is rushing in his ears and is causing pain as the pressure of air begins to exercise his eardrums. Rolling slightly to his left, he can look below him. His heart begins beating out of control at the sight. The green Earth is rushing up at him spreading out so he no longer can see the horizon. Reaching across his chest looking for a handle in hopes this is a skydiving exercise in which he blacked out or something.

There is no handle, and now it occurs to him that this is the dream he has been having for the last four nights. He needs to control his breathing and try to concentrate on his heart rate since he is sure he will be waking up.

“So what do you think happened?” says the Police Officer.

“I can’t tell,” says the EMT. “Heart attack I would guess officially. To look at his face though I would say he was scared to death.”