Not quite a native Ripley Countian - she attended only her last year of high school in Doniphan though she taught in the R-1 system for 32 years - Teresa (Pearson) Lee delights in surprising readers and herself with anecdotal observations of life in general. Maybe you can blame her St.Louis roots for a quirky humor and some slightly-askewed opinions, but never doubt she writes from the heart.

Current River Writers - Prompt for October 2023

Posted Friday, October 6, 2023, at 3:36 AM

Dumbfounding and horrific simultaneously. Coming-into-consciousness wasn’t the usual waking from a deep sleep and nightmare. Being a lucid dreamer, I’m accustomed to nocturnal brain debates - “Is this real or a dream?” ending when my eyes open and I teeter to the kitchen to feed four felines that consider me mama.

My eyes opened but I could not identify what they were seeing. My wiggling toes scraped something hard and cold but my feet couldn’t find the floor. Wait. My knees were on it, and thighs and my tummy, my chest and my chin.

Debate resumed. I must still be dreaming. What did I eat before bed? Did I drink too much with that meal? What is that noise?

My eyes widened in search of light in the direction of the sound. It was coming from a dark mound with just a strand or two of an eerie light on either side of it. Why couldn’t I stand up? Boy, my head hurts!

Shuffling….lots of intermittent shuffling…at times the mound looming larger, even when the muffled shuffles diminished.

No, don’t reach for it…Wait…where are my hands? Focus…where are your hands…wiggle your fingers…try to wiggle your fingers….YIKES! My hands are asleep, one under each hip bone! And now they are trying to wake up! Ouch, OUch, OUCH!

I rocked left then right as I pulled my hands out from under my body which I slowly realized was lying face down on a floor…My floor, a floor somewhere else? Debate….real floor or dream floor?

The black mound brushed my nose and forehead as I used my tingling hands to get to my knees. My witch’s hat had been atop my pedestal fan….the fan I collided with in the dark hallway. My black cat was having fun wrestling with it.