Kara's POV
I hear heavy swamper boots run up the stairs of my porch and immediately I know that my best friend is going to be brushing her teeth in my bathroom tonight. "The wind is beating hard tonight", I say as I open the door. Her green eyes are squinted and hold water and I'm not sure if it's because of her nightmare or because of the wind. She comes in and slumps into the couch. "Do you want some of these Kool-Aid cookies I made?" She looks up at me with her big green eyes with water still held in them, "Kool-Aid?"
I can't help but smile at her. "Yeah, remember how my Mom works with mentally retarded adults at that home?" , "Yeah", she says, "Well they put Kool-Aid in the cookie batter and they turned out really good so my Mom and I made some at home." I turn and face the jar of cookies and pile them on a plate for us. She gets up and makes us two glasses of milk. "This time I think the creature that has the blue eyes is trying to kill me." This made me pause.
I've always tried to make her feel better about her dreams, we've even made jokes about them because I know if someone makes jokes about their trauma it will help. We've come to many conclusions, but this had taken me aback. I now understand that she's truly scared. "What do you feel suggest that?" She takes a moment before answering. "Well, I feel safe around the creature. But when I'm in the middle of the woods I hear the wind telling me to run." I try to dissect this dream farther with her. "Yes" I say, "but you hate the wind."
Her expression changes to one that looks pleading. "The wind is natural, whatever the creature is... Isn't natural." True, there's more to consider though. She's really the only one who can really translate her dream, she's the one in her brain and only she has gone through such a painful past. "What is it then?" Her expression changes again, but to fear this time. "I don't know", she says, "I just don't know. I wish I did."
"Don't think about sweety. Here, let's get these cookies out of the way." I grab the cookies and she grabs the glasses of milk and we head to my bedroom where there is a bunk bed just for her and I. We climb to the top bunk and put the glasses on the shelves above the bed. We toast with our cookies and then go at it. She loves cookies. In fact, one year for Christmas we bought friendship necklaces that say 'best friends'on a cookie cracked in half. If you put our necklaces together, they'll complete each other.
"Do you wanna start getting ready for School?" We both cared tremendously about our grades, "Nah", she says, "the sun isn't even up yet." She only likes the night time when it's calm. She doesn't want to get ready right now because the night and the wind combined is overwhelming for her. After we finish off the cookies and milk we leave it on the shelf for now and I climb down to the bottom bunk. She leans over the edge like always, "Goodnight Kara.", I smile back. "Goodnight."
