Sleepless Dreams

Chapter Seven

The room had completely changed. They were still sat on the sofa but it was now an overstuffed chintz settee and as they looked around, they noticed there was old fashioned wooden furniture, faded patterned wallpaper, a wool carpet on the floor and heavy-looking curtains across the window. Also they was no television, dvd recorder, laptop or cd player. Instead there was just a large wooden radio. Emily recognised it from a programme she’d seen about the Second World War when she was at school. The thought made her shiver. Surely they weren’t in the 1940’s? It must be a dream, she’d wake up in a minute. This thought made her relax a bit. She looked down at herself and saw she was wearing a floral dress and her legs looked tanned. Then she remembered that sometimes women use to stain their legs with cold tea when they couldn’t get stockings because of the rationing. Emily looked round at Howard, he’d not said a thing so far. She was surprised to see he was in uniform and his hair was slicked back. She saw he had RAF wings on the pocket of his jacket. Was he a pilot?

Finally Howard spoke, “What the fuck’s happened?” He looked at Emily.

She shook her head, then said, “I don’t know. This is a dream, right?”

“Err, well, if it is, we’re having the same one!” exclaimed Howard. He looked back at Emily and gasped. He realised she was wearing the same dress as the one in his dream. This was getting more and more weird. He stood up and caught sight of his reflection in the mirror that was above the fireplace opposite the settee.  He was in a pilot’s uniform from the 1940’s.  They can’t be back in World War Two? That was just impossible!

“I’m scared” Emily softly said, looking up at Howard. He did look very attractive in his uniform, she thought, then remembered with a jolt that she’d seen him in it before – in her dream!

Howard sat down in shock at his reflection and moved closer to Emily and folded his arms around her, holding her close. He noticed her perfume had changed too. It was familiar to him though, it was very similiar to one his great aunt used to wear he thought. They sat on the settee for a few moments hugging each other, wondering when the dream would end. If it was a dream?

“What are we going to do Howard?” Emily looked up at Howard. He was lost in thought.

“Well, what were we doing when the lights went out?” Howard asked.

But before Emily could reply. There was an enormous explosion outside.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The building shook as bombs started landing somewhere outside.

“What was that? Oh god it’s an air-raid!” Howard shouted over the noise to Emily.

“Quick, get under the table” Howard dragged Emily by the arm to the large oak dining table and gently pushed her underneath. They huddled there for ages. Listening and feeling the bombs land all around the building.

“We can’t stay here.” Emily said after a very loud explosion, which was so near, the windows rattled.  “This place may get hit too”

“But if it’s only a dream, if that happens we’d probably wake up”. Howard reasoned.

“Yes, maybe, but what if this is real?” Emily asked him.

“It can’t be! That’s ridiculous!” But Howard was worried by Emily’s words.

Then Howard remembered what he was going to ask Emily before the air-raid.

Howard turned to Emily awkwardly as he kneeled under the table. “What were we doing just before the lights went out?”

“Umm,” Emily paused. “We were talking about the locket I’d found and I was wondering if I should keep it” Emily replied.

“Anything else?” Howard asked. Trying to work out if anything at all, had triggered this peculiar event.

“Oh yes. You were helping me put it on. If I take it off again, perhaps It’ll change things back or we’ll wake up. Or something...” Emily trailed off.

“Oh yes. It’s worth a try.” Howard agreed.

Emily reached around the back of her neck to undo the necklace. Her hair was in the way a bit and Howard reached over to help move it to one side. Emily couldn’t get the clasp to undo. Howard offered to help. After a moment, he was successful. Emily took it off and they waited.

Nothing. The lights in the room flickered but only because another bomb landed nearby and rocked the house’s foundations.

“Now what!” Emily turned to Howard and he could see real fear in her eyes.

“It’ll be ok” Howard tried to soothe her. “How?” Emily asked. She grabbed his hand and held it tight. “Don’t worry, Em. I’ll think of something” As he said this, he kissed her hand to re-assure her. Emily was still holding the necklace in the same hand, so as he kissed her he also kissed the locket. 
Suddenly the lights went out for a moment or two and the sound of bombs exploding stopped.

Howard and Emily looked around them. The table seemed different. It seemed to be made of a  lighter wood and was a little lower.

They crawled out from under it and saw they were back in Emily’s living room!