bring out your dead

I was driving.

My cell phone rang and I answered it. It was my mother. We spoke as I drove.

She seemed stressed. I asked her if everything was alright. That’s when I heard my grandmother speaking in the background.

My grandmother has been dead for two years now.

I asked again if she was alright. She didn’t answer.

I looked over to my right and my grandmother was sitting next to me.

I screamed and drove into a ditch. I was trying to control the car and myself at the same time. The car finally came to rest and I climbed out.

There was someone, a dark shape, standing in the middle of the road at the edge of the horizon.

And then she was much closer.

I screamed again. Louder this time. Trying to wake myself up.

I did.

I was lying on the couch. I must have drifted off.

Suddenly the front door flew open. Violently. Beyond it was blackness. I knew she was there. Somewhere. Coming.

I screamed again.

And again.

Then a whimper.

There was no waking up this time.