Allison Says

Two nights ago I awoke to the Worst. Dream. Ever. While that may not say much comparing it to my dreams of shopping, walking around the park or talking with a friend about the most recent episode of Lost, I can honestly say that I cannot imagine a worse dream. It was awful.

Worst Dream Ever started like any other dream I may have…

I was at the Pittsburgh Zoo with Alex. My camera was around my neck and I was enjoying a leisurely stroll, taking pictures and pointing to the animals. Alex was people watching, not taking any notice in the animals. When we reached the Lions, I put the brakes on the stroller and zoomed in to take a picture.

Alex was making all sorts of noises, so I looked down to see what was going on. He wasn’t in his stroller. When I looked up, I saw a man holding Alex.

I had never seen this man before. Alex reached his arms out toward me as the man started walking away. I threw my camera into the stroller and started chasing after the strange man holding my son. He started running. I started running. I was screaming and screaming, “Stop him! He has my child!” but no one was doing anything.

The man was getting away. He was much faster than I was, and I was angry at myself for wearing flip flops. I couldn’t run fast enough. I saw a couple and decided that I would enlist their help. The man looked at me and stood up with worry in his eyes. “Somebody stole my baby! That man kidnapped my son!”

He started running after the man who had taken Alex. He was running extremely fast, and it looked like he was going to catch up.

The path to the zoo was just one long straight-a-way. I could see them gaining distance on me. I continued to run as fast as I could, but was not anywhere near catching up to them. I could hear Alex screaming and crying.

Suddenly, I had a horrible pain on my left foot. I continued running. The pain got worse and worse. My foot was starting to go numb. I couldn’t run anymore.

I sat down on a small bench, and the wife of the man who was chasing after Alex sat down next to me. She looked at my foot and had a look of utter horror on her face. “I think you got a snake bite…” I looked at my foot, and could tell she was right. There were two small, deep, wounds, bleeding profusely. My foot was completely numb, and I could feel my lower leg tingling.

The snake bite was quickly paralyzing me.

Looking up, I couldn’t see Alex anymore. I couldn’t see the man chasing after them. I burst into tears, and the woman told me that everything would be okay.

When I woke up, my eyes shot open. I looked around the room. I could see a small amount of light entering through our curtains.

Alex was fast asleep. He was curled up, laying on his side, in the corner of his crib, arms wrapped around the bumper. His blanket was kicked off of him, and his little socks were falling off of his feet.
I put the blanket on top of him, and crept back into bed.

Worst. Dream. Ever.