The Parting: Nightmares

Nancy was concerned for her son. She had heard of soldiers coming home only to have problems adjusting to life. She’d heard of young men that had nightmares as they relived situations in the field. She didn’t want her boy to endure that. If possible she wanted to take all of that away. She prayed to God asking if she could bear it for him. Unfortunately, Jack had only been home a couple days when he began calling out in his sleep.

Jack’s brother, John, was interested in military matters and mentioned to his mother an interview of a woman who was the spouse of a WWII vet. She was told by one of her husband’s buddies to never touch him when he was asleep if he was dreaming. All she needed to do was softly speak his name into his ear and he would wake up. Sure enough, she would do that and her husband would wake and he was ok. Nancy planned to do the same should the need come.

After about 2 weeks being home, Jack seemed very irritable. Little things seemed to upset him more than they should. He spent a lot of time with JoJo and MIA but rarely spent time with his old friends. This bothered her a little and it hurt some of the old friends. Nancy asked one day why he didn’t spend time with his old buddies. Jack simply said that he had nothing in common with them any more.

That night, Nancy awoke to Jack screaming for her. Instantly, she jumped from bed and ran to his room. With each step, a sleepy fog faded and she came back to reality. From the moment she awoke, Nancy believed Jack was 6 or 7 years old and was calling for her. He used to have nightmares when he was a little boy and there was something in the way he called to her that reminded her of those nights. There was terror in his voice.

When she got to his room, he lay in his bed with his eyes tightly shut. Just before she went to touch him she caught herself and instead whispered into his ear, “Jack, I’m here.”

“Mom?”

“Yes, honey. I’m here.”

“Mommy?”

“Yes, Jack I am right here next to you. What’s wrong? Did you have a bad dream?”

Jack nodded his head.

“Can you tell me about it?”

With his eyes still tightly closed she said, “It was a jumble of images.”

“War related?”

“No, not at all. At first, I was driving down a highway like in New York or LA. You know, with a lot of lanes and traffic. I saw this dead person being tossed about in the wind by the passing cars and trucks but he was tethered by rope or something so they didn’t keep going down the road. Then, I was on the phone with my sister and I don’t even have a sister. Suddenly, there was a big yellow semi coming up the road against the traffic and it smashed into the car in front of me. I started crying as I described what had just happened.”

Nancy noticed Jack had still not opened his eyes. She softly touched his hand and he grabbed hold as if his life depended on it. Jack continued.

“Then I saw this barrel. In it were all the souls in the world. Then I saw something like an acronym. It stood for ‘Roses are red. Violets are blue. Satan is evil and after you.’ Then Satan was standing over the barrel and I could feel the evil and hatred coming off of him. He had utter contempt for the souls in the barrel. They already belonged to him but he wanted to kill them. Then he vomited on them. Then you woke me up.”

She wanted to take her boy into her arms and hold him on her lap. He seemed so fragile. He was her little boy but he was a man now. Still, he would always be her boy no matter how big he was. Jack’s eyes tightly shut so she asked, “Why don’t you open your eyes?”

“I don’t want to see him again.”

“Who?”

“Satan. I can't get his face out of my head. It is a cross between a goat and praying mantis head.”

“Honey, he isn’t here. One thing I learned in church long ago is that when you say the name, Jesus, the devils and demons have to leave.”

Jack started saying “Jesus” over and over but still didn’t open his eyes. Nancy said she would pray. She prayed her boy would be made whole and that the demons that were bothering him would leave him alone. She prayed it would be soon.