Dream– Escape

I waved goodbye as my mom sped over the hill and out of sight. I thought I saw something along the length of fence and walked over to check it out, but it was just a snowdrift. Moving the branches of a cedar pine tree aside, I hung the outdoor portion of an indoor/outdoor thermometer on a nail on the solid wood privacy fence– the kind made from two inch gray boards laid right next to each other that come about five feet high. Then I opened the gate, still unlatched from me coming out, slid under the simple semicircular arbor, and slid the latch securely into place.

“The bad thing about nice little gates,” came a gruff voice from behind me, “is that they can let in those you are trying to keep out.” I whirled around. Standing along the length of fence was a short, slightly overweight man with a black fleece hat and a hard glint in his eye. I didn’t bother to ask why he had slid through the gate while I had been outside. I didn’t need to. I just had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach that I needed to run because the cat was about to spring. So after that stunned instant where I was frozen to my place, I started sprinting towards the house. He, however was ready for this and was surprisingly able to sprint faster than I in foot and a half deep snow. I tripped and he grabbed me from behind, his arms locking down over my arms and his right leg twisted around my leg keeping me slightly off balance and dependent on him to keep standing. I tried to scream but could barely find my voice. His cheek was rough with dark stubble as he pressed it into mine. “Don’t try nothing stupid or you’ll be sorry,” he whispered in my ear. There was alcohol on his breath. 

I pretended to relax and it worked. He slightly loosened his hold and I was able to shift just enough weight onto my right leg so as to surreptitiously move my left leg out and then swing my heel hard into his leg which was still supporting us both. The leg gave out and his arms loosed for a second. I crashed my elbow as hard as I could into his stomach. But then he regained his hold on me and I realized that he had barely been tapping into his strength before as he crushed me into his chest. Now I found my voice. “DAD!!!” I shouted. I could see his turned back in the kitchen through the window making pancakes. “DAD! DAD! DAD! DAD! DAAAAAAD!!!!!” He turned, holding the frying pan, smiling. His wave froze in midair though when he saw me and his smile turned into a stunned, “Oh.” He took off across the house towards the garage. I switched from screaming to kicking, repeatedly slamming my heals into his shin.

“Now ya’ve done it!” said the man holding me on his right leg with his chin digging into my shoulder. He tried to throw me to the ground I wrapped my legs around his as tightly as I could. I knew the front door would be locked but if I could just make it to the draped roofline I could jump on it and scramble over the peak and slide into my window. We both heard the garage door opening and he stopped for an instant and then he succeeded in throwing me on the ground. I rolled away from his kicks and started to rise. A partially deflected punch slammed into my cheek but I was able to stay standing as he tried to drag me towards the gate. Now my dad’s white Jetta was even with us. The man turned his attention to it and I took off for the house, scrambling up the eaves. Just before sliding over the peak I looked back. The man was slamming his body into the front of the car denting it further and further in. I had to call the police. Why didn’t he just run away? I slid apart a hidden panel in the roof and dropped onto the window seat in my room, standing on it just long enough to secure the panels back down and then lungeing across the bed for my phone. As I dialed the emergency number I heard latches turning and spun around in horror at my window. Had he followed me?

And then I woke up. My roommate was opening a bag of pretzels.