Cane Ridge

She still couldn't shake the previous night's dream. As she walked to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee, Suzanne couldn't stop thinking about the vivid images in her dream the night before. She had seen it all so clearly. She could recall walking through the hallways of that brick home and touching the familiar pictures that hung on the walls on either side. She remembered the flashes of a wooden staircase with iron spindles that lead toward the front door of the house, and then of course, she could vividly see the worn cobblestone that made up the driveway of the home.

She stared out the window of her small apartment and watched the drain drizzle down the glass. It was late morning, but the stormy sky made it look like it was still night. Something stirred inside her as she watched a utility van pull into the parking lot of her complex. Painted on the van's side, she read the words "Cane Ridge Painting." She stared at the van through the window and mumbled the words aloud to herself, confused, but intrigued. The strange house dreams that had recurred for as long as she could remember always correlated with the word Cane Ridge; she could never understand what it meant. No one ever spoke the words in her dream. No one was in the dreams, only the house, but still she always heard the words Cane Ridge; like a faint whisper from the home as she walked through it.

With an urge inside her too strong to shy away from, she walked out of her apartment door and down the old concrete stairs that led to the parking lot. She hurried toward the van with the words from her dreams painted on it. Suzanne slowly circled the van, studying the words on it. She noticed the van was from Tennessee. So it seemed that Cane Ridge was an actual place in Tennessee that had echoed in her dreams for so long. The answer to a burning question she couldn't even understand was so close she could taste it.

Growing up with her parents and younger brothers in a lower middle class neighborhood in Southern Alabama, she felt odd and out of place. Her family was nice, she loved them all of course, but she had always felt like something was missing. Like, perhaps, there was a secret her family was keeping that she was never in on. The dreams exaggerated these feelings and pushed her to search for something that she knew was missing, however, she could never figure out what it was. When she had voiced these dreams and concerns to her mother as a child, her mother responded by calling her silly and far-fetched and at times became angry, both reactions were equally bad to Suzanne.

As she stood in the parking lot, soaked in summer rain and wearing her pajamas, Suzanne made the decision that she was finally going to find the answers to her own questions. Questions she knew were burning inside close enough to get to, close enough to find the answers to. The key was the house; the key was her dreams and the echoes within.

After packing a small suit class and changing her clothes, Suzanne rushed out to her car. She had map quested directions to Cane Ridge, Tennessee and wouldn't stop until she got there.

When she arrived in Cane Ridge, it was early in the morning. The sun began to rise and the dew glistened on the grass. She drove through neighborhood after neighborhood looking for her home. She had grown more exhausted as she passed several houses with no feelings of recognition for any. Her hope began to wane as she pulled up to another stop sign. Her mother was right. She was silly and far-fetched to let a dream take her thirteen hours from home to a somewhere that she didn't even know existed.

Her eyes began to water as she filled with despair. She turned as she wiped her eyes and she spotted the brick house at the end of the rode. She drove furiously in the direction of the house and pulled into the cobblestone driveway. She ran to the front door, covered in familiarity and warmth. Seized with anxiety, confusion, and joy, she rang the doorbell. The door opened to a smile that beamed like the sun, "Suzanne!" the man exclaimed, as he grabbed her into his arms. "I've been waiting for you." He said as he held her and cried tears of joy. She began to cry too, she felt safe and she knew that this was what she had been looking for all along. "I've been waiting for you too." She cried as he led her into her dream home.