What is Reality? a Short Story

Maureen gradually opened her eye lids, fluttering a bit to try to clear them and began to look around. It was an unfamiliar setting to her but something about it rang a bell in her foggy brain. She blinked her eyes, trying to clear the room around her. Then she tried to sit up. Something was holding her down. She looked down to see straps buckled across her body as far down as she could see.

Suddenly, a door opens on her left. She turned her head to see who it was. A figure in a surgical mask and gown entered the room. Her eyes widened as it came closer.

"Oh my God!" she cried out. The figure behind the mask was an odd shade of green with huge black eyes.

"Quiet child!" the voice of the stranger said soothingly. Its arm came forward, covering Maureen's eyes and she felt calm, unafraid and relaxed. An anesthetic cup slipped over her nose as she drifted off into oblivion.

A few hours later she awoke in her own bed. She sat up, looked around, expecting to see almost anything. But the room was as it had always been. There were no scary green being with large black eyes.

The bedside light was still on and the glass of water she had brought into the bedroom before she retired was still there. The TV lights flickered across the room as the station had gone off the air for the night. She lifted her arm, looked at her watch and realized it had only been three hours since she came to bed.

She glanced over her shoulder at her husband Frank, sleeping soundly on her right side. He always slept with the covers over everything but his face. He snored lightly. Their little dog was asleep between their feet on the other end of the bed. Everything looked normal.

She scratched her head. "I must have had a nightmare." She said softly to herself, "Guess I need to quit watching those Si-Fi movies at bedtime!"

She reached over to the TV controller and clicked it off. Then she pulled the light on the bedside lamp, fluffed up her pillow and laid down facing the window. Her eyes were just closing when she heard a strange noise.

She sat up alert, listening to see what it was. Just outside the window she saw a glowing object, getting smaller as it rose into the distant navy blue sky. Her hand flew up to her mouth, as she gasped. "It was not
a dream," She said, "It was real!"

A male voice spoke behind her asked, "What's wrong, honey? What was real?"

She knew instinctively something was wrong. She switched the light back on and faced her husband. The man lying beside her smiled back at her with his strange green face and glowing big black eyes. She fainted.

When she awoke she gradually opened her eye lids, fluttering a bit to try to clear them and began to look around. It was an unfamiliar setting to her but something about it rang a bell in her foggy brain. She
blinked trying to clear the room around her. Then she tried to sit up. Something was holding her down. She looked down to see straps buckled across her body as far down as she could see. She saw an unfamiliar
setting, Something about it was like de ja vous! It rang a bell somewhere in her all to foggy brain.

It was not a dream, It was a nightmare! She was sure this had all happened again and again. She had to break this cycle in the time warp. Maybe if this time she didn't cry out, things would change. She gritted her teeth and kept silent.

Someone was shaking her gently. Her face was perspiring with fear but she opened her eyes again. This time she saw a uniformed police man. She could hear his voice somewhere in the distance.

"Are you all right Miss?" he asked. "Do you need an ambulance?"

Her eyes began to focus on his face. "What happened?"

"Apparently, you swerved your car to keep from hitting a child that ran out into the street. You've had an accident."

"Is the child all right?"

"Yes she is fine, miss!" The officer assured her. "But for a while we were afraid we had lost you."

"You did," she said smiling. "But, Thank God, I'm back now."