The Dream Hatcher - A Short Story

The Dream Hatcher

 

I had been rowing since ages, but there's no sight of land anywhere. There's only ocean all around me. I want to go home. I am tired. I just want to take a nap. My hand felt warm, I looked at it and saw that it was in the hot ocean water under the sun. 

Out of nowhere, I was jolted to the side of the boat. I tried to look what did that to me, it's probably the waves - but they were not that high or even rising. I could hear voices, I turned around and I saw another boat. And to my surprise, it was my mom who was rowing it! She yelled something, but I couldn't hear her over the noise of the ocean. I felt my boat shaking, I checked again if the waves were raising, but they were not. My mom kept shouting at me.

"Mom" - I mumbled.
I opened my eyes and saw my mom stooping over me and yelling something. The dream vanished, as if it never happened, it was just the reality - my mom yelling at me in my room. I still couldn't make out what she was saying in my grogginess. I thought that it must be time for school and I must have woke up late, so I jumped on to my feet so that she would stop her yelling. My feet hit - water? I looked down and noticed that my room was filled with water to my ankle level. That shocked me and my brain was now wide awake to process what's happening. It's first explanation was that the room is being flooded by the tap I must have left open and now I am about to be bashed for that. 

"Dan! Stop..you need to stop, snap out of your dream right now!" - I could understand the words my mom was saying, but I still didn't understand the meaning of what she said! I was out of my dream!
"What? What happened? Why is there water here? Is this from the shower tap?" - I noticed that my right hand was wet.
"No! Dan, its from your dream! Wake up!"
"But, mom, I am awake!"
"Your dream is spilling over to reality, it's still out there in your brain somewhere, you need to delete it completely."
"What the hell are you saying mom? I am still dreaming? You aren't making any sense."
"Listen, Dan" - my mom grabbed me by my shoulders - "you need to recall your dream and delete it completely without any trace. You need to do it now, before your dream expands more into our world and completely floods our house. Do you understand?" - She was trying to talk to me in a calm voice right now, but I could sense the panic underneath her calm - which caused me to panic.
"What do you mean, mom?! What's happening?"
"Dan, I will explain it in detail once we deal with this. You are a dream hatcher, just like your dad was. You have probably just hit your threshold age. You will have to be trained to have control over your dreams, but right now, you need to try. We don't have much time, just try to recall your dream, we need to find it first to be able to completely destroy it."
"I am a what-"
"It's okay, I am here. Just close your eyes, remember what it was. Wait..you don't have to pee, do you?"
I was so dazed from all that's happening around me and here, my mom is asking me, if I need to pee?
"You will dream of water, when you need to pee, do you need to pee Dan?"
"No!"
"Okay, then it's some other dream. Close your eyes now. Try to calm your mind."

I closed my eyes. I tried to remember what my dream was, but I couldn't remember anything. Was that about the giant rubber duck? No, that was a dream from many years ago which I often think about, but it never appeared in my dreams again. I could only remember the day's events - I have to do my homework, there's lot of it and then exams are near, there's just too much to do. I am nervous about the presentation I need to give tomorrow. I thought about what my mom said about our house being flooded completely. I felt the water around my feet. The water isn't rising, how will our house be flooded-
"Mom! I know what I dreamed. It was the ocean, the waves weren't rising, I am in a boat and have been rowing for hours."
"That's great, good job Dan. Now close your eyes again and focus on your dream, try to remember every single detail - the way it felt, the way you saw it, sounds, everything. You need to purge every single detail."
"How will I do that?"
"Your father said that you need to focus on it and just will for it to be erased..to forget it. Can you do that Dan? Can you try, honey?"
I nodded and closed my eyes to focus with all my senses and remember every detail from the dream. The  blue ocean was little noisy, it was warm, the boat felt hard, the paddles were little too big for my hands, I felt tired just as I felt in the dream. I tried telling my brain to forget it,but I still felt the water around my feet. I poured all my concentration and tried again to erase just the paddles. I couldn't find them. I slowly focused on each thing, till I hit the ocean itself. I felt the cold floor of my room. I opened my eyes.
My mom smiled nervously - "You did it, Dan."
She hugged me tight, I hugged her back.
"Mom, what just happened?"
"It's a long story, you want to have some chocolate?"

 

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