Spiral Bound Journal

Never Ending

At first, only her eyelids moved. Even her head stayed still as Felicia grappled with her sudden ascent to wakefulness. Wan light from the main condo hallway crept into the living area, giving the space a slight blue glow even in the darkness. Still, Felicia's mind painted wisps of deep black smoke over the dining room table and chairs. She managed to turn her head and see the red glow of Adrian's bedside clock.

3:30 AM, she thought. Later than usual.

Still, given how she'd woken from a nightmare of Lake Street being on fire, the time rung and bounced around her brain. She'd been up at this hour the night the riots raged hot enough to cast Minneapolis in a red, glowing orb visible from 50 miles away. Sirens from the nearby fire station had disturbed already light sleep that night. This time around, the air was still, somewhat of a surprise even in winter. This quietness clawed at Felicia's mind, spurring her to get out of bed and double check the view from the window.

She crept into the living room and sat on the end of the chaise that made uo part of the gigantic sectional that defined the area. She nudged one of the blinds aside and looked outside. No vehicles of any sort made their way down the street, and the lights of downtown were still shining but muted. The stadium had turned off their lights hours ago, and some of the towers had reduced their lighting to their emergency settings. Felicia looked to the left and saw the dark windows of the nearby convenience store. When her eyes traveled up, they stuck on the bare treetops.

Felicia could see the smoke again, although she knew there was no fire at this moment. At that, a wash of green painted itself on the bare branches. The scene crept into her vision bit by bit. She could still see it in her mind's eye: thick smoke butting up against light gray clouds, visible even among the abundant foliage of Minneapolis' tree lined streets. It would take hours for that plume of smoke to be gone, but it would not be the last she saw of the chaos. If it wasn't the smoke, it was the line of carts barricading the grocery store entrance to mitigate possible looters. There was also the hole in the window of a Target in the same shopping center. She never found out exactly what had been thrown at it, but that hole ended up shutting down the pharmacy inside for two days. Felicia could still see the sign about that in the drawn shutters of the pharmacy's counter.

The padding of footsteps shuffled behind her. Still, she stared straight ahead even as she could see her husband approaching. She spotted some yellowish light off to the side.

"Felicia?" he asked. "How long have you been out here?"

At that, Felicia, managed to shift her head enough to look at him.

"Time is it?" she mumbled.

"Five," he told her.

"The riots again, Adrian. The riots."

That prompted Adrian to sit down next to her. She felt his arm on her shoulders.

"Want to talk about it?" he asked.

"What's there to say? It's the same ol' shit as before. If it's not seeing the smoke over the trees, I'm dreaming about walking in what used to be the parking lot of Minnehaha Liquors. Or it's the old Arby's sign covered in tarp next to an empty lot."

Adrian rubbed her shoulder. "At least it's not about our bike ride where we had to dodge the pawn shop debris."

Felicia shook her head. "Why does this keep happening? I'm over 40 now. Why am I still thinking about this?"

"Maybe it was last night's meeting with the school board and parents."

"Why do they all act like the riot is in the past? That's crap! There are still signs! They just finished the demolition of that blasted precinct! It's not right! It's not fair!"

She punctuated the last line with slamming her fist into the cushion. To her surprise, no tears fell. Instead she shook, prompting Adrian to tighten his arm around her.

"I bet the kids at the charter school are glad to see that happening, though. They don't have to see that intimidating eyesore anymore."

Felicia shook her head. "At least that school is actually considering the history curriculum I've been working on. The parents in southwest Minneapolis, though...it's like they don't even care to remember just because they may not have seen it, and even that's not true! I still feel pangs for the old gas station near Minnehaha Park. Why did that have to burn to the ground like that when it wasn't anywhere near the protests? Those poor people! They had to watch that from their apartments, and other gas stations in the city had the same thing happen! Everyone saw it! I don't get how they can put it out of their minds!"

Adrian rubbed her arm. "I wish I knew, Felicia. I wish I knew."

"At this point I feel like I've run out of tears, but I somehow never run out of sorrow. Will I be mourning this forever?"

"Maybe. Maybe it's time to mourn some more after all the work you've done."

With that, Adrian rested his chin on Felicia's head, and they stared off into space, each grappling with their own whirling thoughts.






Word Count: 911

Prompt 5-Nightmares ▼

Dreams are said to be a process of the mind filtering memories into storage, a sort of de-fragmentation of the brain. Some believe dreams contain messages from the subconscious or external forces.

Write a scene where your character is woken by a nightmare.

*Noteb* What do your people think of dreams? What do they believe about them?
*Noteb* How do they cope with bad dreams?
*Noteb* What is behind this nightmare? Is it born from a phobia, a nagging unease, or indigestion?