Nightmare

The Nightmare Begins

She glanced up at the clock on the wall and was glad to see that it was almost 3:30 am, especially after working a long, crazy twelve-hour shift behind the bar on the 2nd floor. When she was hired five years ago at ‘The Monkey Loft’ in downtown Seattle, Washington, she planned to make enough money to leave the city where she was born and raised. Although most of her family still lives in Seattle, Hanna Cook wanted to relocate to the Midwest or move to New York City and follow her dream to be a singer/actress on stage. She loves watching movies that are eventually turned into Broadway musicals, like Grease, Sister act, and Beauty & the Beast. Besides, she’s never watched a Broadway musical on stage in her life and made a vow to herself to mark it off her bucket list someday, along with the twenty other items.

“Last call for alcohol,” the deafening words came over the intercom on all three floors of the dance club, temporarily pausing the various types of music being played by the DJs on each of the floors, generating the normal booing and hissing from half-drunk patrons! They all swiftly ordered more drinks or shots, as if they needed to consume more alcohol before getting in their cars and driving home at 4:00 am when the club closes its doors. Hannah and the other bartenders and servers would always shake their heads at each other, laughing at the stampede of customers rushing to the bar or yelling at a server for more drinks and their checks as if the building was on fire.

The clocks were adjusted fifteen minutes ahead, so customers had time to finish their last drinks, pay their bills, and be herded out the doors, so the staff could clean the bars and floors before heading home, hopefully by 5:00 am.

Jeanette Phillips was sitting at the table with her four best friends she’s known since high school, and then consistently over the past sixteen years once they all turned twenty-one, on every Friday night, they could be found sitting at the same reserved table, on the 2nd floor at ‘The Monkey Loft,’ eating appetizers, drinking martini’s, and sharing crazy stories from the past week.

On this special Friday night, they were also celebrating the promotion of Maya Garcia to Sales Manager at Mercedes-Benz of Seattle. After the last call for alcohol blared over the intercom, Jeanette gestured to their regular server, Natalie. The latter figured they’d be ordering the last round of martinis like they always do. But, instead, she was already bringing them over to the table on a tray.

“Here you are, ladies,” Natalie blurted out before they turned their heads towards her loud voice, laughing and giggling!

“You read my mind, Natalie,” Jeanette giggled and winked, pointing at her, as she began exchanging the martinis with the empty glasses!

“Oh wow, Jett,” Maya responded, rolling her eyes, as another martini was placed in front of her! “Ok, but someone else will have to finish what I don’t drink. I have a longer drive home than any of you!”

“Here’s a toast to Maya,” Jeanette yelled over the music, “we all love you, and even though you’re so-o-o much older than the rest of us, we wish you the best! Congrats,” as they all clinked their glasses, taking a drink, when suddenly, Jeanette started giggling at Maya’s reaction, and the drink shot out of her nostrils all down the front of her new dress.

“Alright, you little bitches,” Maya couldn’t stop laughing at Jeanette, standing in shock as she quickly snatched a napkin from the table to wipe the martini still dripping from her nose. Maya held her drink high in the air over the table, and they all touched glasses again before taking another sip, but Maya downed the whole drink and slammed the glass on the table!

“By the way, I’m only a year older! Really?!? I can still out drink you girls anytime,” she laughed so hard, catching herself with one hand, almost falling over on the table.

“Hey, girls, it’s t-time for this bitch to g-g-g-o home,” slurred Lauren, barely able to get the words out, as she fell back down hard on the chair.

“And that’s why I’m always the designated driver,” Tiffany proclaimed, jabbing a finger repeatedly between her breasts, before giggling in her high-pitched irritating laugh, as the girls covered their ears, rolling their eyes at each other, laughing!

“You’re right, Tiff! We can always count on you,” confirmed Erin, setting down her glass and hugging Tiffany, who realized anyone within earshot of them, had turned their heads towards the drawn-out ear-piercing giggle, embarrassing her.

“Hey,” Jeanette screamed at the people gawking at Tiffany, as if she farted in the elevator, “get a fucking life!”

“Let’s get out of here, girls,” Maya proclaimed, raising and shaking Natalie’s server pad in the air, with two one hundred dollar bills in it, until she walked over to the table! “Always a pleasure, Natalie! Sorry about the rowdiness. Keep the change!”

“Not a problem, and thank you,” she replied! “You ladies, be careful driving home! We’ll see you again next Friday!”

When Jeanette heard the garage door closing behind her, she took a long, deep breath, leaning over with her arms on top of the steering wheel, and was so relieved to be home finally. It was 5:10 on Saturday morning!

After hugging each other in the parking lot of ‘The Monkey Loft,’ and helping Lauren stagger to Tiffany’s Mercedes she had bought from Maya, when suddenly she threw up on the pavement next to the car, before lying down in the back seat and passing out, we yelled to each other to please be careful driving home.

Maya and Jeanette drove their cars since they lived farther away than anybody else in opposite directions. Then, as she walked through the kitchen from the garage, she heard a text tone coming from her purse as she laid it on the counter.

Maya confirmed she was safe at home and had a great time, so Jeanette responded that she was also home safe. She and Maya Garcia had become close friends when Jeanette entered Ballard High School as a Freshman.

Being a year older, Maya already had a year under her belt at the largest high school in Seattle, with over 1,800 students, and nobody messed with her.

Her Dad was a professional boxer. So she learned to defend herself, even against the biggest defensive linemen on the football team in her Freshman year, when he slapped her on the ass in the hallway, standing with a couple of other football players by his locker.

Calmly, Maya turned around and walked up to them, asking him for an apology. Still, when he called her a Mexican whore and started to push her back, she easily avoided both of his hands, as he winked and nodded to the other guys, bowing down and leaning forward, she swiftly punched his abdomen several times and threw an uppercut to his chin, slamming him to the floor on his back.

Glaring down at him bleeding on the floor, she yelled, “I’m Spanish, asshole!”

It’s one of those hilarious events in your life that whenever it was brought up in the group, they would all laugh hysterically as if nobody had ever heard about it before. Sometimes the story would be embellished, where Maya beat the hell out of the entire football team. Jeanette had been friends with Lauren, Erin, and Tiffany since grade school. But, after Maya was accepted within the girl's close friendship, it became obvious to all of the teachers and students that they were BFFs, best friends forever.

Quiet as a mouse, Jeanette tiptoed down the hallway with heels in her hands and slowly opened the bedroom door, not wanting to wake Nick, who’s been working double shifts as a paramedic for the ambulance service next to Harborview Medical Center in downtown Seattle. When she first met her future husband, Nicholas Phillips, he was already enrolled in the EMT classes, studying for his finals to be a paramedic.

Being captivated by his dedication to serving the community in such an extreme, selfless capacity, Jeanette and Nick dated for several months before proposing to her. They were married within a year of meeting each other.

Snuggling next to him, Jeanette put an arm across her husband’s chest and then tenderly stretched a leg over his waist before falling fast asleep as the morning sun began its ritual of bringing light to another day.

The car burst into flames in the nightmare as she screamed and waved her arms, running towards an oncoming semi-truck on the empty highway.

Abruptly, a great explosion erupted behind her, shaking the pavement. After turning around, she saw that the windows had shattered from the concentrated heat, as one of the passengers was crawling out of the inferno, covered in flames and shrieking in terror.

Falling to her knees in horror, she could only watch as someone engulfed in flames crawled outside of the shattered window and collapsed onto the pavement, while bursts of flames continued shooting out of the window. Then, after observing the person writhing in unimaginable agony until life succumbs to the inevitable, Jeanette glanced upward and saw images of faces within the inferno, screaming for help, as the headlights of the semi-truck projected her long shadow towards the burning car.

She twisted around, shading her eyes with one hand, and waving her other arm back and forth, before starting to stand, when a shrill shrieking voice entered her head, and she quickly gazed back at the inferno.

The passenger who relinquished life to the intense flames stood upright but was now just a burnt remnant of a human shell, with smoldering wisps of smoke rising from its body.

Suddenly, its entire head appeared clearly above the charred body, and it was Lauren’s face staring at her!

Screaming at the top of her lungs, Jeanette awoke in bed, covered in sweat and twisted tightly in the sheets like a mummy. Realizing that Nick wasn’t lying next to her, she glanced over at the alarm clock on the bedside table. Unable to believe her eyes, she struggled to free herself from the sheets and then grabbed her cell phone.

It was 8:10 pm, and as the earth rotated towards the easts, giving the facade that the sun was setting in the west, Jeanette sat upright in bed, shaking uncontrollably about the nightmare she just experienced; and for the fact that she’s been sleeping for fourteen hours! As the vivid nightmare progressively returned in her memory, her heart rate increased as she leaped out of bed before hitting Lauren’s speed dial.

“You have reached Lauren Evans voice mail! Please leave your name and number after the beep, and maybe I’ll return your call,” her shrill giggle followed, before the beeping sound!

“Hey, Lauren,” cleared her throat, trying not to sound frantic! “This is Jett! Just give me a call when you get this, ok?”

Although it was almost 8:30 in the evening, Jeanette made herself a cup of coffee because she was exhausted, even though she had just slept over fourteen hours.

Fifteen minutes went by, which seemed like hours when Lauren’s text tone played from the phone in her lap as she took a sip of the hot coffee, and it dribbled down her chin. SeThen, setting the cup down on the nightstand n

‘We’re having dinner with Todd’s parents on their anniversary! Call me later when we get home. Felt like shit all day, but I still had a great time! I think! LOL!!!’

Falling back on her pillow, Jeanette gave a huge sigh of relief and closed her eyes, taking a few deep breaths, giggling to herself, and then got out of bed. Then, grabbing the cup of coffee, she dumped it down the drain in the kitchen, opened the cabinet above the wine rack on the counter, and located the largest wine glass in the cupboard; she opened a bottle of Pinot Grigio.

The sound of the garage door opening reverberated through the bathroom wall, making Jeanette realize that Nick’s home after working another double shift as she leaned over to drain the cool water from the bathtub.

She checked her phone, and it was already 12:45 am, so she quickly stood up and grabbed the towel from the hook behind the door to dry off. When Nick walked groggily into the bedroom only wearing his underwear, she could tell that he’s had another bad shift. Whenever he leaves his paramedic uniform in the laundry room, it’s usually because it’s covered in blood or something worse.

“Didn’t mean to wake you, Jett,” he whispered as he walked around the end of the bed towards the bathroom.

“You didn’t, honey,” she answered, turning on the nightstand light. “You look exhausted! Have another rough night, Nick?”

“Don’t want to talk about it, ok,” slowly turning his face towards her, she could tell he’d been sobbing? “Gonna take a shower and crash,” he stated, closing the bathroom door hard!

As Jeanette lay back on the pillow, she remembered one other time when Nick encountered an entire family killed in a horrific car wreck that disturbed him. It took another week or so before he blurted out about it while eating breakfast.

Figuring that since she slept all day, she’d easily stay awake until Nick came to bed, but when he slipped underneath the covers and softly kissed her lips, she was already sound asleep.

With her eyes closed, Jeanette was immediately aware that she hadn’t dreamed the entire night, or she couldn’t remember, but it didn’t matter at all.

Slowly opening her eyes, she stretched and reached over, expecting to touch Nick lying on his back next to her, as she does every morning, but he wasn’t there. Then, sitting up, she was stunned!

It was dark outside, but when she looked at the clock on the nightstand, she couldn’t believe it. Again doubting her own eyes, she grabbed the cell phone, and it confirmed the time.

It was 8:10 pm on Sunday!

She had slept all day again and woke up the same time as she did Saturday night! She almost dropped the phone when it began ringing loudly in her hands.

“Jett, it’s Lauren! Are you alright,” she asked, sounding worried? “I’ve been calling and texting you all day!”