The Nail and Hammer

Night before last...January 14, 2012

I was living in some sort of ranch colony, where all of the men and women slept in separate areas of the ranch. It was really a very beautiful place; rolling hillsides and tall grasses as far as the eye could see. I had a best friend named Emily, Em for short. She was a wonderful soul; unfailingly kind and honest and loyal. I loved her like a sister.

They called us all into the meeting house, said there was a big announcement to be made. Em and I hurried in, arms linked, and found a place to stand among the crush of people clustered around the podium. We whispered and laughed as we waited in anticipation for the big announcement; the thrushes beneath our boots released the sweet smell of fresh straw into the air around us.

The great doors to the meeting house thudded closed behind us, and we all pressed together closer, trying to get a better view of the podium. Then we heard the locking beams on the outside of the doors falling  heavily into place. Everyone looked back at the doors, confusion knit between their brows. Then came the hammering, the terrifying sound of hundreds of nails being driven into planks that had been industriously placed across the windows. People began to scream, women clutched their babies to their chests in fear, Em and I pressed closer to each other, holding each other’s hands for comfort. Torches were thrust in under the doors and pushed in through gaps in the barred windows; thick grey smoke began to billow down from the rafters. Everyone was screaming, and coughing, and clawing at the windows and doors, trying to find a way out. The cloth curtains around the podium caught fire from a torch that had been kicked across the floor in the trample of feet, and I could feel the heat across my face as it licked up and up into a towering blaze. I pulled Em over to a window and began to push and tear at the screen in a gap under one of the wooden planks. It came free! I pushed my right arm and head through the gap and found I was just small enough to fit through. My left hand still held Em’s; I could hear her gasping and choking for breath.  I let go of her hand and I pushed my way through the window gap, then turned back to help Em through. She pushed her arm and head through, but she was too big to fit.

I began to scream in a panic, “Em! Em! Come on, you have to try harder!”  I could feel that my face was wet, I was sobbing and holding on to her hand through the window. I could see her terrified face covered in a haze of dark smoke. I began to pull on the boards blocking the window, willing it to budge just a little so that Em could get through. But it was nailed fast. I grabbed Em’s hand again, “Em! Please Em! Em!” The shrieking of the people inside began to ebb as people were either consumed in the flames or had asphyxiated from the smoke. Em’s hand grew limp in mine as she succumbed to the heavy smoke that had invaded her lungs. “Em! No! No, no, no! You can’t leave me! No, Em, no!”

I could feel the heat from the window, so I had to let go of Em’s lifeless hand as the flames began to eat away on the side of the building. I collapsed into the dirt a few feet away, unwilling to move further. I wanted to feel the heat and the sorrow, and the unfairness of being the only one to escape. At some point, after the meeting house was only a raw pile of burning embers, I slept from the exhaustion of crying.

When I woke up, I was in my narrow bed in the women’s quarters, and Em was in the bed next to mine. I felt drained and my face was still wet from crying. Everyone was still asleep, dawn was just curling her fingers around the edge of the world. It was a dream. Just a dream. I took a deep breath and rolled over to face Em; her sweet face deep in sleep. I never wanted to see that kind of terror in her eyes ever again.

We got up with the morning bell, and the day went on as it usually did. During lunch break Em and I climbed up the tallest hill in the valley, our favorite spot, to eat lunch and watch the community busy with work. I looked at Em, so pretty in her mauve and grey cotton dress, her hair in a long blonde braid down her back. A gust of wind crept over the hill to pull her bangs out from the place where she had tucked it behind her ear. She turned and looked at me with those grey eyes of hers, a smile sliding across her square face, cheeks dimpling in pleasure and said, “They are calling everyone to the meeting house after lunch. They said that there is some big announcement!” Her eyes widened in excitement at the prospect. I felt all of the blood drain from my face. She must have noticed because she said. “What’s wrong? Do you feel ill? “She came over to me and took my hand. Should I say something about my dream? Or would she think I was crazy? Her terrified face engulfed in smoke flashed across my vision for a second, and I knew that I had to say something. I told her about what I had dreamt the previous night, and her eyebrows pushed together over the bridge of her nose in concern. “Maybe we should keep this to ourselves for a little while. When we go down to the meeting house we will look around first before going inside. If we see anything suspicious we will tell the others.”

We headed to the meeting house a little early. I pulled Em around to the side of the building, and there, hidden in the bushes, were piles of wooden planks, a box of nails, and several hammers. All along the outside wall there were similar piles hidden amongst the brush. Em said, “Those could just be for repairs…” But I could see that her face had grown pale. Then, hidden behind a barrel by the entry way was a bundle of wrapped torches and a box of matches. We ran back up the hill towards the community center. We could see people walking towards us in clusters, making their way to the meeting house. We stopped them and told them of my dream, and of what we had found. Everyone began to murmur, spreading the news like a fire across the groups of people. The head of our community stepped forward and said, “Are you sure of what you saw? This isn’t just some kind of foolishness?  A vision spurred from a girl’s nightmare?” We told him that it was the truth. He could see from the looks on our faces that this was no child’s trick. He turned to the group standing behind him, and began the first step of the uprising.

Then…
I woke up.