A Dream for Harper by Teresa Slack

Author:Teresa Slack [Slack, Teresa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grace Arbor Press
Published: 2020-06-02T04:00:00+00:00

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In the dream, Harper was on the porch with her sisters and little brother. Everyone sang and laughed and clapped their hands in time to the music Pa and Patrick played. Billy and Davy jumped up on the porch and stood on either side of Harper. They clapped and stomped their feet so loud Harper could barely hear the music. Harder and harder they stomped until Harper couldn’t hear anything else. She glared at them, but they only grinned and stomped harder. She yelled at them to stop, but she couldn’t hear her own voice.

She looked around the circle of faces. No one else noticed. Pa and Patrick continued to play. Ma turned her face toward heaven the way she often did when she sang. Harper couldn’t hear a word.

Suddenly everything went quiet. Harper was alone inside the house. The darkness was so thick, it seemed to reach out for her. Though she couldn’t see, she knew she was in the main room of the cabin Pa had built and added on to as his family expanded.

Harper turned in the direction of the front door. She couldn’t see it in the darkness. Something scratched the wood from the other side. She reached toward the sound, but her bare feet remained rooted to the smooth boards. Cold air wrapped around her legs. The scratching grew louder.

A shiver slithered up her spine. She listened for Ma and Pa in their bedroom next door. All was quiet. Where was everyone? Her home was never completely quiet, even in the dead of night. Someone was always stirring or murmuring in his or her sleep.

She pivoted her head to the four corners of the large room. No fire burned in the hearth. Not even one red coal glowed to give her a point of reference. She turned back to the scratching sound. She strained to listen as another sound separated itself from the scratching. Someone was crying. Or whimpering. Not in pain but despair. Or fear.

She reached again for the door. She wanted to help, but her feet wouldn’t move. The whimpering grew louder, the scratching more insistent. It didn’t sound like a person. It sounded like an animal. A wounded animal trying to get inside.

Fear pushed at the back of her throat, but she couldn’t scream. She needed to keep the evil thing outside. She strained to reach the bar to drop across the door. She opened her mouth to call out. Where was everyone? She needed help. She couldn’t do it alone.

A loud bang jerked her upright.

Harper gasped aloud and blinked rapidly to get her bearings. She wasn’t in the cabin. She was in her room in Uncle Hugh’s house, her heart pounding in her chest.

Banging in the next room sounded again.

Ellie.

She freed her legs from the tangled sheets and grabbed her dressing gown. She slid her arms into the sleeves as she hurried next door.

When she went into Ellie’s room, she found Ellie kneeling in the corner of the room in front of her armoire.

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