Lucid

After another exhausting day she stood for a moment wrapping the robe tighter around her waist. This nightly ritual of staring at the stars was comforting as usual. Tonight it was cold and she did not linger, the full moon was up above the pine trees, it's face reflecting light into every part of the landscape bleaching out the pinpricks of stars. She carefully placed the stone beneath her pillow and rolled over to read a few pages of her book before drifting to sleep.

It was another cold autumn morning, sounds filtered through the conversation she was attempting to have with the woman on the sand. She pulled the cover over her head and shoulder and submerged to the other world again. She stepped up one step and looked back over her shoulder, the child was slowly loping and bending, crawling down the long, shallow steps, concentrating with each manuveure downward.

'I went there, I didn't have time to stay long, just one glass of wine.' The light on the horizon stretched out to gold, orange, pale pink and tinged violet before merging with deep blue. It was getting darker and the warmth was leaving the air slightly and she stepped down once again into the warm sand feeling it slip between her toes. The child had stopped, it's attention caught by something on the stairs. She turned her gaze to the sea. Then she picked up the little girl who screamed at being interrupted from her climbing, kicking her legs and arching her back. The woman felt anger wellling up, then realised the internal frustration and anguish was not the child's fault and tears pricked at her eyes. She wiped them away and put the little girl's feet firmly on the step, talking quietly she bent over holding her hands and walking up slowly as the sea disappeared with the sinking sun.

She rolled over her eyes opened to take in the cold blue light filtering through the window. High above her the clouds tore and through them the pale autumn sky was visible for a moment before being engulfed again in thick cloud.