Double Life: Sleep

“Have you ever sewn a button?” Nichole said. Josh saw a blood stain on her shirt. Her trembling hands started to unbutton her shirt from the last one to the first, he looked away but he could still see it from the corner of his eye.

“Josh” he heard her voice calling, he still looked away. She started to talk, to give instructions, he was shocked, in any other situation he´d be looking but now he couldn´t make himself see her. “Josh, I need you to do this, you said you wanted to help”. He looked at her eyes that looked like they never had looked, in pain. He nodded. She kept talking; he was barely able to follow all the things that she was saying. “Josh” she called. “Did you understand?” he nodded. “Ok, go” he nodded again. And he tried to calm down. “You need to look at me to do this” she said. He saw her white skin stained with blood coming out of a large wound. He could feel himself shaking after the eight stitches he’d given her; she was now cleaning the remaining blood, still shirtless. His eyes were glued to her hands and the wound, he was still focusing on the movement her torso did every time she breathed, in and out and as he did so he noticed that she looked like she worked out a lot, his eyes looked up at a piece of cloth that covered the rest of her skin. He blinked.

The air in his lungs was not enough, Josh gasped for air but as he did so water entered through his mouth and nose; it burned his throat as the light blue water burned his eyes. His arms and legs moved frantically and he tried to scream for help, no voice came out but water came in, he feel himself going down, drowning. He touched the ground and opened his eyes one more time, it was clear; he could see tiles somewhere away from where he was.  He felt his eyelids becoming heavy, he closed his eyes and opened them again, he saw the same clear water and focused on the tiles, there were no longer there.

“Josh”  a small voice said. He blinked, he was laying on what felt to be a hospital bed, he looked to a side and saw a glass, a little girl was on the other side of it watching at him, she put her hand on the glass and she smiled, he looked at her, there was a needle on her little arm. She looked at it too and her brown eyes filled with tears.

Click, clack, click, clack, click, clack. He heard the sound of someone coming, a tall woman in a white robe came in. “Don´t cry, Nicky- the woman said, she had brown wavy hair- it’s ok, we´re helping him” The little girl said something. “No, Nicky, you can´t go there, he´s still sick” She carried the little girl in her arms; the girl reached for the glass and put her little hand on the glass. “Josh” she mouthed.

“Nicky” Josh said and he was back in the water. He was scared. He tried to ask for help but no one was around. Water burned his throat and lungs, he couldn´t breathe, he was drowning again.

“Josh, Josh”  the boy heard his named called. “Nicky?” he called hesitant.

“What´s wrong with you two?” he heard an angry voice muffled by a thunder. He opened his eyes and saw Nichole´s back.

“Nichole” he got up and walk to her

“What?” she sounded still angry

“There was a little girl in my dream named Nicky” he said. She lifted an eyebrow.

“You were having a nightmare”

“How do you know?”

“You were gasping for air”

“Ah” he said looking to the ground and then he turned around heading to the bed he´d been using.

“Hey” she called softly “are you ok?”

“Yes, I´m good” he was back in bed. “Sorry if I woke you up”

“What was your dream about?”

“Never mind”

“You called me Nicky, you need to make it up for me” she realized she didn´t mind that much that he had called her that. He blinked a few times and he started to tell his dream, she listened in silence.

“So, you did see me” she chuckled lightening up the mood. He blushed. “Is that why you can´t swim?”

“eh?”

“You´re afraid of water”

“What?”

“Am I wrong?” she asked, he shook his head

“I was about to drown when I was little”

“And now you can´t get near pools”

“How…?”

“You and your mother didn´t join your father and your brother to his swimming competition and you never insisted on swimming with me once you knew Aaron had done it” She walked to his bed, he was looking down.  She sat next to him. “Your secret´s safe with me” she winked and he chuckled.

“It´s not a secret”

“What happened?”

“I was four, I fell on the pool we had at our house, it was horrible, I felt so desperate. Next thing I remember is returning to a new house having nightmares that I didn´t remember when I woke up and my brother coming to my bed to calm me down”

“Have you always have those nightmares?” her voice barely above a whisper

“No, I had them a few times back when Aaron started to swim but I haven´t have them until a few weeks after you saved me from falling at the river at the other side of the wall”

“We´ll go swimming to the river, it´s beautiful, you´ll see” she winked. He chuckled shaking his head.

“I´m sorry I called you…”

“It´s ok as long as you don´t do it again but I think you must have met some Nicky at the hospital you were”

“Maybe you?”

“Nope, I’ve never been in any hospital. I´ve never been sick in my life”

“Really?”

“yup. Now go back to sleep.”

“Are you sleep?” she heard a voice in the dark after a while

“I am” she replied holding her laughter

“I´m sorry” Josh said after a while.

“What for?” she asked genuinely curious

“I’ve been avoiding you”

“I know, you were mad at me, I told you it´s ok”

“You´re always telling me to go away”

“Yet you never listen, what changed?” she heard him sigh. He´s probably regretting starting this conversation, she thought.

“You were swimming with Aaron”

“Were you jealous?” she asked, he was silent for a long while.

“You didn´t tell him to go away”

“I did. You boys are just too persistent. Sleep, Josh”