“Yes, but wait.”
“Hold the line!”
“There’s a rat in the water!”
“I'm sorry, Molly.”
Jenny has been woken up by her husband’s sleep talking many times over the years. She’s grown accustomed to it and asked him about it many times before, but this particular evening, her curiosity could not be contained anymore.
She decided that she was going to try and unravel what those ramblings were about since John hasn’t been able to remember it himself.
The following morning was like most others. John was rushing to get done for work. Jenny was hurrying up the kids. Like most families, the mornings were just like a whirlwind speeding along until it reached its destination.
“Okay honey, I’ll see you later,” John said as he mouthed a few more bites of cereal while pulling the rest of his jacket over his left shoulder.
“Honestly, I don’t know how you do it,” Jenny commented as John grabbed a last bite.
“What?” he asked playfully as he walked towards her.
“I don’t know how you can eat cereal after you’ve just brushed your teeth,” she smiled.
John cupped her head and gave Jenny a kiss with his milky mustache.
“Love you, babe,” he said before reaching for his backpack.
“I love you too, honey,” Jenny said smiling before wiping away the milk left on her upper lip.
“Bye kids, love you!” John called out towards the lounge.
The responses sounded more like groaning donkeys than I love you and goodbyes.
Later that morning, Jenny started dotting down John's ramblings. She mixed the words around in an attempt to make sense of it all, but to no avail.
“What are you dreaming about,” she questioned as she mouthed the back of the pencil once more.
She tried rearranging a few more times and thought back about any elevations in his speech, but alas, nothing.
“Ugh,” she groaned as she slammed the pencil down.
As the day progressed, Jenny went about her usual chores. She responded to a few emails, fetched the kids from school, and had all but forgotten about her earlier Nancy Drew attempt.
Before she knew it, John had arrived.
“Hey hon, smells great. What’s cooking?” he asked as he strolled into the kitchen.
“I decided to make us some lasagna for a change,” Jenny replied as he leaned in for a kiss.
John put his bag on the barstool and noticed the pieces of paper lying about next to Jenny’s laptop.
“What’s all this?”
“Oh, you know how you talk in your sleep so often.”
“Yeah,” John said, as he fingered the pieces about.
“Well, I thought I could try and make sense of it since you can never remember it.”
Jenny looked over at John, who was staring down at the papers.
“I just thought I’d give it a go, you know,” Jenny said as she turned towards the stove.
John was dead quiet.
As Jenny looked towards him again, he seemed as pale as a sheet.
“John. Are you okay?”
“Uhh,” John stammered, “I don’t know.”
He looked up at Jenny before proceeding.
“You’ve always told me about these seemingly random things I say in my sleep, but now that I’m actually seeing it on paper, I don’t know, it’s almost like a strange de ja vu moment I just experienced. Like I lived another life.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, this right here. Hold the line. I was standing among hundreds of soldiers on a battlefield. As in during mideval times. I could hear and smell everything.”
“Oh my gosh, John, are you serious?"
“Yes, I am,” John said, as he started pacing up and down.
“That rat in the water. We had an infestation of rats at the battle. The enemy burnt large fields, and I could see them everywhere.”
Jenny patiently listened as he continued.
“Oh, and the sorry Molly part,” John had to swallow back hard against the tears.
“She was Peet’s wife and my best friend. He died from an infection he picked up from his wounds. What the heck is going on?”
“John, please, you need to calm down,” Jenny insisted as she saw the tensions and emotions boiling up.
“I can’t tell you right now what all of this is, but we’ll figure it out, okay.”
“Sit down,” Jenny insisted as she poured him a whiskey.
“Did I have a previous life?”
“I don’t know, my love. All I know is that we have you here, now, in our lives, and we’re grateful for it.”
That night, both John and Jenny were restless, but as time passed, so did what was one of the strangest de ja vu moments for them, or John, ever.
Some thought it was the unconscious mind playing tricks. Others believed he’d been reincarnated. Whatever it was, it was an incredible experience.
1st Image created by me using AI
Doodle given to me by an old friend,
