Baby-Sitter from Beyond the Grave (Or Not)

I posted in a previous blog how I was having trouble sleeping because of the sensation that there was someone or something in my bedroom with me.  I told the story of the poltergeist experience I had throughout my teen years to give credence to the sensation.  

This week, it seems I got over it, though in a rather odd manner.  It could be that my dead great-aunt is baby-sitting me at night.  

It was actually a dream I had in the middle of the week.  My sleep pattern has been very...  Uncomfortable, I'd call it.  Because of the sensation of something being there, I'd lay in bed, wide away, feeling nervous and twitchy.  I kept opening my eyes to look around and see if there was anything in the shadows.  

The next thing I'd know was, BAM! the alarm was going off, waking me up.  From my perspective I'd be laying there, jittery and nervous, and the next moment I'm waking up.  There was no period of cozy, drifting slow to sleep pleasure.  After these last couple of weeks, I'm pretty certain that the cozy, pre-sleep relaxation is a heretofore unrecognized benefit of a normal sleep cycle.  

I also didn't have any dreams.  Normally, when I wake up suddenly, I can remember something of what I was dreaming about right before.  These days, zip.  The only thing I remembered was, seemingly moments before, me laying in semi-darkness, trying to convince myself that nothing else sentient was in the room but me.  

This one night, things were different.  I still had that certainty that I wasn't alone.  I kept wondering if the twitching I was feeling was my tense muscle struggling to relax or if the bed was starting to move.  

Then...  I was asleep.  I was dreaming and I knew I was dreaming, which doesn't happen very often to me.  I was standing on the street in the middle of the night in front of my apartment.  And someone was with me...

"I can't stay very much, hon...  But I'll sit with you for the night."  

I knew that voice.  It was my great-aunt, Isolene.  My pop's sister.  When I moved back to California, I used to run errands for her all the time, taking her to get her Social Security and SSI checks cashed, taking her grocery shopping, to the doctor's when she didn't want to walk or take the bus, which was pretty much every time she needed to go.  She died a few years after Pops died due to complications from her diabetes.  She was so disciplined when it came to her insulin, that I often suspected she neglected her routine because she didn't want to be alone in the world without her brother.  She got furious at me when I suggested that to her while visiting her in the hospital shortly before she died.

"Ok.  Good."  I remembered my mom telling me that Isolene used to baby-sit with me right after I was born, while the three of us were still living with Pop and Mumma in their house.  

"But I can't stay much, hon.  You're a grown man now, too.  And anyways..."  

We were at the corner of the street where my apartment building stands.  I tried to look at her, but...  She wasn't really there.  In my dream, all I could see was this...  Shape.  A big and fuzzy cloud.  Dark.  With a blurry impression of a face and hands, with everything else seeping in and out, back and forth into the night time darkness that surrounded us.  

Was this really my great-aunt?  I started feeling concerned...

"...I have to make sure I get paid for this."  

Whew!  That was a relief.  One thing both Isolene and Pop shared was a concern about where their money came and went from.  And it was her voice.  So...

The next thing I knew was drifting back to consciousness.  You know that feeling when you start become aware of how comfy you're feeling.  When you start moving and know you're moving.  My eyes opened and I saw the bright red figures of my alarm clock.  My alarm was going to ring in about three minutes.  

And I was well rested.  The first good night sleep in days.

That night, when I got home from work, tired from the day, there was no anxiety.  I got into bed and pulled the covers up.  I didn't feel any need to look around.  I felt comfy.

I know there are people who might read this and say, "Of course that was your great-aunt.  She felt you were in trouble and came to protect you."  

But how can you be sure of that?  Couldn't it also be that some demon invaded my dreams and is trying to lull me into a false sense of security before...  Doing something...  Demony?

I don't think I'm going to consider the possibilities too much.  The skeptic in me thinks that my brain just did what it needed to do in order to get some much needed rest.  It went through the database of recollections and pulled together something that would help me relax enough to get some sleep.  

And if it is my great-aunt Isolene reaching out to help me from beyond...?  Then, I'll just remind her of all the times I carried her groceries from my car and stocked the shelves of her kitchen with what she bought and tell her a little beyond the grave baby-sitting makes us even.

She would appreciate that.