“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.
Thanks for stopping by :)
Cheers!
1st Image created by me using AI
Doodle given to me by an old friend, @atopy
Wow... de ja vu? That's amazing! Knowing you've lived a life before and muttering them in your sleep is crazy. Well done
Thank you so much 😊 I'm glad you appreciated it
Oooooh!
!LUV it!
Very cool!
Thanks dude, much appreciated 🫵🤘
!LUV
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hello @therneau please could you provide image sourcing for your two images before we can curate this piece. Please also be aware that we ask writers to comment on at least two other stories in The Ink Well for each one that they submit. Thank you, The Ink Well team.
Updated the image sources. Figured it was okay since they 'belong to me.'
I also thought my recent comments would suffice, but commented on some others too.
I'll be more diligent going forward 😊
Thank you for providing image sourcing, @therneau. Here at The Ink Well we require our writers to confirm where their images are from so that we can be comfortable that copyright is not being breached. We ask writers either to provide URL links to the royalty-free images that they are using, or to confirm that the images are AI generated or belong to them. This makes it quicker and easier for our curators, who are all volunteers, to review your submissions. As regards supporting other writers, it takes time to track back through comments to see if writers are supporting fellow community members. It is much easier for us to require that each submission is accompanied by at least two recent supporting comments to other writers. Ideally, on each occasion, a writer will read and support at least two other stories before submitting their own. Thank you for you your understanding.
Cool, 100%, I understand
This is such an incredible story, and the imaginations you left us to ponder on at the end is so good too. Maybe one can never know, life is a mystery and can be very difficult to unravel. Sometimes, I do wonder if we have all lived before and if we'll still have another life. The concept of de ja vu gets me really curious, because why on earth is something happening and I am having the feeling that it has happened before? Very scary and fascinating at the same time!
Thanks for sharing this beautiful story, enjoyed every bit of it.
#dreemerforlife
Thank you so much. I'm really glad you enjoyed it ☺️
De ja vu really can be quite an experience. Not that I've ever experienced anything like John has here, but I guess we've all experienced it somewhere along the way.
Interesting...
That's a very good way to picture out the moment in dream that he never seemed to remember.
Nice one👍
Thank you 😊
Wao! Wao! Wao! This is just amazing
The construction of the lines and the attention it evokes is commendable. What a writer you are..
Oh wow, thank you so much for the kind words! I'm honoured 😊
You are welcome man