I was searching for something, though I didn’t quite know what. I searched frantically, though I didn’t quite know why. “Lift the lid on the third box,” I heard a calm voice say. I did as I’d been directed. Inside was the thing I’d been looking for, though I still couldn’t see what it was.
I awoke feeling incredibly relieved, my heart still pounding. What a crazy dream! I glanced at the clock beside me. Oh no! I was late for my shift at the restaurant. I jumped out of bed, rushed to get ready and dashed out the door.
I was a recent high school grad and had just landed my first job—as a salad girl at a cafeteria-style restaurant. I ran through the front door and clocked in, then went straight to the kitchen to begin prepping the salads for the day. I noticed we were out of peaches. I’d have to go upstairs to the stockroom to look for a can.
I hesitated at the stairway. I dreaded going up. The stairs were narrow, dark and steep. Still, I needed those peaches. I took a deep breath, headed up and opened the door to the stockroom. The room was poorly lit, the floor lined with stacks of unmarked boxes that contained supplies and canned goods.
I opened the top box in the first stack. No peaches. As I moved on to the second box, I heard slow footsteps on the stairs behind me. Suddenly, I was frantic. I wasn’t quite sure why. I needed to find those peaches and get out of there. Then I flashed back to my dream. “Lift the lid on the third box,” that voice had said. I skipped the second box and moved on to the third box, throwing back its lid. There they were—peaches! I grabbed a heavy can and sprinted out the door, running down the stairs just as a dark shape coming up slid past me.
Back in the kitchen, panting, I felt foolish. What had I been running from? Had I really been sent a warning dream? About peaches?
“Stay clear of him!” a coworker hissed in my ear.
“Who?” I asked.
She nodded her head toward the man who was coming out of the stairwell I’d just fled. “That new guy has a shady past. And two of the line girls saw him this morning showing off a knife. I don’t know what he’s doing here.”
Hmmm. Maybe my dream wasn’t really about peaches, after all.
