1st Dream: Railroad Remembrance

         She barely remembered how she ended up here.  With her feet moving step by step mechanically.  With her arms hanging off her sides like broken puppet arms. The Santa Ana winds almost blew through her frail shaking frame, spreading a fine yellow film over everything she saw.
         Did she want the ease of death to take her away?  Perhaps.  Did she want to walk away from shattered dreams?  Of course.  For the past week, everything had been an uncontrollable mess.  Her father’s death was already unsettling, but her mother’s unending grief had only added to the burden and her friends had all, but carved out her beating heart while she slept.
         Her feet stumbled and she buckled over for a slow moment and sticky sweat poured down her neck, pasting her hair onto her face.  Her mouth was cracked and dry.  She tasted iron on her lips.  It hurt to breathe.
         Daniel needed her.  Daniel, her pure, idealistic brother, was in pain.  He had always been there for her, giving her all the glowing words and warm embraces to fill up all her barren hopes.  Now he was the one drowning under sorrow and doubt, and he would need her light to guide him.  But could she do it?
         She was always the slighter one—the weaker child.  She, who could never raise her voice against another or stand her ground where others stood, could only change so much.  The pang of guilt and shame burrowed deep into her heart and the chilling realization grew inside of her—numbing all her sensations.  This humid air roasted rabbits alive, but this one was drenched in despair.  She continued to walk in vain.
         It began as a soft hum in the distance like angels singing in the background.  Her eyes were shut and her mind was closed from reality.  When they opened, the harshness of the train tracks arrested her thoughts.  Plank by plank imposed itself before her, pressed down by two long metal rails extending into the distance; the white lines were visible even under the black shadows of the trees.  They laid the path to her eventual release.
         Daniel, Daniel, Daniel, she repeated delightfully to herself, I am sorry I could not be braver.  She managed a small smile even through all her weariness.  The choir of angels sang louder, but the sharp whistle cut through her dream.  In wide-eyed disbelief she saw two bright headlights glare down at her from the distance.  The train was approaching fast.
         “Angela,” called a familiar voice from behind her.  She twisted her body toward the voice and her eyes caught sight of her dark brown locks and narrow face.  Daniel’s figure mirrored back at her, but his eyes did shined not with her hopeless bewilderment, but with the bright fire of resolve.  He had told her there would be no trains today.
         The Santa Ana winds burned the barren landscape and buried the town in its fine yellow dust.  The sound of iron grinding down on metal tracks drowned out the last cry of the victim.  The hellish glow of midday raged.

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