The Journal - A Short Story Collection

Beautiful Dream in a Nightmare

I've heard the saying 'life flashes before your eyes' when someone was close to death or thought they were about to die. It's a moment where the mind reflects on the person's life just before it ends. I've always wondered if it was true, that the mind would actually reflect on your life, revisiting old memories both good and bad. Is it random? How far in the past do memories get accessed during a flash? Would they make any sense? What I mean is, are the memories combined together as one, or separate and clear as the day they happened? Maybe the mind can't discern the memories and instead throws everything at you all at once, then you have to try and identify what you see. Like a dream.

What would I think about? About my friends and family? Most likely. Like the one time when I was a kid, and I had a giant water gun fight with my brother, my sister and our friends. We went to the park one day and filled up like twenty water guns of varying sizes along with these really cool water grenades. Then we split into teams of three and ran around the park, shooting at each other until everyone was out of water. I remembered one of the rounds I hid away from everyone while my team ran around. They knew I was hiding, so they tried to keep the other team away from me until the round was over. Once it was finished, everyone walked to the center of the park all high fiving each other on the round. That's when I sprung.

I charged in throwing three water grenades, two of which were gifted to me from my partners that round, and then sprayed everyone until my water guns were depleted. Our team won that round, no doubt. I also remember that later a group of kids showed up. They were some bad seeds looking to join us. Although it was more like they demanded to join, and I knew there was no good outcome if that were to happen. Yet, my brother and sister said it was alright. However, when we started the round, everyone ganged up on the newcomers until they dropped their guns and ran away. It was one of the best days of my life.

It reminded me of another fun experience I had with my family. My brother, sister, and I along with our dad went zip lining once. It was my first time doing it. One thing about myself is that I'm pretty afraid of heights. I don't know how they got me into doing it really. Probably because they were my family and I'm the youngest. I remembered watching my dad go first. It wasn't his first time doing it, I should say, he's done it before. He screamed out in joy as he ran off the edge and glided through the trees. My brother and sister followed when it was their turn with the same excitement. I, on the other hand, was not as excited. I felt like I swallowed all the butterflies in the world. My legs slightly shook.

The worker there seemed to notice my hesitation and helped me get strapped up and secured before telling me I could go. She reassured me that it was completely safe and that I would enjoy my self once I went. That's exactly what they said at the amusement park when I went on that one ride that rolls you up in a protective sheet that's hooked to a rope. Then they pull you up really high and tell you to pull the rope dangling in front of you. Once you pull it, you free fall until the rope holding you up tightens and make you swing around until you finally stop. Well, I couldn't pull that rope, not one bit. Instead, the operators pulled it for me and I screamed louder than I ever thought I could. The amount of profanity that came out of my mouth then; I could only hope no children were listening. Apparently, I'm not the first to do that though.

This situation felt no different, and they ended up pushing me off the walkway and I glided along through the trees screaming all the way shouting some swears once in a while. I think I really improved on my fear of heights that day, though I'm not sure. In the end, it was a lot of fun.

My brother and sister were the greatest, though. They are very supportive of me. Even though we would mess around with each other all the time and pull harmless pranks, I knew they would always have my back. Probably the best time was when we went to a laser tag place. I loved going, always had fun there. You get to give yourself a nickname for the game, which is fun to do. I usually go with Yourself. That way if someone shoots me the gun would read, 'You shot Yourself', and if I shoot them their gun would read, 'You were shot by Yourself'. It was stupid but I got a laugh out of it.