ONCE UPON A DREAM

Lisa Ann, Mary Grace & Lana Jan Brock

There was a brief moment in my young life with my twin sister, Lisa, where I had experienced something quite paranormal. I never shared the story with many...as the experience we had together was really inexplicable to us as children. We were not even four years old yet. To this day...we still remember...together.

Was it a shared dream as only twins could have? Or was it something else no one could possibly begin to explain? As children we often see things as larger than life. The kitchen counters seem taller, the rooms more massive. It takes quite a few more steps to get from our bedrooms to mommy and daddy. It's funny how when we grow up how small everything looks. All that we had shared together as sisters, in the halls of our home, would seem to remain larger than life...even in memory. In fact, however, those halls aren't as long, wide or frightening as they had seemed back then. Likewise, one must accept the reasoning that the imagination of seeing something inexplicable can also remain in the mind as larger than life. In reality it can also be explained in a much simpler and reasonable manner.

There are those things that cannot be explained. Children have a vast open mind willing and eager to learn...an imagination that can help them to understand unexplained phenomena even when they are unaware that what they are seeing and hearing is actually paranormal. In a child's mind and through their innocent eyes they see everything as part of their world. What they see, feel and touch is substance. It is real to them.

Children don't look to rationalize or reason away what stimulates their senses with methods of science; nor do they understand the motives behind practicing tradition and religious beliefs. That comes later, gradually with learning and development. Unfortunately, some of us grow up...and close our minds to the possibilities of existence. As adults, we have learned to resist many possibilities of existence. We resist awareness of unexplained phenomena occurring around us as we venture to live a normal life.

Whether we are an open or closed-minded individual there is a common factor for both. There will always be unanswered questions about existence. We will not be able to explain all the phenomena we are confronted with. What science, psychology and religion cannot explain must be held for further study as a paranormal possibility. We begin at such a young age to close ourselves to learning about those possibilities because some religions will direct us away from considering the vastness of the universe and redirect our focus solely on a standard to adhere to within a limited frame of thinking. We are directed to look at historical influences and taught tradition in order to perpetuate a way of believing on to the next generation.

However, many religions practice a thing such as taboo. These are the unspeakable topics. These topics include; paranormal entities, visions, ESP (Extra Sensory Perception) , orbs, crop circles, possibility of demon manifestations or influences, strange and unexplained phenomena, astral planes of existence. Societal influences also contribute to our decisions not to explore the paranormal. By the time we reach adulthood we are either too ashamed to admit we saw something in the darkness of our bedrooms or, as science may dictate, we believe there is no possibility of an existence beyond what rational tangible textbook data can provide us.

Wow...looking at the complex explanation of that makes a 3 year old's perceptions seem much more simpler; perhaps more interesting and quite believable if you can tap into that once pure lust to learn about and explore your world. ---------------------------------------Lana J. Hunt

Author's Note: I will give this story a feel from a child's perspective as best as I can remember from my experience.

THE RED HOUSE ~~~A TRUE STORY (1970)

It was the first house we would live in when my parents left college in Tennessee and brought their new family of five to reside in Kokomo, Indiana. I don't know why little girls would call their house the "red house". However, now as an adult I can see why. It was an old house sided with dark red brick on the bottom half and stucco / tudor on the top half. We didn't live in the house for long...as my parents would later buy the house we would spend the rest of our childhood.

The night air was warm and muggy. Mommy had the windows open. Maw maw was visiting from Tennessee and was sleeping in the bed that belonged to Lisa and me. I remember feeling strange that maw maw was in our home and sleeping in my bed. Just at the foot of my bed, where maw maw lay sleeping, was another bed up against the wall. This was the baby's bed. Lisa and I were made to sleep on the tiny twin bed with our baby sister Mary. It was so small that we were all sleeping sideways on it so that we could fit. I remember how warm it was as I had difficulty sleeping.

Lisa and I both began to giggle and laugh as the night summer air was too thick to allow us any peaceful slumbers. I remember the room was dark except for the tiny comforting light seeping in through the bedroom door, which was open only enough to tease our curiosities to see if mommy and daddy were still awake. Maw maw was asleep and she began to snore. Her snoring frightened me a little. I was only familiar with the snores of my sisters. Lisa and I continued to wiggle restless in the little crowded bed. We tried to stay quiet. We knew we would get a spanking from daddy if we didn't keep the noise down and go to sleep.

As I lay on my back, I remember feeling the heat being pushed away by a breeze of coolness. It was a nice cool breeze coming from the window, I thought excitedly. The curtain did move. It was a nice relieving sensation to my damp sticky skin. The curtain moved forward as if to be reaching towards the beds. I saw a glowing light within the curtain. That light wasn't there before, I thought. This is a bright light. A woman in a blue gown glided from the window, quietly, softly, making not a sound. I couldn't hear her. I didn't know who she was. I could not stop staring at her. She was beautiful and shiny with light surrounding her. She didn't look like my maw maw. Maw maw was fat like Mrs. Santa Claus. This woman was not. Maw maw was still snoring. The quiet strange woman had long dark hair like my mommy. She was pretty like mommy. But this woman didn't look like my mommy. My mommy would have scolded me for giggling and would have taken me to my father to receive a spanking for not sleeping when she had told me to.

The woman in blue was gliding on the floor. My head dangled back as I watched her come close to the little bed where Lisa, Mary and me lay closely together. The bright light was behind the woman now. I could see her face clearly. Her eyes were large and cheerful. Her closed smile was soft and beautiful. I could not see her teeth. She would not show me her teeth when she smiled. Still she made no sound. I did not look to the left of me. I did not look to the right. I kept my eyes on the lady in the blue gown. Smoothly and quietly, she leaned over me and looked at me as she smiled sweetly at me. I watched her hands move from her sides and to my stomach as she began to tickle me.

Suddenly, I felt a giddy feeling throughout me. It tickled me. I began laughing loudly. Just as I began to laugh, my twin sister Lisa, also began to laugh. It was funny. I had not heard Lisa make any noises since I saw the woman glide from the bedroom window. I didn't know Lisa was awake and could see the woman also. But she was laughing. I couldn't see what she was laughing at because the woman was tickling me not her. As both of us lay laughing the woman in blue softly and quietly moved her pointer finger up to her mouth and signaled "shhhh"; but I could hear nothing. She began to back up out of my vision. She faded quickly as the light had already dissipated. I don't remember seeing where she went. Once again, all I could see was an open window and a small little bit of light creeping in the bedroom door.



SIX YEARS LATER- age 9

Lisa and I lay on the ground outside looking up at the clouds describing what each other could see in each one. We began to talk about dreams. She wanted to know if I could remember any of my dreams. I began to describe to her about the dream I had of a woman in blue who had crept through our bedroom window at the "red house" and over to our bed in the darkness. I described to her how the beautiful woman began to tickle me and of how she made me laugh. Closing my account of the dream I had stated to her that the woman in blue disappeared and faded back into the darkness of the warm muggy room.

As I lay on my back telling Lisa this story, she became frozen with fright. Her eyes were wide with shock.

"That can't be!" she said. "That was my dream!"

"No!" I exclaimed. "It was my dream!"

Once again, I thought she was taking something that was mine. I never seemed to have my own things. I'm certain she thought the same thing. We were twins...sisters...we shared everything.

"But the woman was wearing pink...not blue!" she said adamantly.

I swore to her that the woman was wearing blue. She was equally certain that the woman was wearing pink. We agreed that day that we both had the same dream as we could not begin to understand what had happened to us.



TODAY

Lisa and I now believe that the woman we saw was actually a ghost or even possibly a guardian angel. We have come to agree that the woman was not wearing blue or even pink, but a color that can be confused as either blue or pink, depending on an individual's perception of color. It was possibly periwinkle, violet or lavender. Possibly it was something of the two colors mixed which made it difficult for us to understand at the young age of three.

To this day this story still fascinates me. It's chilling, mysterious and unexplainable. How can I explain something I can't possibly understand? Perhaps, I can start by opening up my mind and exploring all the possibilities of life and existence. That could help lend an understanding to those things not so easily explained or accepted.

~TO LISA ANN BROCK, my dearest twin sister...with all my love.

By Lana J. Hunt