But Elise did let the dream bother her, more than she should have. Sunday night, after her parents left, she had another nightmare.
It was as if she were on the outside looking in, not an active participant, as Danny crossed a desert with unfamiliar men in the middle of the night. They wore fatigues, as if in the military, she could see that clearly. Everything was silent for a while, the men stealthily running across the sand, until all hell broke loose.
Gunfire erupted from somewhere to the right. So hard to tell in the darkness. A claymore went off to the left, sending one of the men flying into the air. Elise felt nothing but terror of what was to come, as if she already knew in some small corner or her soul.
Danny and the other men skittered across the sand faster, firing shots off in the general direction they had heard the original ones come from. More men flew into the air. A grenade. Another claymore. Then it happened.
Danny's body went limp as a rag doll as he went sailing through the night air. A landmine.
Elise looked over his slack body as he lay on the cold desert sand, nothing she could do. She woke up sobbing, rolled over and buried her face in the pillow.
Instead of feeling relief when she found Danny alive and well at work Monday morning, Elise only felt continued unease.
Another thing she had always been told for as long as she could remember was that she "wore her heart on her sleeve." She always kind of knew it was true, but wasn't aware of how blatantly so until Tuesday when Danny approached her.
"Hey, Elise," she hadn't noticed the softer, slightly hurt tone he used when he spoke to her that morning.
"Hey," she said to him passively without looking away from her computer screen.
"Is everything alright?"
"Yah, why?" she replied, still not giving him her full attention.
"Well, let's see," he began. "I probably sound like a total girl here, no offense, but you never replied to my text this weekend. Then you completely blew me off yesterday and you're blowing me off again now," Elise finally looked up to see the pained expression on his face. She wanted to cry and probably would if he didn't go away soon.
"I know I don't know you well, but you don't strike me as the type to be a good liar. So I don't think you lied about having a good time Friday," he paused. "So what is it? What gives?"
Elise could feel her face comforting as she held back tears. She was still an emotional wreck from the weekend. Thinking about her dreams was bad enough, but she couldn't take Danny talking to her like this with that look on his face. She didn't know how to deal with the nightmares that had plagued her weekend. That's why she had been avoiding him at work.
She shook her head. "I'm sorry," her voice came out as a whisper. She wasn't sure what else to say, her mind was a blank. "I did have a good time. It's not you."
"Then what is it? You're not, like, dying or something, are you?" he was only half-joking.
"No," Elise shook her head as she looked down, the first year trailing down her cheek. "I don't want to talk about it right now. Not here." The only other person currently in the office was Mary, but people would be coming and going as they came in for their shifts and left again in their work assignments for the day. She hated having unnecessary attention drawn to her more than almost anything else on the face of the planet.
"Then lunch? We can go out for lunch. I'll come pick you up," Danny looked at her expectantly. She nodded her head in agreement without looking up.
"Alright," he sighed, resigning himself for now. "I'll see you later," he spoke quietly and walked off to clock in.
Elise waited until he had left the building for good and excused herself to the bathroom. Knowing there was no risk of anyone needing to use the women's restroom since she and Mary were the only two females in the building, she let herself go. She bawled a good 10 minutes before she was able to calm down at all. At one point, she was afraid she might hyperventilate she was crying so hard she couldn't catch her breath.
What the hell is wrong with me?! They were just nightmares. Not real. But she just couldn't shake the weird feelings they gave her. Elise didn't know what the hell she was going to say to Danny at lunch, let alone face him when every time she even thought about him she became upset.
"Sorry, Mary," she apologized as she passed by her desk before returning to her own.
"Is everything ok?"
"Yes," Elise sniffled.
"I know it's not my place, but if you're having a problem with Danny, you need to report it."
"No, God, no," she couldn't help but laugh. "It's nothing like that. I'm just...I don't know what I am," she sighed, suddenly tired.
"Oh, well, sorry," Mary had the decency to look slightly embarrassed. "I shouldn't have been nosy."
"It's ok, really. I think I'm just going crazy," she rubbed her eyes.
"You're too young to be going crazy," Mary chuckled. "But if you want someone to talk to, I'm a good listener," she smiled.
"Thanks, Mary," she said sincerely before quickly getting lost in thought.
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