The Unwakefulness 
      It's cold in here.  This cold, dark world I've created for myself.  I can't see anything.  Can you help me?  Can you find me?  I can look, but I can't see.  I can hear, but I don't know from where it comes.  I can feel, yet not touch.  I smell, but I know not what I'm smelling.  I can taste, but what foul thing am I tasting?  Is it nothing or something?  Can you tell me?  Wait!  Do you hear that noise?  The loud thumping, thumping that is near, yet far.  It's coming closer!  Do you not hear?  Why can't you hear it?  Where are you that you can not hear this loud, incessant thing that keeps pounding away at my ears?  Stop!  It's getting closer!  So close.  Why won't it stop?  It's very close now.  I feel as if I could reach out and touch it.  It's here.  Right here inside of me.  What is it I wonder?  I can feel it thumping, thumping away inside my body.  It's all around me, covering every inch of my body, smothering me until I feel I can't breathe.  I know what it is now.  It's only the pounding of my heart.  I can't believe you didn't hear it.  No!  It's happening again.  Only it's different than before.  It's not a sound.  What is it?  I can't tell yet.  Wait, it's like nothing I've felt before.  It slides over my skin like a snake.  I shiver uncontrollably.  Its eerie presence makes me sick, yet it feels good.  Its cool breath floats over and around me.  It's only the breeze.  It feels cool enough to drink.  I'm so thirsty.  I hear water, yet I can not see it.  It's not really there.  It's only my imagination playing tricks on me.  It knows I need something.  The only good thing is that it doesn't know what exactly I need.  Only I know.  I need you.  Only you.  Can you help me?  Can you find me?  Will you get me out of this lonely, isolated place I've found myself in?  I can't do it by myself.  I have to have help.  Will you help me?  If not you, then who will help me?  Stop!  These voices in my head keep talking to me, but I know I'm the only one here.  Nobody else can hear me.  I'm invisible.  Can you see me?  Liar!  Shut up!  Make the voices stop!  They tell me things you know.  They tell me good things and they tell me bad things.  I like to listen to the good things.  I try to ignore the bad things, but sometimes they make sense.  The good things come from a very beautiful voice.  It sounds like a woman.  The bad things are gone now.  The woman banished them.  She said," Come no more to this place Evil One.  You have been vanquished.  Go back to your dungeon and prey forth on no more minds.  This I have said.  This shall be done."  And with a wave of her hand the Evil One disappeared.  The woman smiled at me and kissed my forehead.  She is really pretty I think to myself.  Such hair!  Long, free, and flowing in the breeze.  I see a man who has no name.  I asked him once what his name was and his only response was, " Evil Thoughts, child.  I can not stay here, but I swear I shall have your mind and your soul.."  He leaves and I see him from time to time causing trouble.  I try to ignore him, but he's too strong.  The only thing that makes him strong is the fear that little children feed him.  Have no fear children and the Evil Man can cause you no harm.   Whoever thought to listen to what a little child would tell you?  Nobody ever thinks to listen to them.  I start walking through the dark to help myself since I know no one will be coming to help me soon and I can not just stand here and let these evil things terrify me into submission.  I walk and walk and walk, yet I seem to be going nowhere.  Is it only a trick to get me to stay where I am or am I really going somewhere, but like everything else it just takes awhile for you to get there?  I left my body laying somewhere in the woods.  I feel as if my mind is the only thing moving forward.  If I go crazy, will anyone care?  No one can find me right now.  I'm locked away in the tower of all towers.  I keep walking through the dark.  Suddenly, ten foot hedges just popped up out of nowhere.  I'm lost, but haven't I been lost this entire time?  Was I not trying to find my way out this whole time?  I can't remember!  Why is this happening to me?  What on earth did I do to deserve this madness?  I'm walking through a Labyrinth.  I can't find my way out.  I turn left, dead end.  I turn right and there are two doors.  I must choose one.  One leads to certain death and the other back to the beginning.  I don't want to go back to the beginning.  I just left there and it was horrible to just stand there feeling sorry for myself.  I left that wretched place to find something better.  I turn back towards the dead end and wondered what would happen if I just opened both doors to see what was inside.  I decided that's what I was going to do.  The knockers on the doors are rusty and very ancient.  I didn't want to damage them so I just knocked on the hard wooden door.  It wouldn't open!  I tried the other door and that too wouldn't open.  I cried out in anguish, "How could this be happening to me?!"  I walked back to the dead end and sat down against the bushes.  I then saw a path that was now visible from where I was sitting.  I decided to take the path and to make sure I didn't get lost or fail to see anymore passages, I would put my hand on the wall and not take it off for anything.  Good logic, huh?  I get to the end.  It is the same cold, dark place I left before!  Was this all for nothing then?  Was the Labyrinth all for naught?!  Why can't I find my way out?  I hear someone calling now.  I yell, "I'm here!"  But where is here?  They keep calling for Jessie.  Who is that I wonder?  Is she someone special?  Is she lost like me?  I wonder where she is?  If I found her maybe we could find our way out together.  There it is again!  That voice.  It sounds so familiar.  Like...like the woman who saved me from the Evil Man.  I wonder why she is calling to Jessie?  Why isn't she calling for me?  Wait!  Who am I?  Do I have a name?  I wonder what it would be.  I feel something pulling at me.  It's shaking me.  I feel as if my soul is being ripped from my body.  My heart is beating erratically.  It's telling me something.  But what?!  I can't understand!  I hear..I hear the woman calling again.  I feel my eyes getting heavy and I can't seem to keep them open.  Everything is slowly fading out.  I try to open my eyes.  So hard.  So tired of fighting.  I let them close.  Someone is still shaking me!  The woman calls again and I open my eyes to see her worried face staring into mine.  She calls me Jessie.  Yes!  That's my name.  Jessie.  I feel my body rocking and I look to see that the woman is holding me and rocking me on a bed, my bed.  That's what the shaking must have been.  The woman smiles and kisses my forehead again like before and tells me that it's going to be ok.  I'm fine now and everything it just ok.  I snuggle up to the woman and wonder who this sweet angel, for surely God sent her to me to help me, is and how she knew my name.  Something is pulling at my memories.  I remember!  I remember her name!  It is something so very sweet.  I love to call her this.  As I open my eyes again to look at this heavenly creature I think, "I'm glad she woke me up from the awful dream I was having. I'm glad I have her."  I look at her and smile and say, " Thanks Mom."

                           Dedicated to: Kathy, my dearly loved mother
                                       By: Jessica Marie Isom