Dear Dreambook,

It is a scary thing to be five years old and see movies in your head that you didn’t start. They are “brain glitches.” They are dark, messy, and loud.

I am sitting on the edge of the bed. Dad is a man of many words, but tonight he is silent. I tell him about the visuals, the scary ones where he is hurt. He just stares. His eyes look empty and full of horror at the same time. I don’t know it yet, but his head is a quiet place with no pictures. My world of bright, scary images must feel like a ghost story to him.

Then comes the night of the back roads. It is 11:00 PM. The air is cold. Everything is fine until it isn’t. The sound of metal, 18-wheeler, the sudden stop.

We are safe, but my mind is spinning. I look at the truck and then back at the “glitches” in my head. Were those thoughts just thoughts? Or was my brain trying to draw a map of the future?

I am putting these pictures here, in these pages. If they stay in the book, they don’t have to stay in my sleep.s

what is my mind capable of?

-xoxo me