"I had another one of those dreams last night." I said it in an unconcerned way, as if everyone had dreams like these.
"Really?" Jack was interested. Since the medicine change, I had been waking up "wild eyed". I kept telling him I was having frightening dreams. So I thought today would be a good day to tell him what they were about and why I thought it had to do with the medicine.
"Yep. Same as all the others. I'm having sex with a man that I don't know. As I can remember, he doesn't even have a face, well, one that doesn't leave any sort of impressions, anyway. I'm on top and right as he climaxes and arches his back, I slit his throat. Then I have an orgasm."
"Really?"
"Yeah, I really do have an orgasm in my sleep. Sis was talking about that phenomenon the other day. Apparently, not many women do that. Mom, Sis and I all do. But I don't think this is a "normal" way to have one."
"Uh, no. It's a little bit more than sick. How about gruesome?"
"How many days have I been on the new meds?"
"Let me see....um.....you went to the doctor on Wednesday, so this would be day four."
"Yep. Three nights with new meds, three messy dreams. This is one side effect I wasn't counting on."
"Should I be afraid?" Jack's eyes twinkled as he teasingly took a step back.
"I don't know, they have been awfully good orgasms!" I laughingly replied.
Seems like a normal conversation, doesn't it, albeit an odd topic, but everyone knows that switching medications causes the body and mind to transition. Sometimes it doesn't go smoothly. I have always had bloody dreams, anyway, ever since I was a little girl, except I usually died in those. Now the sex dreams with orgasms didn't start until puberty. And I had never had the blood and sex at the same time. Until now.
The next three nights were the same. Then they just stopped. Of course, I went back to not sleeping, either. Even with two sleeping pills. Damn memory. Won't let me remember anything good and just keeps replaying the horror films I call life. Even while awake.
Just as things were starting to get level and I was feeling the most normal I had in years, Jack comes in the room with me one night wanting to fight about what the kids did or didn't do and how it was my fault. It hit me hard, both emotionally and mentally. Anger boiled over; one hell of a fight ensued with him storming out of the room and me taking the van for a cool down drive away from the source of anxiety. I thought that was the right thing to do until Jack called and begged me to come home. I told him I needed to think about things and calm down, so the bastard called my Mom. She called me and I told her I was driving in the dark and didn't need to be talking but she wanted to give me a counseling session. I hung up on her. She called again. Was I going to hurt myself? Someone else? Shit! I just needed to calm down but if I had to put up with all this crap, I told her I would just go home. Jack didn't say anything and slept on the couch which was fine by me. I wasn't ready to deal with him yet.
That night I dreamed about the manager from the factory where I worked night-shift with 13 men and one other woman. The man who, on my 18th birthday, called me into his office to inform me that I was legal, of course I had no idea what he was talking about. I would soon find out. I also wasn't an union employee, therefore, if I wanted to keep my job, there were some things that were going to change. Starting that very night. From this moment on, I was to do whatever I was told, no questions asked. If not, he could, and would, fire me. Just because he could. He would also try to make certain I would not get a good referral to any other job that I applied for.