Jenny rolled over and over in her bed, muttering in sleep, moaning and groaning. It lasted for another hour till she finally woke up. It seemed like those few hours of sleep took its toll on her. Her pale face witnessed the agitation she felt. Was it because of the dream she just had  or the latest happenings in her life, she could hardly explain. All she knew was that at no cost she wanted to get back to the world of her tumultuous dreams.

She left the bed, put on a dressing-gown and went to the kitchen. She believed the cup of coffee would pick her up and bring her back to senses. But it didn’t happen. Instead, for a few minutes Jenny was lost in thoughts and then burst out laughing. For a moment she even seemed to petrify because of her own unexpected reaction. And then, finally, sobs shook her frail body.

She didn’t remember for how long she had been crying, just slowly her body stopped shivering, she rocked herself to sleep and the next day she woke up on the kitchen floor next to the cupboard. The sun already topped the horizon and Jenny hastily seized her cell to see what time it was.

But the first thing she noticed was the number of missed calls on the display. Three missed calls and one message? She thought. Who the heck would bother to reach for her so insistently? And that too on Sunday? But even before reading the message it dawned upon her. To prove her guess she checked who the calls were from. And just like she expected all three were Mary Ann’s. Now she didn’t want to read the message. She knew in advance what it would be saying and actually already began searching for excuses why she didn’t come to meet Mary Ann for shopping like they had planned to two weeks ago.

Being sick? No, that’s too lame an excuse. Mary Ann would never believe.

A date last night which eventually turned into breakfast in bed. Come on, who I am kidding?

Wait… that’s it… I will tell her…

Jenny tried to summon up her thoughts but just when she thought here, I got that the phone rang and the saving pretext just disappeared. Shit. She looked at the phone. Mary Ann. Jenny sighed but answered, sooner or later she would face her friend anyways. The next few minutes Jenny had to survive a seemingly unending monologue of Mary Ann. She put honest efforts to interrupt her friend but all in vain. The whole scene looked like this.

“Where have you been all morning long. I have been waiting for you for hours. Just woke up at six am and that too on Sunday. But what for? My so called friend didn’t bother to come and totally abandoned me today…”

“I..”

“I called you and called you and called. I called like ten times.”

Heck you didn’t, Jenny thought, but only tried to object flabbily, “Only three times.”

“And I smsed you. And did you check your answering machine?”

Huh, she called even landline? The next moment she will say she even mailed me.

“And didn’t you check your e-mails? I thought that’s the first thing you would do in the morning, so I e-mailed you.”

Oh My Lord, she didn’t. No, she could not. Jenny kept repeating it to herself while logging into gmail. Yes, she did. The very first unread message was from Mary Ann having the subject line I will kill you.

Meanwhile Mary Ann wouldn’t stop blabbering.

“And then I thought enough is enough and went there alone and got nice gifts for Leila. Are you listening?”

“Yeah.” Who the hell was Leila? And that was the moment when she remembered everything including her own nightmare.

Leila was Mary Ann’s cousin, happily married and now expecting her first child. And today they were supposed to get gifts for a baby shower. Jenny shuddered internally. Not that she didn’t like kids, that was not it. Just lately she was involved into several stories with kids. And for the last couple of weeks almost every night she had one repeating dream. Not the same every time. The only permanent details were she and a little girl in a blue dress. The girl seemed to be not older than five. Cute, small, blonde, with pony tails… wearing the same blue dress in each dream. Jenny’s outfits changed, the scenes changed but the girl would keep wearing that blue dress with white flowers on it. Every time Jenny would watch the girl playing or talking to someone or buying ice-cream, but  when the girl approached her to talk, some deadly fear swept over Jenny and she tried to run away. But wherever she ran she always met that girl. Jenny didn’t know why she tried to escape; she only felt she needed to hide, she was not supposed to talk to the little girl.

“… and then I asked her if she could get me a pink one because I was sure Leila would have a baby girl and they told me they didn’t have pink. Can you imagine, NO PINK? Who they think they are if they don’t have pink dummies?”

Mary Ann’s thundering voice roused Jenny out of her self-absorption. Is she still talking?! Only now Jenny remembered she still was on call with Mary Ann. She tried to end with “I got to go” but it didn’t work.

“You aren’t going anywhere, lady. I am standing just in front of your house’s door and expect you to let me in.”

Jenny realized she had no choice and accepting her fate with resignation walked towards the door. The next moment Mary Ann stormed in and without a break continued from where she stopped on the phone.

“So I called for the manager to ask him how come they do not have pink dummies and…” Here she finally looked at Jenny and her voice failed her. Silently she came closer to her friend and hugged her tight. At this moment, from this simple act Jenny suddenly broke down and cried.

After few minutes she calmed down and finally could talk.

“Is it that dream again?”

Jenny nodded.

“That probably means nothing.”

Another nod.

“It is just a dream.”

A nightmare, Jenny thought but nodded again.

“You should go out more. Meet more people. Keep yourself occupied.”

As if I don’t go to office daily and work my ass out, Jenny rebelled silently but still another nod followed.

“And even then… she is just a girl. Why does it scare you so much?”

Really, why? Jenny didn’t know the answer to this question. The only thing she knew was that every time when the girl in blue dress came near her, fear invaded her mind and in panic she couldn’t think at all.

“She is not JUST a girl. She is my nightmare girl.”

“Sweetie, you are over-stressed. Let’s go out, will have lunch somewhere in the downtown. I’ve heard they have a new restaurant in the Linden Street.”

At first Jenny wanted to decline the invitation but then decided otherwise. She really needed some fresh air.

“But then promise me we would finally sort out all that stuff from the box, ok?”

Jenny had found a box full of old family belongings few weeks ago but she felt a bit weird to open it and sort things out alone, so she asked Mary Ann to help her but till now they never had found time.

“Just hurry up, you lazy bum, else I cannot promise you anything.”

In another forty minutes two young girls took a cab and were heading for a new restaurant on Linden Street.

The place impressed them from the first sight. Warm atmosphere, lovely interiors, great service and good food, what else do you want from a restaurant. The girls enjoyed their quality time together and Jenny almost set her fears at rest when something unexpected happened.

Jenny glanced up in the dining room and stunned. There she was, the girl in a blue dress, the girl from her dreams.

What are you waiting for? RUN! Jenny told herself but couldn’t move. Her cheeks blenched with fear, her heart was pounding like crazy and she felt paralyzed.

“What’s the matter?” Mary Ann asked.

Jenny tried, really tried to say at least something but couldn’t bring a word. The next moment the girl ran towards them, hugged Jenny and left without saying a word.

“What was that?” Mary Ann asked in surprise.

“It was she.”

“Who?”

“She.”

With these words Jenny rose up and left. Marry Ann hastily followed her.

“Would you please explain me what the hell just happened?”

“I can’t.”

“Do you know the girl?”

“No.”

“It felt like you do.”

“I don’t.”

“Then why she came to hug you? And why are you so pale?”

“Stop questioning me!” Jenny almost cried. “I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know,” she whispered finally. “Please take me home.”

Mary Ann wanted to say something but changed her mind seeing the condition of her friend.

She snagged a cab and some fifteen minutes later they were at Jenny’s place.

“Do you want me to stay with you?” Mary Ann asked.

“No, dear,” Jenny shook her head. “I’ll be fine, don’t worry.”

“Call me if you need something.”

“Sure,” Jenny replied absent-mindedly as she opened the door.

“See you.” Mary Ann waved good bye but Jenny didn’t look back.

Walking into the room Jenny shoot a rapid glance upon the box they wanted to sort out today.

Seems like I will never open that box, she thought but then her thoughts were taken over by the incident in the restaurant.

What was it? Who the girl was? What did she want?

A thought struck her mind and she put a hand into her jacket’s pocket. A small note. Jenny opened a small sheet of paper just to read “You have to visit your family. It has been long since you talked with them. They are missing you.”

Jenny was trembling all over. How did she know? Who told her? Who the hell that girl was. And why… why does the face of the little girl seem so familiar?

She gripped the cell phone and began dialing Mary Ann’s number. She wanted to ask her to come and stay over night with her. But in the last moment she cut the call.

She won’t sleep today. If she doesn’t sleep nothing will happen, right? She is not a little girl; she can bravely face her own fears.

She could not. Every single moment she was thinking about that girl, her blue dress, her pony tails. She tried to recall each feature of the girl so that she would remember why she was so familiar. No use. She only sank more and more into the lake of her self-invented terror until finally, belaboured by her own fears and fancies, she fell asleep. And again she was running away from the girl in the blue dress, trying hard to wake up, to find peace but all in vain.

When she woke up the next morning her eyes were puffy from all the crying, her heart was beating at some crazy rate and she was scared to death.

Still she tried to get a grip of her own life. She put some serious efforts and nobody would ever be able to notice even a tinct of fear in her behaviour. Only Mary Ann would every now and then question her but Jenny’s answer to all the worries and doubts was “I am fine”,

Well… she was not. Every second day she saw the girl in the blue dress around. Be it a playground or a supermarket, a bank or a bus stop. The girl was always alone. Where the hell are your parents, little brat. Sometimes the girl just smiled at Jenny, sometimes she waved with her hand. She never talked and never came near Jenny again. After a while Jenny believed it is all her imagination and that note in her pocket was someone’s bad joke. She decided to see a specialist who would help her to get rid of her imaginative “friend” but somehow didn’t find time.

She still had those dreams, but now she learned to ignore them and sometimes she would even laugh about it with Mary Ann who still thought one could not fear that much of a girl with two cute pony tails.

Two days before Christmas the girl finally approached Jenny again. She took her hand and said with a shy smile, “Don’t you see it is time? I said you have to visit your family. You really have to. They miss you. It is Christmas after all. You can’t avoid them forever.” Jenny didn’t look scared anymore. She finally understood. She finally agreed she had to.

On Christmas Eve Jenny died. A heart attack, doctors said. But Mary Ann knew Jenny just finally went to see her family. She was buried next to her husband and two daughters who were killed three years ago in a car accident.

On the first day of the new year Mary Ann walked into Jenny’s apartment. The first thing she saw was that box they still didn’t sort out. She opened it and instantly she saw a faded photograph of the blonde girl with two pony tails. She wore a dress with flowers, maybe even a blue one, but the picture was black-and-white. Mary Ann turned the photograph back.

There was a barely traceable inscription - “Jenny, 5 years old.”