Peter's Dream

5. The Fifth Day Before Christmas

Peter woke sweating and shaking. He had been dreaming. Not the usual nightmare in which he was stuck behind a glass screen – like the one he had sometimes used for watching Mike Carson performing a post mortem examination – looking down on their small kitchen where Angie was being stabbed repeatedly by a gang of youths. And not the other one, which came less frequently, where Angie was being sucked down into a black, peaty bog – the Great Grimpen Mire from the Hound of the Baskervilles, perhaps? – and he was holding her hand and trying unsuccessfully to pull her out.

This time, she was in the road at the back of that house in Kidlington, walking along the rows of flowers propped up against the tall brick wall. Every so often, she bent down to read one of the cards attached to them, just as Stella had done the other day. Peter was not sure where he was. From where he was standing – or sitting or hovering in the air – he could see the whole row of floral tributes, so presumably he must be at some vantage point. On the other side of the road, perhaps? There was a police officer standing guard. No, not exactly a police officer. It was the teddy bear in police uniform, but now grown to life-size.

There was the sound of a vehicle approaching. A powerful red car appeared round the bend in the road. It swerved as it reached Peter – yes, he must be standing in the road opposite the back of the house – and headed directly for Angie. Peter tried to shout a warning, but no sound came. The teddy bear police officer ran towards her and attempted to push her out of the way, into a cavernous hole in the wall, which Peter had not noticed before. But it was too late. Both Angie and the bear were caught between the car and the wall and …

It was at that point that Peter awoke ...