In dreams, the girl imagined a woman with her arms outstretched to her. Always laughing. The woman had dark hair, like her. A dark eyes, like her. Her smile was warm and welcoming. Her laughter cut through the silence of the dream like music suddenly starting out of nowhere. The girl knew she knew this woman. She felt close to her.

In the dreams the woman always ran ahead, leaving the girl following, running behind. 

“Come on! Catch up!” 

The woman ran with her long strands of hair flowing past her. The girl thought if she could just catch up, she could reach to touch her. The woman was too fast though. She seemed to disappear into vapor the instant the girl got close. 

Still other times, the girl dreamed that the women held her close and brushed her hair as they remained sheltered from the wind and rain and cold. These were some of the few times that the girl felt safe. 

The girl remembered how in one dream, the woman told her a story. In it was everything that the girl had ever wondered out. Clear as day. All the answers laid out before her. But the instant that the girl woke up, she had forgotten the women’s speech. It was garbled and only bits and piece remained. Echoing over and over in her head like an ever expanding ripple in a pool of water.

The girl knew this woman was a guide. She would point her to the things she wanted and needed to see. And so in her dreams, she began to feel calm as she waited for what it was next that the woman would show her. Because in her waking life, the answers that the woman pointed to seemed to always be true in one way or another.