Last night I had dream. My 15th birthday was last week. I’m going to have a bonfire with some friends. In my dream I walked out on my porch. I looked to my right and I saw a cougar. I screamed at the top of my lungs for my brother to come and to try and kill it. I didn’t do anything wrong to me. It was just standing there and I wanted him to kill it for no reason. He didn’t believe me and the cougar ran away. A few minutes later (however you judge time in a dream is beyond me) people began arriving at my house for the bonfire. We were going to have it in an open field that we have back in the woods at my house. My friend Kara was going to come and when I saw her mom walking up to me I asked where her daughter was. She informed me that Kara was running through the woods trying to find her little sister. I immediately thought of the cougar that was still around. I went inside to the kitchen and looked out the window. I saw the cougar standing there, but he was much bigger now and he was now covered in rainbow paint that someone had splattered onto him. He saw me and ran away. More people began to arrive and we began walking up to the field. To get to the bonfire we have to walk through a field that was surrounded by woods, and then go through a patch of trees at the end of the field to get to the brush that we were going to burn. On our way up (about 30 people had come) all the love that I had been feeling suddenly started to trickle away. I could feel that horrid cougar behind us. We were almost at the end of the field when someone shouted that something behind us had caught on fire. I turned around to see a small spark that soon turned into a little stick fire.
“One of the neighbors must be burning something too,” I told them.
All I wanted to do was to get to our bonfire- if we got there then I knew that everyone would be safe. But soon that small stick fire erupted and now everything was on fire. People began screaming. Half of the people ran into the woods to try and stomp it out. I had a horrible feeling- every ounce of love in my imaginary world was gone. The other half of the people grabbed all the children (the 0-8 year old Sunday school class that I help teach) and just stared.
“Go,” I screamed, “just beyond those trees, you’ll be save there.”
I ran into the woods and began helping people stomp out the fire when I had more people screaming horrified screams and all I saw was the shape of figures running away from one thing. The cougar. He had started the fire. Everyone ran into the woods to my birthday bonfire because there we would be safe. We all sat on boxes and waited for something to happen. I remember thinking that if only we ran through the field then we could get to my house and find some guns or anything to save us from the cougar. But I pictured what would happen if we tried. The cougar would be waiting. He couldn’t get all of us, but I thought about this beautiful little girl that I teach on Sundays. Her name is Joy. She’s kind of shy and doesn’t have many friends, but she is the most loving girl I have ever met in my entire life. What if he got her? How could I let that happen? So we waited…and waited. Eventually I fell asleep. When I woke up, I was all alone. I was just sitting there by myself in this beautiful little patch of green surrounded by trees. Nothing was burning. Everything was just peace. Then I saw that evil cougar sitting at the other end of the opening. He was so majestic, still covered in paint. Now that I saw him close up, he really was an amazing creature. He looked so wise and almost old. Then little Joy’s face flashed across my eyes and I remembered what he had done.
I started screaming and crying.
“What did you do with them? Where are they? Why am I here alone?” I wailed.
I lurched up off my knees and began running at him. I didn’t care how horrifying he looked or what he would do to me. I was blinded by rage. As I ran forward, it seemed that I would never reach him and I began to get dizzy. I was falling, until finally I hit the ground and 20 little white butterflies flew to the sky, annoyed by this sudden interference in their evening naps.
“Who are you? What do you want? Why have you done this?” I just repeated over and over again until I blacked out one more. Then I woke up and got in the shower to wash out this nightmare, but it stuck. That damned cougar never once gave me an answer. He just sat and watched, that beautiful creature covered in paint.

This is what I dream.