Night Voices

A strange experience last night: I was sleeping, somewhat lightly, and dreaming of something or other, when I heard a woman's voice whisper my name, quietly but insistently. I woke up and waited, listening for more, assuming that the voice belonged to my wife, but there was nothing. Everything was quiet. My wife was asleep.

This was something that had actually happened to me before, but never before had I been so completely convinced that I had heard something instead of having just dreamed it (even when it had been a shout instead of a whisper and the voice was still ringing in my ear). Was it just a dream, and, if so, was my subconscious trying to tell me something? What? Or was it something else? I must confess that I don't rule out the possibility that a person, either living or dead, was actually trying to communicate with me, but what should I have done? Look out the window? Turn on the news? What was the follow-up? If I got up and kicked around the house, I probably never would have gotten back to sleep. I could have whispered back, but I would have died from fright if I had actually received a response.

There was only one thing that could possibly be so important that I had to be woken up at three o'clock in the morning for it, so I trudged into my son's room to make sure he was okay. As usual, he had the blanket up over his head, with his two skinny legs comically sticking out the bottom. I uncovered his face and threw another blanket on him, which he no doubt kicked off the moment I left the room.

I can still hear that voice, though: "Joe...!"