DREAMS OF A LOST MOONCHILD

Submitted to the nosleep podcast – wordcount 907 – trigger warnings; non explicit childabuse

Also no spellchecker (besides me) because the nosleep podcast have their own editors that will yeah, edit. like any other podcast. So grammatical errors are probably aboundant.

There is something wrong with your dog.
By R. Nordravn

When Tina, my best friend back in highschool called me one day, I was puzzled sure, but not alarmed. I mean she left this sleepy little subburb the moment she could, and we lost touch pretty much first day of summer after out lasts examns. I did wonder what became of her, but no one seemed to know where she went. And my mum told me it was just one of those things.

And there she was; Tina. And those people who say that reconnecting with old friends, are like they lever left -they lie. It is weird and awkward, and the first conversation we had over the phone, was basically just us trying to battle out who was the skinniest, and most successfull. When we finally hung up, I was both annoyed and delighted to have my friend home again. Maybe it was just because she had been gone for so long and bragged to fit in again, if she made enough of a ruckus of herself perhaps we’d forget she left. Small tight knit communities like ours, can be hard to fit into, no matter if you were once a native.

So when she invited me and another old schoolfriend over, I didn’t think much of it. And on my walk there all I was thinking about was how she would show me her ’wonderful’ house, with her ’wonderful life’ and ’wonderful family’, where as I was a single parent with a messy divorce and a son who just turned twelve, and still wiped his snot off in the nearest fabric. One saving grace was that Sandra would come over as well, and though Sandra and I still lived here we never talked besides courtesies.

Tina had bought a cute loft by the shopping street, and as I sat down in her Scandinavian leather sofa, I wanted to scream. I was already tired of her obnoxious non stop stream of self importantce, and I hadn’t even gotten a coffee yet. Eventually I asked when Sandra would be here, and Tina replied that Sandra had called and said she was sick so she couldn’t make it. Funny cause I had seen Sandra this morning at the school when she dropped her twins off, and she seemed just fine. Couldn’t blame her though, she was smarter than me.

”So why did you really return here?” I asked, ignorant to her monologue, but became painfully aware of it the moment it stopped and she looked at me like I had slapped her.

”Do I need a reason?” she asked curtly.

I looked down into the brown liquid in my cup, embarassed – suppose she didn’t really, but something didn’t make sense. ”It’s just – If you have all this going for you, why would you come back here of all places?”

She laughed a little, ”I suppose I forgot to tell you.” she said smugly, and I already regretted asking. ”I am pregnant.”

I think I just stared at her like a tool, she looked like a model, and not at all pregnant, but then again she could be super early on. ”Congratulations” I said ”how far along are you?” – she ignored my question which weirded me out, cause all she did was talk about herself. The silence that followed was awkward, and I looked over at the open kitchen to see the time, trying to decide what lie I should come up with to get out of there politely. And then I noticed the dog bowls. They were large as for a Rottweiler sized dog, surely I would have noticed if she had a large dog like that. ”You didn’t tell me you had a dog.” I said without thinking.

”Oh it must have slipped my mind.” She answered with a shrug.

’like hell’ was my first thought. But I decided to let it slide, this was getting super weird and I just wanted out. ”So.” I said, ”I gotta run, I promised Andy I’d shop some school supplies before I picked him up.” My sons name isn’t Andy, and I don’t know what compelled me to lie, intuition maybe?

”But you didn’t even touch your latte.” She said with a sugary sweet voice. I just smiled politely, and got up from the couch ”I’m sorry I’ll make it up to you another day. I know of this cute little…” I was cut off in my rambling as something crashed behind the only visible door in the loft, probably a bedroom.

”Just a moment.” Tina said, and got up, straightening her dress and me staring at her flat, perfect belly. No way she was pregnant, not even a little. ”Henry!” she suddenly yelled sounding furious. ”I fucking told you to stay still when I have company!” She stalked over towards the door with long angry strides, and had it not been so weird, it would have been funny how unladylike she suddenly carried herself. I worried that she’d slam the door open and hurt the dog, but to my surprise she didn’t. She only cracked it open and looked inside the room. ”Bad! bad boy!” she exclaimed, ”You know you’re not allowed in my bed! No kibble for you tonight!”

Now what made me not just back out slowly, but run! Pick up my son early and sleep in a motel. Was that dogs don’t cry ”I’m sorry mommy”