Dreaming Of Seventh Heaven
A 950 word short story
Sharon often had weird dreams. Whilst asleep they always seemed to make sense however odd they were. Once she woke, she’d wonder if there was some deep meaning to them, if only she could interpret them properly. The stranger they were, the more she thought they must mean something.
She didn’t have to think too hard about the dream with the gypsy. The woman wasn’t dressed in shawls and hoop earrings, nor was she called Rose-Lee, or Magical Madge. Sharon and the gypsy weren’t in a tent, or Romany caravan; they were in a boat. The woman didn’t have a crystal ball, the small room they were in didn’t rock and she couldn’t see out, but the sleeping Sharon had known she was with a gypsy, in a boat, travelling North.
The gypsy said that true love would come Sharon’s way. There wasn’t any mention of tall, dark and handsome, but he’d have “a heart beating strong and to him she’d belong”. Sharon would know when she had the right man, because of something to do with the number seven.
“Go with lucky seven, you’ll always be in heaven,” the gypsy said.
Well, it was something like that. It was difficult for her to remember as she’d been asleep. It was all in rhymes, she did remember that. Of course, Sharon immediately decided the gypsy meant Stephen. He said Sharon was his girl and she knew she made his heart beat faster, so it almost had to be. To be honest, Sharon didn’t pay too much attention after the bit where she was told what she wanted to know. Yes, even in dreams we only hear what we want to.
There was a warning too; there’s always a warning isn’t there? Near as she could remember it was, “From all the sevens stay away, something something, surely part. Dumbedy dumbedy day, then he’ll break your heart.” She missed most of it because she was dreaming about Stephen. Day dreaming whilst in a dream; how weird was that? Still, she was in love or thought so anyway.
In the morning, she remembered the bit about seven and heaven. Sharon decided that she must have misheard the warning and it was eleven she had to stay away from. The gypsy must have meant Dave, she reasoned. He lived at number eleven and a while back she’d been out with him a couple of times.
Stephen — that even sounds a bit like seven and there’s seven letters in it and he lives at number seven and Sharon met him in Seventh Heaven nightclub and he was gorgeous! He proposed the day after her dream; at seven minutes past seven in the evening. He suggested they marry quickly; on the seventh of July. She’d only have known him seven weeks by then. In normal circumstances, she’d have worried about that, but because of the dream, she just took it as a sign. Talking of signing, she transferred all seven thousand pounds of her savings over to him. Why not? They’d soon be married and they needed it as a deposit for a house. She hoped they’d live at number seven and have seven children and …
A week before the wedding, she discovered the truth. Stephen, or whatever his name really was, had gone. So had her money, of course. It was no consolation that she wasn’t the only one who’d been cheated. He had other, ‘fiancees’. You’ve guessed it, six more fools had been taken in.
That all happened almost a year ago. She was devastated, as you can imagine. Dave was very kind. Much kinder than she deserved after she’d heartlessly dumped him for her ‘lucky’ seven man. Even an idiot like Sharon had sussed out that the warning to avoid all the sevens was supposed to make her see sense over Stephen. Maybe it was her subconscious warning her? Not once did Dave point out he knew how it felt to have a broken heart. He never told her she’d been stupid. He offered a shoulder to cry on. Eventually, she realised for herself how stupid she’d been. Not over Stephen; that guy was a practised con artist and she didn’t stand a chance. It was Dave she’d been stupid about. Why hadn’t she seen what a wonderful man he was?
Sharon had the dream again. The gypsy repeated her warning; all the sevens would break her heart. That’s what she’d said (or her subconscious had said) and she (or it) was right. Maybe the first part of the dream would come true too? All she needed was the one seven to prove that Dave and she would be in heaven forever. Sharon couldn’t find one. His birthday wasn’t the seventh, he wasn’t a seventh child, he wasn’t born under the seventh sign of the zodiac. The nearest she got was that he lived at number eleven, if she added the two ones together and added it to her birthday, the fifth, that came to seven. She knew that wasn’t the sign. Sharon also knew she loved Dave. When he proposed, she accepted. Sharon thought she could work in a seven somewhere.
She was wrong about that. They got married on the twelfth, had two bridesmaids, three tiers on the cake. Dave asked her to book ten days leave for the honeymoon.
The honeymoon was the sign though. They travelled North to begin a boating trip. Sharon recognised the cabin as the place from her dream where the gypsy had spoken to her. The gypsy had been right: Sharon did feel as though they were in heaven as they sailed gently along the river Severn.
If you enjoyed this story you may like to know I have a small collection of short stories available to download free from Amazon, and other ebook retailers.