1

"When I awake, all is dark and silent.  There is no movement, and as such the only indication of consciousness is the disturbing lack of vivid sensation that accompanies my dreams.  The darkness envelops my mind and the silence is so profound that the soft beating of my heart seems to echo in the close boundaries of perception.  I can feel what seems to me to be a body, but how is it that I can know such things?  I wriggle what I think are my toes, but aside from my thoughts, how do I know that said toes even exist?  I sit up and touch them just to be sure.  
Upon establishing the fact within my mind that I indeed have a body I try to make some sense of my surroundings.  Once again, the silence and darkness encroach upon my mind.  Where am I?.  I hear a faint pounding sound in the silence, and though it is barely a noise, I strain my senses so that it quickly seems immensely loud.  Oh no, it’s just my heart again.  Why, all of a sudden, can I hear my heart?  Never once before can I remember hearing my heart.  

Wait…remember? 

 A vivid rush of memories surge through my consciousness, threatening to drown me; as if my brain felt the need to jolt me into awareness.  I lay back down, trying to sift through the pools of interconnected images, attempting to liberate one, so that I can begin to grasp understanding.  Soon one stands still long enough to grapple it with my mental clutches.  I see color, and soon I am transported into a new reality.  I hear laughing…or crying?  I feel soft support beneath my feet, wet and smooth…grass!  I cling to the word, the simple noun seems to bring me to a new level of perception.  Names well up in my mind, that’s a tree, that’s a bird, that’s a house…wait!  A house, what’s a house doing here?  
I move forward…walk forward…on the grass toward the house, meaning to investigate this peculiar vision.  It is an old house, old but in good condition.  I can see wood siding, and …what are those things on the top, oh yes, shingles made of wood as well.  It is a faded yellowish white, like the color of an old man’s teeth.  When I get close enough I touch it, it is rough but not splintered, like the stubble on my face.  My face!  
My fingertips feel my chin, long and thin, up to a head bare but for a few wispy strands of hair.  I feel a bony nose, not long, but protuberant enough to be my prominent feature.  I am tired, and I feel weak.  My stomach reminds me that I could not remember the last time that I had eaten.  Suddenly the house seems to leap away from me, and I feel like I am falling…falling through the ground into nothing…  
Again there is silence, another dream I guess.  Still the house remains in my mind, I shall have to think about this more when I awake, I think to myself, drifting off again…"