Chapter 1

• Christina's POV
• Therefore, in our household, we make it a point to pay attention to our dreams.
• People have a persistent tendency to attribute meaning or significance to their nighttime terrors and dreams. Which of these is correct.
• The meanings or interpretations of one person's dream may vary greatly from person to person, and only a select few individuals are capable of understanding the significance of a particular dream.
• Only a select few people, including my family and I, are able to comprehend what it means to have a dream. We have always believed that our dreams gave us insight into what the future could hold for us or what was going on in our spiritual life at the time. If we wished to prevent the awful things that were shown in our dreams from really occurring, we would pray against them or rebuke them in the name of God, and it would work!
• This is something that I learned from my parents.
• A few days ago, I had a dream, but I didn't pay attention to it or tell it to stop. It wasn't until I realized that my mother was no longer my spiritual home that I was reminded of the dream I had, which made me realize that I had already known about it. If I had just told it to stop, mother would still be my spiritual home. I needed her to lead me, to be my spiritual home. I needed her, and I got my strength from her. How was I going to get through life without her? If I'm not very spiritually strong, won't I be attacked mentally and maybe even die?
• But maybe she did this on purpose. Maybe she no longer wanted to be my spiritual home. Why are you doing this to me? Wasn't I her daughter? The only girl she ever had? Didn't she know about all the risks I was likely to face? I was only 9 at the time. Too young to be left on their own. I thought about a lot of things and wondered where my life would take me. Maybe my mother didn't want to be my spiritual home anymore because my little brother was only a year old, but that wasn't a good enough reason. I wish I had the courage to ask her what went wrong, what I did wrong to deserve this. Then all of my many questions would be answered.
• I had that dream again that night....
• I was walking with my mom in the desert, but she was walking faster than I was. No matter how fast I walked, I couldn't catch up to her. I called out to her, but she didn't answer. Was she ignoring me on purpose? She was acting like she didn't hear me, or maybe she couldn't hear me at all. I tried again, but my cries and pleas for her not to leave me and to wait for me fell on deaf ears. Then a sandstorm hit. The winds were strong enough to quickly lift me into the air. I closed my eyes so that the dust wouldn't get in them. The dust blew past me, making a mess. I could feel dust all over my body, on my neck, face, arms, legs, etc., which was annoying.
• I couldn't keep calling for help because of the dust. I also didn't want the dust to get into my mouth or eyes, so I closed my eyes and tried to cover my nose with my hand. All of a sudden, I felt a strong hand grab my own. I was scared when I was put back on the ground! I was about to open my eyes to see who it was when someone said, "Don't open your eyes. It's still dusty. You're safe here."
• A man did it. I knew it was a man because of his deep, strong voice. He then made me put my head on his well-muscled chest and told me again,
• "Don't talk. "I'll help us get out of this sandstorm." A deafening silence followed as he picked me up and held me in his arms like a bride before taking small, steady steps forward. And for the first time, I could say, "I felt much safer with this stranger."
• Even though I didn't know who this guy was, I immediately felt more secure and had a peculiar sensation of belonging that I couldn't quite put my finger on.
• End of the dream.
• That dream came to me once again. Therefore, I now had a new host, who was a guy I was unfamiliar with. Even the back of the man's head was hidden from my view. I awoke on that particular morning feeling miserable because I couldn't wait to find out what he looked like.
• However, I was unable to discuss my dream with anybody else. I just was not capable of telling anybody. If I informed my mother about it, I didn't believe she'd pay attention or even listen to what I had to say... It is obvious that she will refuse the offer.
• How could I even start to tell her about my dream? I didn't have the courage to bring up that subject or stand in front of her and talk about it.
• So, I chose to keep this a secret, to keep the dream to myself, and maybe the answers to my questions would come soon. I had to do nothing but wait!