A Horrific But True Nightmare

by Antiquarian_m

I am one of those fortunate or perhaps unfortunate people who have dreams that become reality, It is not a gift that I can turn on, I cannot simply think hmmm, tonight I will dream of this or that, and in almost all of my dreaming world I cannot remember what I was dreaming about when I awake, except that is, when I dream the special dreams, these usually take place when I am most relaxed, such as on holiday or vacation, sadly almost without exception they are far from happy dreams, the special dreams are always in vivid colour, now that might be normal for you, but for me it is not, ordinary dreams if I do ever remember them are always in black and white, don't ask why, they just are! well that's the intruduction over with. Here is just one of those dreams.

When I was in my twenty's I worked on steel work demolition, I was a burner for a Sheffield (UK) based firm, my job was to cut up the steel girders etc of once thriving industries, This job had its dangers like all demolition work, but this particular contract was almost at an end, most of the demolition had been completed, only the larger girders that now littered the floor needed to be cut up and sent to the furnaces to become the next generation of buildings.

One morning I awoke with horror in my heart, I had dreamed one of my dreams, it was a dream filled with blood and gore, in my dream I was looking down at a collegue of mine, his name was Peter, he was stood on a large criss cross frame of girders, these where high above the ground, he was cutting a girder with his Oxy-Propane burner, suddenly I saw a large round axle start to roll out of a wooden shed, this was above him, I was looking down above it all like a bird hovering in the sky, this large steel bar was heading towards Peter, I shouted to him "Ken look out" to this he looked up, at that moment this mighty roller crashed down upon him, and swatted him like a fly, blood splattered everywhere, looking at this macarbe scene I screamed "Ken, Ken", and thats when I awoke.

That day I told Peter I had dreamed a nightmare, not telling him all about it, simply telling him to be careful.

I was still baffled though, why had I called him Ken? his name was Peter, a Ken worked with us, but it was not him, it was definately Peter!

The next day the management came over to our place of work in Hull from Sheffield, they wanted three men to take down a dock side crane, Peter, Ken and our foreman Steve volunteered to do this task.

It was later that day came the news of a tragic accident, one of the men had been crushed, we where all allowed to stop work and leave. That evening I read our local newspaper, it said that a man named Kenneth had been crushed as a large roller shaped crane axle had snapped inside the crane housing. he had been standing on the criss cross jib section, when suddenly the roller had broken free of its mounting, this action caused the jib to lurch upwards and horrifically swat him against the shed like engine room of the crane.

It was oh so similar to my dream, but had I seen the wrong person? no, it was infact Peter who had died, but the press used his first name, one that non of us knew he had, his full name was Kenneth Peter.

All that I have told is true except I have changed the actual names.

Antiquarian_m