Kirk Coffia

The Rex Iii: Calypsis Kirk Coffia

Five-year-old Laura Gonzalez awakened from another of her dreams. She immediately climbed out of bed, went into her mother and father's bedroom, and shook her mother awake. Sleepy-eyed, her mother Cina rolled over to face her daughter and lifted her head, one eye opened. Laura's little angelic voice always pleased her mother's ears no matter what the situation: "Mama, yo tuve un otro sueno la noche pasada!" Cina, roused herself and sat up in bed while her husband Jesse remained asleep. She wiped her eyes and pulled her little one to her breast, "Another dream, my precious one?" After comforting Laura with soothing words of affection as she always did in such moments, Cina Gonzalez climbed out of bed and took Laura into the kitchen of their small Monterrey, Mexico, home. After giving her a drink of water, she sat down with her and asked her to repeat the dream. "What did you see, Laura? Tell Mama." "I saw a man walking through a field of tall yellow grass." Her mother squinted, pondering, "Tall yellow grass?" she asked. "Yes, and it had hairs on it. He was walking, and he came to this big clock. The clock was bigger than he was, Mama." "What did he do with the clock?" "He stopped and just looked at it for a long time. Then he reached up and moved the clock hands backwards. The clock ticked backwards, Mama." "Si, the clock ticked backwards. Then what?" "Then a great storm with big black clouds came up, and when the lightning flashed, his eyes turned white. It scared me, Mama." "His eyes turned white? Did his eyes stay white?" "No, Mama, just when the lightning flashed." "What else, my child?" "The man prayed for awhile, and then this big cloud came down behind him and touched the ground. It was so big and loud that I started to cry. The man heard me crying, and he smiled at me and said, 'Laura, don't be frightened. Take my hand!' and I woke up just before the cloud could blow us away!" "And that is all, Laura? Is that all you saw?" Cina went to the bookshelf, pulled