A Nightmare And A Farewell

SV became part of my extended family after marrying my second cousin RM. I was in my awkward early teenage years and didn't care for him, specially since my relatives closer to him described SV as a snobbish and uppish person. For these reasons, my interactions with him were reduced to the most basic civilities during the occasional family reunions both of us attended.

All of this changed a few years later when I decided to continue my education and joined the Faculty of Chemistry in the public University, SV's alma mater, which instantly gave us a common ground to talk about when we were together. Little gossip and updates about some of my, then, professors whom had been his classmates years earlier. We used to exchange our experiences and funny adventures during lab sessions and long hours of arid calculus and organic chemistry lessons.

It became normal for us to spend most of the time together at birthday parties, christenings, and other family reunions.

By those days RM and SV have had three children.

After I finished university and began working, he went to meet me a few times after work and we would ride the subway together and take our own way at one of the transfer stations.

Although his conversation was always pleasant and entertaining, at some point I began to wonder if all he used to tell me was true, or if he had the habit of embellishing his anecdotes, in which he was always faster, intrepid, better, etc...

Once he mentioned to have driven at excessive speed and doing a record time of one hour between two cities in southern Mexico. Since I had never been to that area, I believed what he said.

In October 1990, I traveled to this area of the country and went to those cities. There's roughly a distance of 400 km between them... At that point I began questioning what SV had told me.

One night, I had an upsetting nightmare, in which I was walking through a long aisle in a hospital heading toward the nurses station.

There were several closed doors on both sides of the aisle, except for one door to my left that was slightly open. As I approached it, I saw two little lights floating against a black background, and a skeletal hand beckoning me through the crack between the door and the wall.

Although I didn't see any facial features, I knew it had to be a skeleton, the vibe it game me was negative and, in my dream, I recoiled at its sight and walked as close as possible to the wall on the right side.

I knew this figure was inviting me, perhaps even daring me, to see whatever there was behind that door.

I woke up sweating and upset, got up with a bad feeling but forgot about it as I followed my daily routine.

At around 2:00 PM that day, close to the end of my work day, I began thinking about SV and, at the same time, "feeling" his presence right beside me. I decided that, the next time I saw him, I would tell him that I didn't believe he had driven such distance in such a short time.

Unfortunately, the evening of that day, we got a phone call letting us know that SV had passed away in the afternoon in the hospital of a city in northern Mexico. He was with his wife trying to get to Mexico City in order to be with their eldest child on her birthday that same day.

He had a massive heart attack and had to go to a hospital, but it was too late and he passed away... Around 2:00 PM.

The day of his wake, I felt remorseful and sad, thinking that he came to me to say goodbye and the only thing I did at that moment was to remember his little white lie.