Sleeping at night is supposed to be peaceful.  The cool autumn breeze blowing through the two inches of open window, gently moving the curtains to lull the unsuspecting girl to sleep.  She was enjoying the feeling of the air on her face.  Drifting off into deep sleep she felt something pulling at her.  She was not sure what it was at first then suddenly she opened her eyes and saw herself, lying down in bed with her eyes closed breathing slowly and evenly. 

What happened? Am I dead?  Why am I seeing this?  I must be dreaming, she thought to herself.  But to her it seemed so real.  She was walking around while at the same time she was lying peacefully in her bed.

The girl was afraid but also felt nothing.  She could not feel the floor, could not feel her own face, and then all of a sudden she began to move away from her bed.  What was drawing her away?  It was a very strange sensation to not feel anything yet be compelled to float away from her physical body.  Who could  be doing this to the girl, she did not know.

Far away there was a woman sitting in front of a fireplace.  She was sitting on the floor, rocking back and forth saying something very quiet and slow.  She had strange images on pieces of paper in front of her and around her was a circle.  She was wearing a satin cloak that shone brightly in the dark room, reflecting the flames as though it was a part of it.  The old woman had her eyes closed and kept rocking.  Once in a while she would pick up one of the papers and place it to her head, still chanting with her eyes closed.

The girl was outside now.  She did not feel the cool air that was all around her.  Of course not, her body was still lying dormant inside of her room.  Leaves were literally blowing right through her as though she was nothing more than a spirit in the night.  The nocturnal people were walking past her as though they did not see her.  Strangely, though, the cats that would prowl the neighborhood at night seemed to know she was there, they would walk around her figure as they went on their way. 

The old woman, a witch from an era thought dead and gone, was not concentrating on any particular thing, she kept her chanting up, praying to her nature gods to help her to complete her task.  She had the desire to borrow the youth of someone to help her heal a friend, no, a relative who was nearly dead.  She hoped to take the life essence of someone strong with a lot of life yet to live and give it to the sick and dying woman she dearly loved.  Yes, even witches can love, she was not bad, she was fearful of the loss of her loved one.

The girl kept drifting toward a hospital.  She wondered why she was going there.  She was not sick, did not know anyone who was in the hospital.  The old witch was working her magic more effectively than she had expected.  The girl's spirit was floating directly toward the room of the sick woman.  The witch was not sure if her prayers, chants, were working.  She did not feel the power that was eminating from within her to the girl.  She just continued to chant.  The girl was in the room with the sick relative and suddenly the woman sat up.  She looked right at the girl, obviously able to see her and she asked her if she was there to take her away.  The girl could not speak, but shook her head no as she shrugged that she did not know why she was even there.  Then the expression on the sick woman's face changed.  The shadows took over where the light had been and her eyes narrowed and her lips stretched into a wide smile.  It was not a friendly smile and the girl became afraid.  She gestured wildly, trying to make this woman understand, but she was not trying to understand.  She got out of her bed and walked slowly toward the girl who was stuck to the spot by unseen hands.  What was keeping her here?  Why couldn't she wake up from this nightmare?

After a few seconds the woman finally was standing right in front of the girl, face to face.  She reached up to touch the girl and the girl disappeared.  The sick woman took a deep breath and was able to stand upright in a few more seconds.  She could breathe easily again, and she could walk without holding onto anything.  What had happened to the girl?  The sick woman knew.  She was absorbed into the life stream of the sick woman.  They were sharing the body.  The girl was still there, but only inside of the woman, helping her to heal and to strengthen.

The witch stopped chanting, she heard the phone ring and it distracted her.  With great agitation she answered the phone, and to her great delight it was her sick relative, sounding better than every, somehow more youthful.  Her chanting, her witchcraft had worked no doubt!  Her sister, the sick woman in the hospital, told her of a young girl who had come and was not a part of her.

All the while the girl remained asleep.  She did not wake when the alarm clock rang, nor did she rise when her mother came in to check on her.  She continued to sleep, restful, breathing slowly and evenly.  The girl's mother got worried because her child would not wake up.  She called her husband then the hospital.  The girl was rushed to the hospital.  The doctors did not know what was wrong with her.  She was tested for Mono, malaria, meningitis and anything else that could be causing her to sleep so deeply and not awake.

The sick woman was sitting up in her bed that morning, the nurses were astounded, she had been barely able to breathe the day before.  What could have caused this change in her health so quickly?  It was an amazing feat of strenght, will, and desire to survive, they decided.  The power of the mind over the body had been examined many times but the doctors and nurses would never have guessed that this woman was carrying those strengths in her.  She behaved as though she was ready to pass on but now it was like they were looking at a woman twenty years younger.  The old woman smiled at the nurse and asked her for food, that she was very hungry.

The nurse called for the woman's doctor.  When he arived he was astounded with the recovery of his very sick elderly patient.  "Why, you look twenty years younger!"  he exclaimed.  She just smiled and said "I guess you're just that good, Doctor."

Then the doctor heard his pager go off.  He apologized and left abruptly, to find that a little girl had been brought into the emergency room.  The girl was sleeping peacefully but she would not wake up.  The nurses, under direction of an intern, gave her a shot of adrenalin.  Nothing happened.  They tried cooling her down, warming her up, and shaking her.  Blood tests showed nothing was wrong with the girl.  She did not have any problems.  The doctor asked her parents about her mental stability, if she had any problems in school or at home that might cause her to become comatose.  They assured him that her life at home and school were very stable.  She was a bright child who did not need a lot of time to study, and at home she was a good girl, hardly ever doing anything to get in trouble.

The old woman laid back down and went to sleep.  She still had the IV in her arm and after sleeping for three or four hours the little girl's eyes began to flicker.  She opened her eyes and her parents excitedly called for the doctor.  When he came in the room the girl said that she had seen him before.  They had no idea how that was possible, she had been fast asleep when last he was in the room.  She swore she had sat up and talked with him.  She even told him she remembered him saying she looked 20 years younger, and she thought it was a strange thing to say.  The doctor furrowed his brow and left the room.  He remembered saying that, but to an elderly patient down the hall.  As quickly as she woke up, the girl went back to sleep.  The same deep slumber she had experienced before.

The old woman got out of bed and walked down the hallway.  She stopped and gasped as she walked past the little girl's room, she grasped at her chest, choked, and fell dead away.  She was not breathing, and her heart stopped beating.  She just fell down.  When the woman died, the little girl woke up again.  She clasped her own heart, gasped once, and was smiling again, as she looked out of the door at the people who were attending to the woman who had died.

She said she was free, now, to live her life again.  The spirit of the little girl and the old woman melded together and were existing as one in the little girl for the rest of her life.