Free Someone Else's Dream by Colin Griffiths

decided they had better check it over when sobriety woke them in the morning. They had roared with laughter almost non-stop as they’d re-written it; Carla marvelling at the way her friend was able to describe the explicit scenes, as if it was all from experience. She eventually decided it probably was and she wondered, not for the first time, what it was she had been missing out on. She certainly hadn’t lived a life like Charlotte, or so it seemed, like her friend Donna.
     
    With only one double bed in the beach house, they slept together; both girls soon falling asleep with the effects of the wine. In her dreams Carla was once again in that alley being chased. Once again she could not move, as if she was running on the spot and once again she woke up in a cold sweat, not knowing the outcome.
     
    Donna was still fast asleep, the wine having taken her into a deep sleep. Carla got herself a drink of water and got back into bed. No more dreams came to her that night, although, for a while she stayed awake, thinking about her re-occurring dream. It was beginning to unnerve her a little.
     
    *              *              *
     
    They both nursed headaches the next morning and were sat out on the veranda with black coffee and paracetamol. The day was cloudy and the clouds hovered above them as if looking down on them, unable to move due to the lack of breeze. The clouds bore no rain; the morning was muggy and the sea calm and peaceful across the sand dunes. Neither girl spoke for a while, just letting the effects of the painkillers kick in, comfortable in each other’s silence. Carla sat in her Minion pyjamas and Donna in a plainer set she’d borrowed from Carla.
     
    “Wish I bought some clean knickers,” Donna chirped. It was met with a smile by Carla.
     
    “Just go soldier,” Carla suggested, prompting Donna to burst out laughing, careful, though, not to let her laughs pound her head. Fortunately the painkillers had already kicked in.
     
    “What’s so funny?” Carla added, looking confused,
     
    Through her laughter, Donna replied, “Its commando, you fool.”
     
    Carla giggled, she’d known the saying had some military meaning. They sat in further silence, until Donna made a fresh coffee and brought it outside.
     
    “So you gonna send them your porn?” Donna queried, in some ways already regretting what she had done to her friend’s novel. She knew it was dear to her heart. It had been fun doing it, but, at the time she wasn’t quite so sure now.
     
    “I suppose so,” Carla muttered unconvincingly and certainly uninspired. This just confirmed what Donna had been thinking.
     
    “Of course, if you do, it wouldn’t be your story; you would have ruined the book you loved and you will forever feel that you let yourself down,” said Donna, to Carla’s surprise, who looked at her friend open-mouthed, but with a sense of relief inside her.
     
    She had felt feelings like that ever since she had woken up. The feelings had even put her recent nightmare to the back of her mind. She felt a smile come to her face and a great love for her best friend.
     
    “I am right aren’t I?” added Donna.
     
    Carla nodded, “You are and it’s really just not me, is it?”
     
    “No it’s not and that’s what I love about you girl. Keep the one we done, as sort of a reference book of sex. Try some of the stuff out, you may enjoy it.”
     
    Carla felt her face redden. She’d certainly never tried any of the stuff Donna had written the night before. “Have you done that stuff?” she asked Donna.
     
    Donna just answered straight faced; “most of it, a few I made up, but I’m soon going to put them in practice”. She raised her eyebrows at Carla.
     
    “I could never do that, I’d be too embarrassed,” Carla blushed,
     
    “No you wouldn’t, you just ain’t met the right guy yet. Talking about right guys, you seeing limp-dick Darren again?”
     
    “He’s not limp, he’s