I dreamed I was lying in bed. It was not really my bed. It was a large brass bed. I lay naked on top of a quilt.

 

At first I was in darkness. Then I saw, far off in the distance above me, a spot of white light.

 

The spot of light grew and I could make out what appeared to be a human form. It was a woman. She was wearing long flowing white robes. She descended lower and lower and came closer and closer to me. I could see that she was beautiful, and the closer she came the more breathtaking her beauty was.

 

At last she was just above me. She was so close I could feel her warm breath on my face. She began to sing a melody so lovely that my heart ached and I began to weep tears of joy. I could not understand the words of her song but I was nonetheless moved to ecstasy.

 

When she finished her song she spoke to me. She asked me to come with her. I wanted to more than anything in the world. Yet, I did not know whence she came and I hesitated. I was going to tell her I could go with her but she disappeared before I could answer.

 

The joy I had felt was replaced with terrible grief. I felt lonely in a way I had never before known.

 

Then as suddenly as she had disappeared she returned a second time. Again she asked me to come with her. This time I did not hesitate. I said I would come with her. But again she disappeared and I was alone.

 

Next the bed was surrounded by my friends and loved ones. They begged me not to go with her. They told me she was the angel of death. But I knew they were wrong.

 

Yet a third time she appeared to me. A third time she asked me to return with her. Again I said I would. But when I asked for one week more to be with my family she again disappeared. Just before she left she told me she would never return.

 

At first I did not believe her when she said she would not return. But gradually I began to realize that it was true. I wept.

 

Then I awoke. I lay in the darkness, breathing heavily. I wondered why she had disappeared from me. I longed for sleep to return so that I might dream of her once again. But I knew that dreams seldom come twice.