The Gift of Safe Landing

In my nightmare, I said, “you can hit me as much as you want,” like I was daring someone to hit me, like I was able to withstand what they might do, though I don’t remember where I was or who was threatening to hit me, but in the morning, my husband said I was muttering and then shaking and then whimpering during my nightmare, night terror it maybe was, so I asked him what the whimpering sounded like and he said like I was going to start to cry, which I do so rarely I wonder how he knew what that would sound like, and then he told me that he rubbed my head, which I remember waking up to, having my nightmare end with my husband rubbing my head, and it surprised me that he didn’t just shake me awake but instead took this gentler course and when I asked him in the morning why he rubbed my head, he said that it was his job to take care of me and that’s what he was doing.