Most people’s Night Terrors go away at a young age, but not mine. My terrors are completely auditory in nature, no images, no colors, just horrifying unintelligible screams and cries. What makes this even stranger is that I’ve been deaf since I was seven years old.
Until recently, they had been occurring about once every two weeks, but lately I’ve been having them nightly.
I was starting to wonder if the increase in night terrors was due to stress. This summer I’ve been working at a startup while taking night classes. Most days I start work at 8 and don’t get off until 5:30. Then class runs from 6-9. If I’m lucky I’ll fit dinner in there somewhere. Usually, it is close to 12 by the time I finish my homework. There’s not a whole lot of time in there for a social life or a trip to the gym.
I mentioned all of this to my friend Matt one day over lunch. “You know what you need?” “You need to come out to the lake with us this weekend.” Matt’s family owned a boat and he was always pestering me to join him for weekends at the lake. The problem was weekends were when I caught up on my homework and much needed sleep. Still, Matt was persistent and I eventually gave in.
That Saturday Morning we drove out to the lake with a couple of friends: Amanda, Marcus, and Jill. The Lake was massive and Matt knew a spot with an Island that had a sandbar that would be perfect to hang out at. It was a fairly nice day, the sky was mostly overcast, which kept the temperatures down to the low 80’s. Matt threw the anchor down 100 yards from the Island and everyone jumped off the boat and swam towards the shore.
We spent most of the day swimming around the Island, playing on the sandbar, and relaxing on the beach. I felt completely at peace for a change. When everyone decided to swim back to the boat for lunch, I told them I was too tired to make the swim and that I’d catch up with them after I rested for a while.
As I walked out of the water I felt a sharp pain in my right ear. Some water had got in my ear canaI and was making the right side of my head ache. I spread my towel out on the grass beneath a couple medium sized trees and laid down in the shade, turning on my side so any water that was still suck in my ear could drain out. In a couple minutes I was completely asleep. I don’t know how long I was out for, but when I woke up there was a light drizzle of rain that was dripping off the branches onto my face.
I was so drained of energy that i rolled onto my stomach, draped a towel over my head and fell back asleep. Before long I heard the all too familiar screams. I didn’t realize I was awake until I heard lighting crashing and large waves breaking on the shore. Some how I could partially hear out of my right ear again. I pulled the towel off of me and turned toward the water. Matt was stuck midway between the boat and the island. He was struggling to keep his head above water and calling for help every time he came up for air. The other three were still on the boat watching in horror, too afraid to risk going into the water.
No sooner had I ran into the water than a chest high wave came crashing down and knocked me off my feet. By the time I was able to stand up again another wave fell on top of me and pushed me up onto the shore. As I pulled myself out of the water, I heard Matt scream for the last time. When I looked up, he had vanished underneath the waves
I stood helplessly scanning the water for any sign of him, but all I saw was strong waves moving toward the small island. The storm didn’t calm down for another twenty minutes. I searched the perimeter of the small island hoping to see that Matt had made it to shore, and the other three drove the boat all around the general vicinity, but our search was fruitless.
Matt’s body didn’t turn up until a search party dragged the lake the next morning. I learned from Jill that everybody had been ready to head back to the marina, so Matt decided to swim toward the Island to wake me up. The rain was already coming down at that point but the worst of the storm didn’t hit until he was too far from the boat.
Every since that day I’ve maintained some hearing in my right ear, and my night terrors have become less frequent. But when they occur, I still hear Matt’s screams, and see the fear on his face as he disappears under the water.