travel and rhum

I have a few but one that sticks with me was a psychological one when I was hiking up a steep mountain a few years ago. It was a slog and I'd been dealing with the burn and fatigue for quite a few hours and something strange happened when I went up into the clouds. We all know that errie spot where we go from being able to see to moving up into thick cloud and having the world close in around us. Well the very moment I did I was struck with a feeling of dread and despair. I tried to ignore it and focus of where I was going but I just couldn't. So I stopped and tried to figure out what my brain was doing. Was I dehydrated etc?

Then I heard a voice in my head yelling at me to call a friend of mine I hadn't talked to in ages. I shrugged it off and thought, yeah I'll call her tomorrow…. But it would go away. I stopped again and heard a clear voice in my head repeating the words, call **** call her now. Call **** call her now. So I got my phone out. She answered in clear distress, sobbing and crying. I said are you ok? She said, "no, no I'm not." I told her I knew that but wanted to know what was wrong. She said she was in hospital and her mum was dying in the bed next to her. She told me she was unconcious but might hear me if I wanted to say goodbye. So I did and I could hear her stir back into consciousness and try to talk to me. I told her I loved her etc, and she died soon after. I then sat and cried alone up in the clouds and then turned around and went home.

I have never been able to shake how suddenly I went from enjoying my hike to moving into the clouds and being instantly struck by that awful feeling of despair, and the immediate and very specific voice…. Call her now, call her now.