NOTE: This is a dream I had on 27 January 2019 and posted to social media. This was the first time I had seen this since its original posting.
I went back to the past, somewhere in Europe, just prior to when the Jews were rounded up and sent to concentration camps.
I felt fear as the overseer of my work unit took an immediate disliking towards me and was certain I would be singled out either for death or deportation.
Then I noticed Natalia, but the lights in the room where we were being given work orders by the overseer went out and after a few moments, I was the one who found the switch and turned the lights back on.
So pleased was the overseer with my heroics, he sent me to the canteen to bring him some tea.
Just then, Natalia appeared but didn't recognize me. How could she? It would be some 70 years before we would meet.
I observed her holding her stomach in discomfort. I wondered if she might have been pregnant. I turned to her, she was a bit taken aback that I made eye contact and even more so when I spoke.
"If your stomach hurts, I could make you a cup of tea."
"Thank you she said," looking at me as if perhaps she might have known me from some bygone time.
I began looking through a cabinet for mint tea as I knew it would make her stomach feel better, but there was none to be found. In a drawer opposite the cupboard I found some chamomile and offered it to her, she kindly acquiesced.
While I was still on my knees retrieving the chamomile, I looked up at her and asked what specifically her symptoms were and could it be that she was in her time of the month. She was a bit shocked that I would ask that, and a female colleague of hers who stood nearby kind of smiled as if she thought it was sweet of me to enquire.
I quickly interjected that I didn't mean to be rude, but merely asked out of concern as well as the fact that I had four daughters of my own.
She said she had to go for a short conference with her supervisors and that I could bring the tea down to her when it was ready.
I boiled the water and prepared the chamomile leaves in a small strainer when it occurred to me that I neglected to ask her if she wanted the tea in a small or a large glass. I had to make to make certain of that important detail so I headed off to find her.
I spotted her sitting a table through a window on an upper floor and attempted to gesture to catch her attention, but was unable to do so.
Finally, a woman who was sat beside her noticed me and directed Natalia's attention to me. I tried to pantomime a small glass and a bigger glass but she didn't seem to understand what I was trying to imply with my hands.
She got up from the table and a few moments later appeared in the canteen. She laughed when I explained what I was trying to convey with my pantomime saying it didn't matter if the glass was small or large, that she was just delighted that I was kind and thoughtful.
I gave her the tea and while she was letting it cool off she read from a report in a thin, black notebook.
I looked at her long and deliberately, studied every feature of her face, recognizing beyond any shadow of doubt that she was indeed my Natalia. Her indisputable beauty, the prominent daintiness of her nose, the perfectly symmetrical space between her two top teeth and the downy dark brown hair on her nape validated that it was indeed the only woman I had ever loved in this or any lifetime.
Now it would prove to be my greatest challenge to convince her what the future would hold in store...for her, for me, for us and for the Jewish people.
Then I woke up.
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