A Historian's Heart: William & Anna's 21st Century Story

The test is today.

I woke up in a cold sweat and realized I had been dreaming of my last exam. In my dream, the professor gave me a B on the exam. When I turned it over to see the grade, however, there was nothing but blank paper. As I looked around the room at all of my fellow students, they all stared back with a look that told me "it's alright to be upset." But then their faces started changing, and their eyes began to fill with fear as they started running towards me. I couldn't move, and they were closing in on me, so I closed my eyes and braced myself for the impact...

It was the noise of Anna's alarm clock that woke me from my nightmare. I rolled over to see her still asleep beside me - she always slept better than me, especially before exams. My anxiety attacks kept getting worse every time I faced a test, and as hard as it was for me to admit it, I felt like I depended on her more every day to help keep things together. She was always there to talk things out with me when things got rough, but lately she seemed less willing to listen, or even be there for me at all.

She had been putting in just as much work as I had been in our studies - if not more - but it seemed like every time I made headway in some aspect of my research or dissertation proposal, something bad would happen and throw everything off track again. She was tired of being dragged down by my problems and wanted to get her own life going while she still could. It wasn't that long ago when we were studying together day and night until we were both exhausted; now she was spending more time in the lab than at home with me or our friends.

As Anna slowly rolled over to face away from me, I reached up to touch her shoulder and whispered "Good morning," into her ear. She moaned softly without opening her eyes and shifted over slightly towards where our bodies met together on the bed. I pulled her closer tightly against my chest as she began to drift back into sleep.

I knew she didn't want this relationship anymore than I did, but despite how hard it was being together these days we both knew deep down inside that we wouldn't have it any other way. We loved each other too much for either one of us to break this bond between us without causing great pain to one another...

I tried to go back to sleep but couldn't find rest again. The sun hadn't risen yet but already there were sounds outside that told me people were already awake: The garbage truck passing by on its route through the neighborhood streets; that dog next door barking incessantly; shout-outs being exchanged between two different groups of people walking past our house on their way to work...