(a revised version of a post originally published in April 2006)

It has come back to me.

Years ago, I murdered someone, and hid the body. I have forgotten about it (that's the best way to deal with these things). I've forgotten where the body is decomposing. Did I move it?

Details come back to me sometimes. It's a boy I killed.  I'm avoiding writing down all the details. A boy or a girl.

And now, at last, the police are snooping around. They have found some evidence I didn't destroy. I go down to see my wife, or girlfriend in the garden. I'm not sure how she's involved...

Then, I wake up. Usually I get out of bed, make myself a hot drink, read a book - anything to get rid of nightmare.  But I keep sinking back into it,  believing  that I did kill someone long ago, and had somehow forgotten. Half awake but believing for hours and hours. A murder I can't quite remember, that might about to be detected.

The details are vivid and convincing. The mound of earth the boy (or girl)  is buried in. The years that have passed since it happened. The undestroyed evidence, probably a letter. My relentless feeling of guilt.

OF COURSE it's a dream. Of course it's a dream.  Definitely.  Yes, of course it's a dream, a recurring dream and a old dream, too. In fact, until this week I had forgottten about for over six months.

Just as in the dream, I have forgotten about the murder, and the body.