Words Upon Waking

I woke up this morning from an especially spectacular night of sleep with the following sentence sort of shouting itself at me:

She searched for the thing that was not there and insisted that it was.

I don't know why.  I have no idea where it came from.  I was having a decidedly boring dream about starting a cleaning business that began with me cleaning out the locker room at my old high school.  This is odd on several levels: I hate cleaning and I avoided the locker room at all costs in high school.  And there is no way in hell you could pay me enough to clean one.  Also, my boss was still my boss and he kept talking to me about the PA system at the school and how it needed to be fixed.  But he wasn't actually in the dream, he was just on the phone a lot.  

I've been throwing this sentence around a bit since 5:30am.  I did fall asleep reading The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman which certainly has this as a theme in it.  The book is wonderful by the way, probably one of her best.  I love historical novels and when they're done right they do tend to breathe and live and tap you on the shoulder with a small reminder that we really are all the same, that even across thousands of years we're all just alike.  Mothers worry and love their children.  Its a truth that surpasses all others, no matter who or when you are.

Who is she?

Why did she insist that it was there?  What if it wasn't there?  What would happen to her then?  And why is she clinging to an invisible hope?  Does she have no other choice?  Who took it from her and why?  What will she gain if she wins?

And just like that, six pages are born. 

I don't know her yet.  I don't know her name or where she is.  I know she is a survivor and that she is fighting for something.  And I know she has to win or die trying.