The first nightmare I remember happen was terrifying. I was 5 years old. My kindergarten teacher told my mother I was having trouble learning the alphabet.   She was right and I was worried. I had learned to read when I was 4 on my own and I can't begin to imagine how. Though I could read and loved reading by the time I was in school, the difficulty I had learning the alphabet like the other kids haunted me day and night.   I dreamt that I woke up in the middle of the night. I sat up in the bed and could see the letters of the alphabet approaching the foot of my bed. One would grow very large and threatening and then recede back to the wall of my room where I noticed the door to the hall was no longer in place. I was frozen in bed. The room was very dark and the letters were muted orange. The way they grew in size as they approached my bed was terrifying.