\u201cCoffee, black,\u201d said the lady at the counter. She was old, gray, yet spirited. She wore a\u00a0white military style\u00a0uniform. Its metallic silver trimmings reflected the incandescent light in such a way as to make it difficult to stare at her. It\u2019s not every day that someone new orders here. That\u2019s why I like it. It\u2019s boring and predictable. The perfect place to spend my Sunday mornings after my work week filled with surprises and unpredictable chaos.<\/p>\n
I heard the woman pay with coins, which is odd. Who does that anymore? I quickly\u00a0turned\u00a0to look away just as the old lady grabbed her coffee. I pretended that the calm street outside was worthy of my intense glare, but I wasn\u2019t fooling anyone, especially her. I caught her out of the corner of my eye as she pulled out a chair and sat at my table, \u201cAre you Jackie Pitz?\u201d asked the lady.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t immediately answer her. In fact, my initial instinct when someone tries to talk to me is to get up and leave; leave the table, leave the room, maybe even pack my bags and leave town. I don\u2019t like people. People are complicated. People are selfish. People are irresponsible. People are work. However, before I could push my chair back to get up and leave, the old lady held out her hand and touched mine. She was ice cold.<\/p>\n
Intrigued, I confessed, \u201cYes, I am Jackie Pitz.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGood,\u201d the old lady replied, \u201cI am your granddaughter. My name\u00a0is\u00a0Maelyn,\u00a0and\u00a0I need your help.\u201d<\/p>\n
I did what any normal person would do under such circumstances. I drank my coffee while simultaneously looking around the room to examine if anyone else could see this crazy old woman sitting at my table. All\u00a0the\u00a0other people in the coffee shop had working eyes and ears and they were obviously observing us.<\/p>\n
I then concluded that this woman was real. At least, in the sense she was taking up\u00a0physical\u00a0space and drinking coffee, so I did the only logical thing I could think of. I slowly got up, and acted\u00a0casual\u00a0as I walked out of the coffee shop and down the street. I have no idea how I normally walk, but I tried to moderate my steps to some kind of gentle\u00a0rhythm, like everything about right now was normal, and not altered by a soon to be corpse claiming to be my\u00a0descendant.<\/p>\n
Of course, this plan of mine, to just walk away, was flawed. \u201cJackie!\u201d yelled a voice.<\/p>\n
Of course, the lady named\u00a0Maelyn\u00a0had legs that worked too, and was running to catch up with me. An impressive feat, given her age. \u201cStop, please!\u201d she\u00a0begged. With a heavy sigh, I stopped. Now that we were in sunlight, I could see more clearly how I hadn\u2019t given this woman more credit for her appearance. She was old, yes, and her hair was gray, yes, but she was also very fit and healthy. In fact, impressively so, which allowed me to let my guard down. \u201cWhat do you want?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want you to help me wake up and understand.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cExcuse me?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery night you visit me,\u201d\u00a0Maelyn\u00a0continued, \u201cSometimes in my dreams. Sometimes in my nightmares. Every night, every single night. I want to know why.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is impossible,\u201d I said, \u201cI\u00a0live\u00a0<\/i>here. I have lived here for years. I have never seen you before this morning. How can possibly expect me to believe that you have seen me, that I have \u2018visited you\u2019 on a\u00a0what did you say? A\u00a0daily basis?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMore like nightly,\u201d\u00a0Maelyn\u00a0corrected, \u201cAnd\u00a0often, we don\u2019t talk. You are just there. You are always there.\u201d<\/p>\n
My usual plan of action where I leave town was starting to seem like the best course of action here. I don\u2019t know what it is about me, but I always attract crazy people. I have lost count of how many times I\u2019ve had to abruptly leave and start over again. Each time, a new small city, and each time, I check into a\u00a0rundown hotel and take the first job anyone will give me. Each time, someone freaks me out, and I have to leave again. However, this time, I got to stay here a while, a long while. For this reason, I thought maybe I should put up a bit of a fight. After all, I had a routine, and with that, some contentment. It\u2019s not the same as happiness, but\u00a0it\u00a0suited me just fine.<\/p>\n
\u201cOkay,\u201d I said, \u201cTell me about these dreams.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell,\u201d said\u00a0Maelyn, with some hesitation in her voice, \u201cThere is the gray problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGray problem?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, you see, in real life, everything is bright and colorful, and here, in dream world, where you are, everything is gray.\u201d<\/p>\n
I had no idea what she was talking about, and clearly, my face was communicating as much without me saying a world, she continued, \u201cOkay, so that doesn\u2019t make much sense to you. Let me try another approach.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes,\u201d I said, \u201cThat might be a good idea.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOkay,\u201d\u00a0Maelyn\u00a0said, \u201cThere is the animal situation here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cExcuse me?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFor one, baby\u00a0triceratops, while cute, are not real.\u201d<\/p>\n
I assumed she was commenting on the small family of triceratops that were crossing the street behind me was we were having this conversation. They often travel in groups in the early morning hours, especially on the weekends when there is less traffic.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have been here for as long as I can remember. They are more real to me than you are right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOkay, fine,\u201d\u00a0Maelyn\u00a0continued, \u201cWhat about that?\u201d<\/p>\n
She was pointing to something behind me. I turned to see what was bothering her now. At first, I thought she was upset by\u00a0the Moa that\u00a0decided to follow the triceratops across the street to the park, but once I adjusted my eyes to the events in the distance, I noticed a young woman, who looked remarkably like\u00a0Maelyn.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat about it?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s me,\u201d she stated, \u201cHow can there be two of me?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, that\u2019s simple.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cExcuse me? Simple? What could possibly be simple about TWO of me existing at the same time? And on the same street!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is supposed to be two of you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maeyln\u00a0clearly did not like this explanation, so I continued, \u201cWhatever is, whatever exists, is supposed to exist. You can choose to make their existence as simple or as complicated as you want, but understand that whatever meaning you decided to give something, that\u2019s on you. Don\u2019t get upset with me, or a group of baby triceratops, or\u00a0for your younger\u00a0self for just being, just existing.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not sure if I was getting through to her. She obviously seemed displeased by my explanation, but I wasn\u2019t interested in this conversation any longer, so I turned to walk away. I could hear\u00a0Maelyn\u00a0shouting at me as I walked down the street. It didn\u2019t sound like she was following me though, which made me happy. I only had a limited amount of patience, and my coffee was getting cold. As I tried to pass the younger\u00a0Maelyn, she waved to catch my attention and then pointed behind me. I turned, to see\u00a0Maelyn\u00a0in her white uniform being startled by something. A loud noise perhaps? I couldn\u2019t hear it, if there was one, but who am I to assume? I watched her vanish then I turned to head home. I had a book that needed to be read, and seeing how this was going to be my only day off this week, I wanted to relax, maybe even take a nap this afternoon. Yes, I think I need some extra sleep.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cCoffee, black,\u201d said the lady at the counter. She was old, gray, yet spirited. She wore a\u00a0white military style\u00a0uniform. Its metallic silver trimmings reflected the incandescent light in such a way as to make it difficult to stare at her. It\u2019s not every day that someone new orders here. That\u2019s why I like it. It\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[315],"class_list":["post-11030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","tag-dreams-and-nightmares"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11030\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}