Living Dreams
Title: Living Dreams
Words 1,566
Rating: PG to PG-13 ish.
Genre: Romance/Philosophy with a dash of angst.
Summary: He met her one day and she brought him hope. And reality kept... slipping.
Notes: Contains a few of my 'theories', a heterosexual pairing (weird, isn't it? XP). Any suggestions for a second draft would be appreciated. What makes sense to me when I get philosophical is usually a bit tilted.
For murder_of_raven, because the mind is the most exotic fantasy setting you can have and this is the most innocent love story I could come up with.
Living Dreams
The first time I saw her, she was in a meadow, her cotton skirt fluttering as she danced around rocks and sticks in her bare feet to get a closer look at the flowers. She didn’t seem to notice me at first, her full attention on the scent of the healthy lilies in front of her; but when I cleared my throat, she didn’t seem surprised to see me either.
“Welcome.” She gave a little curtsy, her golden hair falling out of her bun in little wisps that seemed to create a nimbus of light around her head. The wind blew through the healthy green grass around us, and it carried the scent of vegetation and the whispers of distant tree leaves.
“Who are you?”
“I’m the one you will spend the rest of your life with.” She answered, her soothing voice enveloping my heart without warning.
We talked for a long time, almost forever, in that meadow.
~~~
He’s been acting cheerful lately.” The man mused out loud. “I don’t think he’s smiled this much in the past few years.”
“Odd, isn’t it?” His colleague agreed, writing something on the clipboard he always carried around.
~~~
The next time I saw her was at the park. I’ve been to many parks throughout my life: small ones when I was a kid, larger ones when I got bigger and the kiddies’ slide didn’t look as appealing; but there was only one park I still love as an adult. It had a great climbing cage, a real catacomb of steel that was about nine feet high and ten feet wide. My friends and me always had races to see who could climb to the top first, and that was a rush I can still remember years later.
On the left of the climbing maze were my other two favorites: the two giant swing sets and a pack of seesaws. Fenced-in gardens were planted on the outskirts, away from the main paths kids used to get from one destination from another, but still accessible. Dozens of prolific flowers bloomed in those gardens, and they had attracted a different type of flower to them. Today, her hair was pink, not bright like most dyes would leave it; but a pretty collection of shades that seemed natural. “You know a lot of beautiful places.” She said, somehow sensing that I was looking at her.
She pulled me into a hug, smelling of meadow grass and the flowers she loved so much. When I tried to put my arms around her, she slipped out of reach. “Let’s go on the swings!” She suggested, a mischievous smile on her face.
I couldn’t help but smile too when I saw the sheer joy she took in such a simple thing like swinging on a swing set. I swayed gently back and forth; but she seemed determined to reach the sky, and her enthusiasm made the metal frame around us shudder.
“You’re going too high!”
“You’re not trying hard enough!” She yelled back, giving a particularly hard forward thrust.
“You’re going to hurt yourself.”
“I’ll be fine.” She laughed at my concern, looking in front of her. “Race ya to the jungle gym!”
“Not from that height you won’t.” I jumped off my swing. Walking at a leisurely pace, I turned around so she could see my smirk. “You’re about to see me win…”
And the she jumped while the swing was almost level with the top of the swing set’s frame. She twirled in the air, almost flying with her limbs spread out happily in a pose that reminded me of Superman, before executing a flawless rolling landing that you usually see in movies or video games.
Now I was behind and too shocked to move.
With a gleeful laugh, she sprinted towards the climbing cage, her ponytail bobbing up and down. She didn’t seem to care about the sandy patches on her jeans and the back of her white tank top as she slid to a stop in front of the cage and sent yet another cloud of dust into the air. “Come on slowpoke!” She called, starting to climb, her bare feet making soft thuds against the metal.
“You’re insane.” I managed, following her example, albeit less gracefully.
She was laughing when I reached the top, panting slightly. I haven’t done anything that required that much flexibility in quite awhile. It felt good.
“I knew there’s still life in you.” She whispered, leaning forward to kiss me. She tasted like a hopeful dream to a starving man like me.
“Why won’t you tell me your name?” I begged.
She just smiled, running a finger over her lips like a child. ‘My lips are sealed’ it said.
“I’ll call you Hope then.” I decided. I didn’t want to keep calling her ‘you’.
~~~
”I can’t find it! Please help me find it!”
“Find what sir?”
“The necklace I got for her! I was going to give it to her at the playground but-“
“What playground, sir?”
“The one off North Street.” The man answered irritably.
“But sir, you haven’t-“
“Are you going to help me or not?”
“Of course, sir.”
They never did find it.
~~~
Their next meeting was at the beach, and she was wearing a blue bikini top and swim shorts that managed to leave just enough to the imagination to make my mind go numb. Her hair was the colour of the darkening sky, a deep purple that appeared black until the sun’s rays highlighted parts of it. “Having fun staring?” She asked lightly.
“A lot.” I admitted, well aware of my own blush.
“Come and catch me then.” She ran out to meet the waves, looking back once with a smile. It was hard to follow her today, my feet seemed to sink into the sand and it was so hard to move them… I have never waded through a bog or a pit of sinking sand, but I imagine it’d feel a lot like this.
She was neck-deep in the water by the time the waves lapped at my ankles. “You okay?” She called, her smile fading for the first time that I can remember.
“I’m just tired.” I waved off her concern, struggling to take another step. Sweat clung to my body, unnerving me that a simple thing like this could exert this much strain.
She actually came to me this time, pulling me into a hug.
“Soon, we’ll always be together.”
~~~
“He’s losing muscle tone and his EEG’s showing less beta waves when he’s awake.” The woman reported, voice wavering in anxiety. “He needs your help!”
“How long?”
“Three hours, sir, but the past few days he’s been-“
“Showing increasing signs of fatigue and disorientation.” He concluded. “A cocktail might give us some more time to figure out what’s wrong with him.”
“Yes sir!” She ran off, but his other student soon found him.
“Dr. Brochin,”
“I’m busy.”
“It’s your patient, his kidneys are shutting down.”
“…Ah hell…”
~~~
“Your hair’s always so natural.” I mused holding her close as we rested in bed, breathing in her scent.
“Natural how?” She asked, her voice more of a purr than a whisper.
“Dye jobs always leave some type of trace, but yours is always so fine.” I held a few strands of midnight-black hair up to the morning light streaming through the window, marveling at their sheen.
“Maybe you just perceive change in your own mind.” Her face was a little sad when she said this, and it aged her young features with a maturity she usually did not show.
“Maybe.” I shut my eyes, rubbing the space between her shoulder blades to feel the soothing smoothness of her skin. I was just so tired… “Will you stay with me?”
“Until the moment you die.” She whispered back.
~~~
Machines were all around the patient’s half-comatose body. Respirators hissed with alarming regularity; the heart monitor was steadily losing its enthusiasm, beeping at larger intervals even when the doctors tried to shock his system back into the proper pattern. Dr. Brochin looked at the patient, furious at his own helplessness when the case had seemed so ordinary in the beginning. The EEG showed that the electrical pattern in the patient’s brain were losing their harmony, reducing the quantity of electrical signals the sensors on the patient’s head could detect.
“What the hell do you have?” He asked the unconscious man, knowing that time was running out.
And then it did.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Epilogue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“I told you I needed to visit him soon.” A scruffy-looking child sat on the edge of the bed, looking at the naked woman with something akin to irritation on his face. “Why do you always have to coddle them into being happy? It only makes your essence get weaker.”
“It is the reason why I exist.” The woman’s smile was a little rueful as she stroked the man’s hair. His essence was already fading from the place his mind created, and soon it would fracture into nothingness. “The dream of life is so lonely sometimes.”
“What made that one special anyway?”
“He appreciates the beauty in life.” She shrugged. “Most of them do not.”
“Whatever.” The boy tapped the translucent man’s head once before turning away. “I still think you’re a fool.”
“Is it really that foolish to comfort lost children?”
But the boy was already gone.
Words 1,566
Rating: PG to PG-13 ish.
Genre: Romance/Philosophy with a dash of angst.
Summary: He met her one day and she brought him hope. And reality kept... slipping.
Notes: Contains a few of my 'theories', a heterosexual pairing (weird, isn't it? XP). Any suggestions for a second draft would be appreciated. What makes sense to me when I get philosophical is usually a bit tilted.
For murder_of_raven, because the mind is the most exotic fantasy setting you can have and this is the most innocent love story I could come up with.
Living Dreams
The first time I saw her, she was in a meadow, her cotton skirt fluttering as she danced around rocks and sticks in her bare feet to get a closer look at the flowers. She didn’t seem to notice me at first, her full attention on the scent of the healthy lilies in front of her; but when I cleared my throat, she didn’t seem surprised to see me either.
“Welcome.” She gave a little curtsy, her golden hair falling out of her bun in little wisps that seemed to create a nimbus of light around her head. The wind blew through the healthy green grass around us, and it carried the scent of vegetation and the whispers of distant tree leaves.
“Who are you?”
“I’m the one you will spend the rest of your life with.” She answered, her soothing voice enveloping my heart without warning.
We talked for a long time, almost forever, in that meadow.
~~~
He’s been acting cheerful lately.” The man mused out loud. “I don’t think he’s smiled this much in the past few years.”
“Odd, isn’t it?” His colleague agreed, writing something on the clipboard he always carried around.
~~~
The next time I saw her was at the park. I’ve been to many parks throughout my life: small ones when I was a kid, larger ones when I got bigger and the kiddies’ slide didn’t look as appealing; but there was only one park I still love as an adult. It had a great climbing cage, a real catacomb of steel that was about nine feet high and ten feet wide. My friends and me always had races to see who could climb to the top first, and that was a rush I can still remember years later.
On the left of the climbing maze were my other two favorites: the two giant swing sets and a pack of seesaws. Fenced-in gardens were planted on the outskirts, away from the main paths kids used to get from one destination from another, but still accessible. Dozens of prolific flowers bloomed in those gardens, and they had attracted a different type of flower to them. Today, her hair was pink, not bright like most dyes would leave it; but a pretty collection of shades that seemed natural. “You know a lot of beautiful places.” She said, somehow sensing that I was looking at her.
She pulled me into a hug, smelling of meadow grass and the flowers she loved so much. When I tried to put my arms around her, she slipped out of reach. “Let’s go on the swings!” She suggested, a mischievous smile on her face.
I couldn’t help but smile too when I saw the sheer joy she took in such a simple thing like swinging on a swing set. I swayed gently back and forth; but she seemed determined to reach the sky, and her enthusiasm made the metal frame around us shudder.
“You’re going too high!”
“You’re not trying hard enough!” She yelled back, giving a particularly hard forward thrust.
“You’re going to hurt yourself.”
“I’ll be fine.” She laughed at my concern, looking in front of her. “Race ya to the jungle gym!”
“Not from that height you won’t.” I jumped off my swing. Walking at a leisurely pace, I turned around so she could see my smirk. “You’re about to see me win…”
And the she jumped while the swing was almost level with the top of the swing set’s frame. She twirled in the air, almost flying with her limbs spread out happily in a pose that reminded me of Superman, before executing a flawless rolling landing that you usually see in movies or video games.
Now I was behind and too shocked to move.
With a gleeful laugh, she sprinted towards the climbing cage, her ponytail bobbing up and down. She didn’t seem to care about the sandy patches on her jeans and the back of her white tank top as she slid to a stop in front of the cage and sent yet another cloud of dust into the air. “Come on slowpoke!” She called, starting to climb, her bare feet making soft thuds against the metal.
“You’re insane.” I managed, following her example, albeit less gracefully.
She was laughing when I reached the top, panting slightly. I haven’t done anything that required that much flexibility in quite awhile. It felt good.
“I knew there’s still life in you.” She whispered, leaning forward to kiss me. She tasted like a hopeful dream to a starving man like me.
“Why won’t you tell me your name?” I begged.
She just smiled, running a finger over her lips like a child. ‘My lips are sealed’ it said.
“I’ll call you Hope then.” I decided. I didn’t want to keep calling her ‘you’.
~~~
”I can’t find it! Please help me find it!”
“Find what sir?”
“The necklace I got for her! I was going to give it to her at the playground but-“
“What playground, sir?”
“The one off North Street.” The man answered irritably.
“But sir, you haven’t-“
“Are you going to help me or not?”
“Of course, sir.”
They never did find it.
~~~
Their next meeting was at the beach, and she was wearing a blue bikini top and swim shorts that managed to leave just enough to the imagination to make my mind go numb. Her hair was the colour of the darkening sky, a deep purple that appeared black until the sun’s rays highlighted parts of it. “Having fun staring?” She asked lightly.
“A lot.” I admitted, well aware of my own blush.
“Come and catch me then.” She ran out to meet the waves, looking back once with a smile. It was hard to follow her today, my feet seemed to sink into the sand and it was so hard to move them… I have never waded through a bog or a pit of sinking sand, but I imagine it’d feel a lot like this.
She was neck-deep in the water by the time the waves lapped at my ankles. “You okay?” She called, her smile fading for the first time that I can remember.
“I’m just tired.” I waved off her concern, struggling to take another step. Sweat clung to my body, unnerving me that a simple thing like this could exert this much strain.
She actually came to me this time, pulling me into a hug.
“Soon, we’ll always be together.”
~~~
“He’s losing muscle tone and his EEG’s showing less beta waves when he’s awake.” The woman reported, voice wavering in anxiety. “He needs your help!”
“How long?”
“Three hours, sir, but the past few days he’s been-“
“Showing increasing signs of fatigue and disorientation.” He concluded. “A cocktail might give us some more time to figure out what’s wrong with him.”
“Yes sir!” She ran off, but his other student soon found him.
“Dr. Brochin,”
“I’m busy.”
“It’s your patient, his kidneys are shutting down.”
“…Ah hell…”
~~~
“Your hair’s always so natural.” I mused holding her close as we rested in bed, breathing in her scent.
“Natural how?” She asked, her voice more of a purr than a whisper.
“Dye jobs always leave some type of trace, but yours is always so fine.” I held a few strands of midnight-black hair up to the morning light streaming through the window, marveling at their sheen.
“Maybe you just perceive change in your own mind.” Her face was a little sad when she said this, and it aged her young features with a maturity she usually did not show.
“Maybe.” I shut my eyes, rubbing the space between her shoulder blades to feel the soothing smoothness of her skin. I was just so tired… “Will you stay with me?”
“Until the moment you die.” She whispered back.
~~~
Machines were all around the patient’s half-comatose body. Respirators hissed with alarming regularity; the heart monitor was steadily losing its enthusiasm, beeping at larger intervals even when the doctors tried to shock his system back into the proper pattern. Dr. Brochin looked at the patient, furious at his own helplessness when the case had seemed so ordinary in the beginning. The EEG showed that the electrical pattern in the patient’s brain were losing their harmony, reducing the quantity of electrical signals the sensors on the patient’s head could detect.
“What the hell do you have?” He asked the unconscious man, knowing that time was running out.
And then it did.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Epilogue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“I told you I needed to visit him soon.” A scruffy-looking child sat on the edge of the bed, looking at the naked woman with something akin to irritation on his face. “Why do you always have to coddle them into being happy? It only makes your essence get weaker.”
“It is the reason why I exist.” The woman’s smile was a little rueful as she stroked the man’s hair. His essence was already fading from the place his mind created, and soon it would fracture into nothingness. “The dream of life is so lonely sometimes.”
“What made that one special anyway?”
“He appreciates the beauty in life.” She shrugged. “Most of them do not.”
“Whatever.” The boy tapped the translucent man’s head once before turning away. “I still think you’re a fool.”
“Is it really that foolish to comfort lost children?”
But the boy was already gone.