Dreams
“I had the strangest dream last night,” Cecilia said to her sister, Phoebe, while they were walking through the park one afternoon. Cecilia had insisted they take their talk from the restaurant outside since it was, as she had pointed out, a very lovely day. Phoebe wasn’t one for the outdoors as much. She loved the flowers and the butterflies in the park, but she wasn’t fond of the people or the honking of cars just beyond the line of trees. Cecilia always had a knack for ignoring things she didn’t like, but Phoebe had a hard time ignoring such details.
“Oh really,” Phoebe answered distractedly. She was gazing up at a gold finch, still brown although the trees had thick bunches of green leaves.
“I was dressed up as a clown and trying to juggle when I felt afraid of something and dropped one. Suddenly the audience was gone and in its place was a door. So I went up and opened the door and behind it is a brick wall. For some reason I know that the wall isn’t real, but I’m scared all the same. I walk forward into the wall and it dissolves into a swirl of colors to the capital building. When I walk up the steps, though, it disappears into a wash of blue. I woke up at this point because the coffee was ready, but don’t you think that’s strange?”
“I suppose so.”
They had walked full circle around the park and Cecilia motioned for her sister to sit down on a bench facing a lake on the west edge of the lot. Phoebe sat down and remained quiet. Cecilia smiled at her sister and put her hand gently on her bulging stomach.
“Have you had any dreams, lately?”
“Only one that I can remember.”
“What was it?”
Phoebe gathered her thoughts. She watched a bumblebee rest on a flower and then crawl gently into the center. Two squirrels scampered up a tree across the field where a group of teenagers were finishing a game of soccer.
“It’s night time usually and I find myself completely naked at the beach alone. Something inside of me keeps walking until I finally can’t and I sit down on the shore. Once I’m sitting down, I spot a pair of dark brown eyes peering out of the darkness by a cliff. I walk towards the space then a pair of hands grabs me. Then there are many of them and I feel warm and lost in the darkness. It goes on in that manner,” Phoebe added, blushing. “But I think you get the point.”
Her sister smiled. “You’re still young; you’ll find someone.”
“You think this is about finding a husband?”
“Well, it’s certainly an erotic dream.”
Phoebe couldn’t deny that fact. She glanced at her sister’s bulging belly and stood up.
“I’m going to go to the lake. I’ll come back in a few moments.”
Cecilia started to get up, but then remained where she was when Phoebe didn’t turn to acknowledge her following. Phoebe took a straight path like a ghost to the water. It thrashed against the shore in large foamy waves. She slowly sat down on the sand and stared at the lake. She felt numb and she didn’t know why. She blamed it on the outing since she had never particularly liked going out with her sister. They were always so different and as Cecilia was quite blunt in her analysis of dreams, Phoebe thought there was so much more hiding beneath the surface where she couldn’t see it.
A soccer ball rolled into the sand and slowed to a stop a little ways in front of her. She glanced at it lying motionless on the ground as the water reached forward to wash it like a cat washes its kitten. She stood up and started back for her sister, but not before noticing the boy who ran past her to get the ball. He glanced at her as he ran back. He smiled and kicked the ball in a rather show-offish way through the boughs of the trees and back onto the field. He ran up to Phoebe, and though she wanted nothing to do with him, she slowed down her pace.
“I hope that didn’t bother you,” he said.
She shook her head. “It was nowhere near me.”
“Name’s Keith,” he said. The boys from the field were yelling at him to quickly join back in while the other team darted between their opponents trying to take advantage of their missing player. She glanced at him but tried to seem uninterested. He was dripping with sweat, but he wasn’t breathing hard and he smiled at her as if he knew her for the longest time.
Phoebe remained silent. Somewhere she knew she had seen Keith before, but she couldn’t place it. His eyes were dark, his skin was tan, and he looked like every other young adult who would play soccer in the park. She switched her focus to the game.
“Perhaps you’d like to watch the game?” he offered.
“No thank you,” she said. She smiled back at him and then returned to where Cecilia was sitting watching their exchange from the bench. Cecilia smiled in a very motherly way, but by the time Phoebe had reunited with her sister, Keith was taken up with the game.
“Are you feeling all right?” Cecilia asked.
“Yes, thank you.”
“Who was that?”
Phoebe knew she had watched his excited expression and hoped for the best.
“No one,” she answered. Her sister’s expression fell.
“Oh well. It’s getting late, we’d better go home.”
Phoebe nodded and glanced back at the field. A pair of hands reached for the ball and then tossed it back onto the game. Perhaps, she mused, her dream was just a large game of soccer and she was the ball. She stopped as everything clicked into place. She smiled to herself and took Cecilia’s hand. Her sister was such a hopeless romantic at times.
