Nightmares

Episode 3.1

"Joshua?" I had a hectic schedule today. Couldn't meet him all day so I thought to bring him some kimchi stew for dinner tonight. He wasn't in the hall, where I usually find him. "Baby, where are you?" I called

"I'm here," his voice came from the art room.

He was making a painting with his fingers. I stepped inside, he looked at me, and I couldn't stop myself from laughing. He was ladled in colors. Not only his fingers but his face and clothes too.

He's so damn cute. My colorful boyfriend. I chuckled, pulled his face closer, and kissed him. Then I saw what he was making. A lady, hairs as black as his, a mole under red lips, and dressed in a bloodstained wedding gown. Complete hollow blackness instead of eyes.

"I dreamt about my mother last night," he said

"Is she your mom?" I asked. He nodded. "Where are her eyes?"

"I don't know,"

I looked at it silently for a while. He never saw his mother his entire life. How can he dream of her?

Suddenly, Joshua dipped his fingers in blue paint and put on my face "Hide and seek," he said, then ran away giggling. Blue, his favorite. He's in a good mood today I guess.

So, I have to find him now? I go into the living room first, then the kitchen, the hallway, he wasn't anywhere. So most definitely he's upstairs, maybe in the bedroom.

"If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands," I sang. Two clap sounds came from upstairs. I smiled. He's so naive. I climbed the steps and stood in front of the bedroom door. I sang again, "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands," A single clap sound came this time. But not from the bedroom. Downstairs. From his art room.

I frowned and looked below the steps, the door of the art room was opened. I'm certainly sure I locked it behind me before coming. When did he go there? I thought. But most importantly, how did he get there that I couldn't see him?

Two claps from the bedroom first, then one clap from the art room. Where to go? Choose one. Then I heard a sound from below as if something fell. So I chose to go down. His mother's painting was on the floor. I looked thoroughly in the room, behind every closet, table, or other stuff. He wasn't here. I picked up the sketch, put it back on canvas stand, locked the door, and came into the hall.

I sang the final time, "If you're happy...and you know it...clap your hands."

Two claps from above. Ok, so I misheard the last one. I head upstairs and opened the bedroom door without any hesitation. I didn't even have to look around, I smiled and pulled the curtains. "Found you,"

He gasped softly and then started laughing after seeing me. He tried to run from me and I pinned him down on the bed. "You can't escape from me now," I did a maniacal laugh. "You'll be punished,"

I raised my hands, grinned, then started tickling him. He laughed so hard. It's been a long time since I saw him laughing like that. His giggles echoing in the empty house. Like some bells in wind chimes.

I stopped when he got breathless. We held each other's gaze for a while. Sometimes I feel so grateful that he's in my life. Or it would be incomplete. I leaned slowly and kissed him. The art room thing was still in my mind, the clap and his mother's portrait. It's hard to believe what I heard was an illusion. Soon I started kissing him deeply trying to forget that incident. I realized I was getting overboard when I felt his hold getting rigid on my shoulder. My lips were on his neck and a hand under his shirt.

"Sorry," I sighed and rested my forehead against his. He didn't say anything.

I made him sit up, saw paint on his face, then remembered I have too on mine, "Let's have a good bath," I said taking him downstairs. There's no problem in taking a shower with him. He knows the difference between an intimate touch and a normal touch.

"How was your day?" I asked scrubbing the colors from his arms.

"It was fine," he said.

"Did something happen in your class?"

"My teacher complimented me on my history project,"

"Oh, is it?" He smiled and nodded. I cupped his face and wiped the red and yellow from his both cheeks. So that's why he's feeling happy today.

Maybe no nightmares tonight.

•