Sleeping Dream Short Stories by Thomas Harrison

One Last Cigar...

     Adam Hamilton, 68 years old, and has had a very fine life. He was the local hero to his town when it came to football, a top of the class student, and an all-around good guy. Your typical local boy in a small suburban town known as Florence, Texas. A small town, south from San Antonio.

     Adam has been there and done that, though he was never arrogant, he was raised to be careful when it came to associating with a wrong sort. After High School, he took a year off and travelled with a group of his friends. Along with travelling abroad, they came across a small town in the bayous of Louisiana, and discovered a small village. There, Adam had come across an elderly woman, a very odd-looking woman. Her hair was in a mess, her spectacles were of a half-moon sort, and her chocolate-colored skin had aged greatly. Some would say she had been passed the years of her 90's. She ran what was the look of a souvenir shop, however, when he left it, it looked as though as if the place had been closed down for year. He however bought an item in which he has kept to this day...

     Adam Hamilton, 68 years old, and has had a fine life. Adam Hamilton has been given 8 more months to live. He has found out that what he has was terminal. There was nothing more that can be done, unless he would spend a good number of days, possibly for months in a hospital that may not do him any good. No...he was going to spend the last months with his family. A family that he's helped raised after his wife has passed. His daughter Elsa had married, had a son, yet her husband had decided to leave them one day. Adam has had no choice but to take them in. It wasn't though. He got to see his daughter get pass this emotional ordeal, and he's help to raise their son Clearance...or how he likes to be called, Clancy.

     Clancy was always a good kid. In a way, he took after his Grandfather, trying the best he could for straight A's, hell, he even took up his Grandfather's legacy and tried for football. He's done well during his high school years. His passion however wasn't there for football. In fact, he's openly said that It's not my thing, just somethin' good to put on a scholarship. Adam knew this, and couldn't push his grandson to take upon the same passions as himself. Oh, how he wished that he could take back time, and smell that cool air, coming from the Fall. Sure, October was gone...but to play in one of the last games before they go to State, and the good news; they wouldn't be too far away from their hometown.

Adam would have an idea.

     "Hi Dad, how are you feeling?" Elsa had asked her father. She was a mid-thirtysomething woman who's made the best of what she could. She worked at the local school. Though not a teacher, she worked in the schoolboard area, assisting the Superintendent for the most of her work. She came home with papers to go over, while sitting near her father. Adam had the television on, though not really paying attention to it.

     "I'm as good as I'm gonna be." Adam had replied optimistically. His tone was rather jovial. She noticed that he slid an object into his front pocket of his flannel shirt.

     "Really Dad, in your condition?" She asked with a sardonic tone.

     "Ain't nothin' gonna stop my condition. Besides, I lived a great life. That's a privilege all on its own, Elsa." Adam replied. "Hey Ells, when Clancy swings by, tell him to come to my room. There's something that I need to give him, and it can't wait." Adam had lastly added. His tone had come off a bit serious, yet still in his jovial mood.

     "Um...sure Dad. Just get some rest, okay?" Elsa answered. She knew of what was to come for her father. She knew that he loved life, and that it was going to end in less than a year's time. She just couldn't bring herself to accept it. He raised her well. Even after the death of her mother, and even after her husband left her, and her kid, her father; her best friend had pulled through and took care of them. She knew she be financially okay when all was done, however, it would be hard to accept. He was her hero.