The beautiful dream faded again. Justin opened his eyes, closed them, and tried to pull it out of the fog of his mind. It was no use.
Justin felt like he had had the dream before. If only he could remember it!
The golden sunlight filtering through the blinds made him realize that it was time to get up. He groaned as he went over the list of chores. He stood, stretched, found something to wear on the floor, and pulled it on.
He couldn't get the dream out of his head. He kept searching for it as he cracked a couple eggs over the stove. Even though he couldn't remember the dream, it left a lingering feeling of....nostalgia? Joy? Something long forgotten?
Justin left half the eggs in the pan for his mother, who probably wouldn't get up till noon. He tried to ignore the mountain of dishes in the sink; he'd do that after work.
After Justin's father left them, his mom went into some sort of depression; she didn't seem to want to get out of bed. Justin couldn't remember when he decided to run the house, nor had he thought it would last this long. There were chores to do, and a pile of bills on the table. They had already been on welfare, but that didn't cover everything.
Justin shoved down the rest of his breakfast. Sitting and eating gave him too much time to think.
