The Looking Glass

Weather

Icy wind slashed at his face and the rain danced its evil dance upon his head as he tried to get his bearings on the isolated beach. White flooded his vision, and he stumbled on the soaked sand. Suddenly, pain flew up his leg as his ankle twisted horribly. He gasped, looking down.

There was a sharp shard of turquoise sea glass laying on the ground, half-buried. Though he could barely see, he reached down at the glimmering object and picked it up carefully. One thought flashed in the back of his head, gone as soon as it had come. He couldn't remember what the thought had been.

Joshua woke up to the sound of his ringtone softly playing his favorite song. He shut it off and sat up.

"That was just a dream," he repeated. "That was a dream."

Then why did it feel so real? You weren't supposed to feel pain in dreams, right?

He slowly picked up his phone, pressing the "answer" button without looking at the contact. He already knew who it was.

"Hey, Josh! What's up?" asked his friend from the phone. "You doing good on your first day?"

"I just woke up," replied Josh. "Why are you calling so early?"

His friend laughed. "It's already ten o'clock."

"That's still pretty early!"

"Come on, don't you think it's time to start actually moving in? Sorry I can't help you, though. I might be able to help tomorrow, but today, I'm busy 'cuz of my sister."

"Okay, fine." Josh groaned and stood up. "Bye."

He hung up and ate a breakfast of toast and . . .  toast. Just two slices of toast with a little butter. He then walked out to the beach, completely forgetting about his dream, and nearly impaled his foot on a pointed rock. He jumped back and found that the rock wasn't a rock at all, but that same piece of sea glass that he had seen in his sleep. It was the exact shade of turquoise and the perfect shape.

"Huh." He slipped the shard into his pocket, shrugging it off. It wasn't important. Anyway, he had work to do.

Josh marched himself over to his new backyard, having seen that there were tons of rotting wood pieces and half-drowned plants back there. He sighed, rolling his sleeves up and putting gardening gloves on. "You know," he reminded himself, "that you'll be able to get food and sleep after this."

Soon, he had dug through all of the wet weeds strewn across his few feet of grass and started collecting dirty wood scraps that had blown everywhere in the night. He picked up his first strip of bark, and a dozen or so ants came scuttling away from the ground. He calmly tossed the wood out of his property and continued with his task, not minding the insects crawling around the decaying nature. After all, it was just a part of the Earth.

"Wh — ouch! I seem to be hurting myself all the time, hm?" Josh plucked a tiny splinter out of his forearm. It hadn't gone very deep, so he wasn't bleeding. He then glanced at the wood that had given him the splinter. He kicked it jokingly, accidentally revealing an object under it. It was a box dusted with dark soil.

"I'll open it later," Josh decided. He looked up, spotting light gray clouds. "Looks like it's about to rain." He grabbed the box and walked to his door, brushing away the dirt while simultaneously searching for the keys in his pocket. He muttered a curse to himself, remembering that he had left them in his yard. Just as he stepped one step toward the yard, a pouring rain began. It looked just like the downpour in his dream, but he didn't care. He was already soaked, his clothes not helping at all.

Josh began to sprint as quickly as he could, sliding on the wet rocks that led to his backyard. He parted his lips to swear, but rain quickly filled the space in his mouth, leaving him to sputter and continue running. He was so close, almost there, when a shadow flew by. He jumped, losing his footing, and slipped. The ground sped toward him, his head aching and feeling dizzy, and he didn't feel himself hit the stones. Only a deafening yet quiet buzzing noise echoed in his ears. He couldn't see anything, and he soon lost consciousness.