Dreaming Together

Chapter 4

"Oh I thought we had a deal that you'd cook for the next two days."

"Hey? I cooked?"

"Boiling milk doesn't make you Gordon Ramsay" taunted Lena gulping down her bowl of cheerios.

"Not when you sneak through my stuff without letting me know"

What?

"You forgot to keep my green diary in the box, I guess"

Hey, I was just looking for slippers, I swear I did not look through it.

"If only you wouldn't have flipped my bookmark I would've believed you, Lena." said Max in a threatening voice.

"Okay I am sorry I was just curious. "

"Please do not enter my room from the next time."

"Hey? If you dont mind me asking? Who are the three people on the bookmark? They seem familiar to me" asked Lena.

Max was caught unaware. Rather, shocked at why Lena would ask such personal questions all of sudden. "They're my family and I think we should close this conversation now" replied Max.

"Hey Max? Are you okay?"

Max was trembling with panic. Grief was what it looked like. There's a fine line between panic and grief. A panicking man trembles in the absence of knowledge, whereas a grieving man trembles in the face of it. Max seemed to have been in the latter state. Though she still did not know why.

"I am fine, please give me some space" Max pushed Lena off to the other side of the table.

Confused and scared, Lena stormed off the apartment gathering her bag.

As Lena returned back to the apartment by afternoon, she found him asleep on their little dining table. Though Lena would hate to be the person reaching out after a fight, she sat beside him on the table wondering what went wrong.

He shivered and murmured in his dream. As she held his hand laying her head on the table, she could see drawers, so many of them. Each labelled differently. She opened the one labelled as family.

Light flashing through it blinded out her vision for a second. There were files in it. Neatly labelled. There was also a bow there. A pretty pink bow. The type you'd see on a twelve-year-old. Silky, downy, pink bow with a name embroidered on it. The name read Sicily.

As Lena touched the bow, all she could hear was screams. Loud and clear, the little girl shrill that drags your soul out of your body type of scream. There were screams and sobs. Cries for help that she could hear. Lena removed her hand from the bow. Real quick.

She went through the file, named "Friday".

There she was, stranded in a small house. Watching a family spending time together. It seemed as if the little boy was Max. The same honeypool eyes and dark hair. "I am thinking too much. I should reduce my edibles consumption. Its scaring me." Lena thought to herself.

The boy was watching news as the mother fed the little one with dinner. They seemed to have a good time watching the television together, giggling laughing and playing. However, this didn't long last.

The same drunk man from her previous dream appeared here entering home with a bottle of whiskey in his hand.

"Honey? Why don't you take a bath?" "Go to bed, you two. Let dad rest" said the woman.

The lady came out with a cake for the little girl after a while. The cake read "Happy Birthday Sicily". "Max! get the candles, fast!"

"Happy birthday silly!" Momma kissed the little girl.