The Lost Artifact Of Spode

004

Work today was, at least to Mel, very unproductive. He felt to have made no progress whatsoever for his proposal. He arrived home in a sour mood.

It was nearing 4. His wife wouldn't be home for another hour, and his daughter likely has some extracurricular going on, as she usually does, so he would be alone for sometime.

He sighs at his empty home as he undos his tie and takes off his work shirt. He grabs himself a cold, apple soda from the fridge and sits down infront of the TV. He wasn't really interested in watching anything in particular today, so he selected the randomizer option on his streaming network. A random episode from a random series started to play on the screen across the room from him. He cracks open his soda and takes a refresing drink.

As the episode started to play out, Mel's eyelids started to feel heavy. With growing older, he found he didn't have energy like he used to. Once apon a time he could stay up all day, no matter how taxing work was that day. But now, he could hardly make it to dinner without a nap, regardless of how easy the day was on him.

As per routine, he began to drift off. He wasn't necessarily asleep, but he wasn't awake. He heard the TV playing, but it turned into background noise. Muffled in the back of his mind. His mind started to wander. Making images to entertain his bored, semi-conscience mind with. He wouldn't call this dreaming, but there wasn't anything else it could be. He still fell into a dream-like state.

That star from this morning popped back into his head. It's five corners had broken into pieces. His mind wandered back to that planet from work again. The one with a marker he doesn't remember placing. He started thinking of mountains and gold. He was standing outside, but there was something different about the nature. He couldn't place his finger on what, though. What was wrong with the trees and the grass.

Then, suddenly, it was silent. Dead silent. The dream had vanished. Mel knew exactly what was going on.

"I was watching that," he announces without opening his eyes.

"No you weren't, go back to sleep, Papá," a voice complains. It belongs to his daughter, Nia. She's the youngest of his two kids, but the only one who still lives with him and his wife. The other, his son Kal-ed, had left for university in the beginning of last year. During the winter, strangely enough.

Mel loudly yawns and stretches out his body before finally opening his eyes to see his daughter. Instead of sitting on the couch, she was sitting on the carpet directly infront of the TV. Her large, poofy hair blocked a large portion of the screen from Mel. Even when he leaned from side to side, he couldn't tell what Nia was putting on the screen.

She's yet to change out of her school uniform, a white collard shirt with a yellow skirt and tie to match. It almost seems as if she second she came home, she took over the TV. With seeing her school bag lying on the ground next to her, she just might have.

"How was school today?" Mel asks.

"Boring," Nia answers without facing him.

"Have any homework?" He had to ask her every single day. Mel couldn't tell if Nia was just that forgetful or if she was very unmotivated with school, but he always does his best to be there to push her regardless of her habits.

She hesitates before answering. "No."

"It's maths, isn't it?" He immedietly calls out.

She tensed st the accusation. He knew her too well.

Without waiting for a verbal answer, he continues, "go do your homework, you can have the TV after."

"You're not fair," she whiles, standing up from her spot and grabbing her bag. "You know I don't know what I'm doing."

"And you know I'll be there to help you."

She sluggishly walks out of the front room and into the kitchen, where she throws her bag onto the table. Nia scrapes the chair against the floor as she pulls it from the table, sending that all screeching noise throughout the house.

As she reluctantly pulls out all she needs for her homework, Mel stays sitting on the couch, thinking about his "dream", if he could call it that. Back to the planet once more, and his dream from that morning. It's not often he remembers his dreams, but this morning just wouldn't leave him. With his mind wondering how it had just moments ago, now he's sure there must be something significant about that planet as well.

He asks his daughter, "Do you ever remember your dreams passed the morning?"

"I don't have dreams," Nia answers.

"We all do," Mel corrects. "Multiple a night, even. Most don't remember more than one, though, of any at all."

"OK, Papá."

"Although, I guess that means you don't," he continues, mostly to himself. Finally, he pulls himself off the couch and stretches once more. His whole body pops at the movement.

"Why do you ask?" Nia asks.

"Mine won't leave me alone." He grabs his soda from the end table and makes his way into the kitchen, where his daughter is purposefully avoiding getting started. "I'm trying to figure out what it's supposed to mean."

"Maybe it means nothing," Nia suggests. She laughs before speaking her mind, "You look into things too much. Dreams don't have to have meaning."

"They do, though," he muses, staring off into the distance. Somewhere beyond the walls of the house, where his mind started to wonder. "Some dreams are too... obscure, yet specific, to just be dreams, you know? It can't just be nonsense." He trails off as he falls deep into thought, trying to make sense of what this meaning might be.

It really did feel as though he was trying to be communicated with. These must be signs for... *something* meaningful. What was Spode trying to tell him?

He was suddenly knocked out of his thoughts by his daughter's voice. He didn't catch what she said, but it wouldn't have mattered. He saw her notebook and textbook on the table and suddenly remembered.

"We shouldn't get sidetracked anymore," he says. He pulls up a chair by Nia's and sits himself down at the table. "C'mon, it's time for homework."