Dream of Me

November 22

Chapter 14e

"Back again?" She was standing right beside me as soon as I closed my eyes.

"Oh, god, I thought I'd never come back," I breathed a sigh of relief after the initial start. "Have you been here ever since? I haven't been able to come back for months. But you've been here?" I was confused about how all of this worked, still. I knew she was just a construct of my mind, but I began to wonder what she did while I wasn't imagining her.

"What? No. I got here a few minutes before you did. Or I think it was a few minutes. It's hard to tell here," she was frowning a bit as she tried to figure out timing in this swirling galaxy land. "You think I just wait around here for you, or anyone, to come visit? I have a life."

"Oh," I stumbled to correct my wrong, not wanting to cause any misunderstandings right at the beginning. Because, I really was intrigued by this girl. Ember. She had such a sweet, almost childlike face, but she could turn up the sass at any minute and had no fear of opinions; she said what she needed to say, she stood up for herself, she let people know when they were out of line, and she didn't care about what they would think of her because of it. And that intrigued me more than anything. I was almost afraid of her, but I wanted to be near her at the same time. "I didn't mean... I thought that... I don't know, I'm sorry."

"It's okay," she smiled, "I was just messing with you. You need to relax."

"Oh..." I misread her. Again. I looked around me and noticed that we were again sitting by the pool of light, nestled in the black, soft earth. It was dreamlike, the colours dancing around us, the reflection in our eyes offering question as to if this was real. We engaged in conversation for what seemed like hours, but I hardly remember all of it. Some bits and pieces stuck out afterwards.

"What do you want to do?"

"Right now?"

"No, in general. In the future. What's your dream?"

"Oh... I've been to distracted to think of that lately. I don't even know. I think I had one when I was younger, but it feels like that was a lifetime ago. I wanted to be a scientist. I wanted to cure cancer. I wanted to help people and do experiments and discover things. But now I'm not sure anymore. I'm not sure if I can even do anything."

"I know what you mean."

"Really? It seems like you can do anything. I mean, that's what I think, at least."

"I wish I could. But..." A pause. She stopped the sentence there.