ASLEEP YET AWAKE

of tales and music

I reached home and took the pill Jenny had given me. Just like she said it reduced the stress level and made me relax a bit. For once in the day I was actually calm. The pill was true to it's name.

I decided to cook myself lunch. It must be the effect of the pill or else I would of settled for instant noodles. I walked to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator to look for something easy to cook.
I decides that making a pasta would be great since I haven't eaten it in a while. I took out mayonnaise, tomatoes and capcicum.

It was time to chop some onions. I chopped the onion in half. When I was a child I read a story about a princess. The princess was very beautiful and the only child of the king. Everone in the kingdom loved her dearly. The king and queen valued her happiness above everything. But the princess was ovsessed with new dresses. She never wore the same dress again. All the tailors and dress makers were appointed to the beautiful princess and their duty was to make beautiful dresses for the princess. Soon all the designs were made into dresses and the designers were lift without any new designs. But the princess was still reluctant to repeat her dresses. When the princess stopped getting morenew dresses she stopped eating anything and grew sick. The king and queen loved their daughter and prayed day and night for her wellness. One day a fairy appered in front of them and asked them to take her to their daughter. The fairy listened to the princess and agreed to grant her wish on one condition. The fairy told her that she would get a new dress daily but she has to promise that she will not exchange her dress with anyonen. If she broke her promise she would be cursed.

The princess agreed. Just like the fairy promised she got a new dress daily. One day she saw a girl wearing a beautiful dress. She was flattered by her dress and beauty. She instantly wished for the same dress. She approached the girl and asked her to give her that beautiful dress. The girl in turn asked for the princess' dress. The princess did not consider anything and exchanged her dress with the girl. As a result of which she was cursed and turned into an onion. According to the story all the various lines in the onions are her dresses and people cry everytime they cut an onion in the remembrance of the beautiful princess.

The story has always fascinated me and every time I cut an onion I think about it.

I chopped the onion and then the tomatoes and capcicum. Soon my pasta was ready to eat. I grabbed the pan and sat on the dining table feasting on my self made pasta.

After eating I did the dishes. I walked back to my room and shut the door behind. Since I had nothing better to do I decided to take a bath before I resigned to bed. I was excited about sleeping today because I could dream today.

I walked to the closet and grabbed my night clothes. I entered the bathroom and stood under the hot water. I rubbed my body gently as the warm water soothed my skin. When my fingers started wrinkilng I decided to get going.

After dressing myself I sat on my bed running a hand brush through my slightly damp hair. My thoughts turned to the events of the day and I thought about the surprise Jenny had in store for me. She said I was sure to love it but right now I could not think of anything that would make me happy. No materialistic thing can give me the amount of happiness that my dreams could give me even though they are just illusions. I respected Jenny and I knew whatever she would give me will definately be of som meaning. But my empty head could not think of anything worth a surprise.

I decided to give up. Afterall what would be a surprise if it's not a mystery. I put the handbrush down and climbed under the covers. Since I had not taken those cruel wake promoting pills sleep came to me almost instantly and I entered the world of my dreams.

The hall was grand. Large windows lined the walls. Huge maroon curtains decorated the windows. The light from the windows illuminated the beautiful hall. The floor of the hall was decorated with marble tiles. Beatiful patterns were made on the floor from tiles. The red marble tiles formed a circle in regular intervals. The same pattern was repeated again and again on the floor.

The ceiling was high, very high and dome shaped. In the middle hung a brilliant chandelier. It was enchanting to look at the beautiful place. It felt like I was in some royal court. Soft music was playing in the background. It was probably a flute. The music added a gentle touch to the scene and I found myself moving to the rythm.

A hand grabbed my waist and held my hand. I looked up and my eyes met with a pair of brown one's. A smile stretched on my face and my heart warmed. It was him.

He took my hand and spun me round and round. The music grew passionate and we matched our footsteps to the rythm.

As I turned around my hair flew with me and when I fell again into his arm I was mesmerized by his beautiful face. It was like living a fairytale.

We took a few steps forward and came in front of the huge window. I could see a garden outside with lush green grass and a bush of red rosses. The rosses seem to be overjoyed by the cool breeze.

My gaze feel on the tall tree in the middle. Every leaf on it swayed in the motion as if dancing with us. He spun me again and I was drawn away from the window.

His muscles felt so tight under my hand. He was strong and his large hands grabbed my little ones with love. His other hand on the small of my back supported me as my body swayed to the beats.

The music changed to a passionate string of tunes. The music coursed through my veins and I could here only one thought in my mind "keep on dancing".

Without tripping or faltering in our steps we moved and swayed to the rythm like it was not our feet but the music which carried us.

In that moment I understood the power of music and it's effect. It reached my soul and soothed me.

I closed my eyes to let the music carry me. As the music reached my heart I quoted shakespeare in my mind,

"If music be the food of love,
Play on.."