|sweet ophelia by zella day|
Carl;
I feel gentle shaking on my shoulders, prompting me to wake up.
I open my eyes and meet face to face with my mother. She has a gentle smile from cheek to cheek, long brown hair and a belly full of baby.
"Good morning sweetheart..." Her calming tone hums in my ears.
I bring my hands to my eye to rub the sleep out and sit up in front of her. "What time is it?" I ask, looking up at the sky, seeing stars and the moon.
"I don't know, but I have something to show you. Come on."
Lori grabs my hand and helps me down from the bed of the truck. She struggles herself from being pregnant, whatever's in there is coming out soon.
She walks me out of the forest and onto the road. It's long and empty and walkers can be seen stumbling in the distance but they're too far to see us.
I turn to my mom and she holds out a box of sidewalk chalk towards me.
"Where did you find that?" I ask her, my eyes lighting up as I grab the box from her hands.
"In a house we were clearing out. I was going to show you then but I decided to wait, maybe you could draw something for your dad?"
"Yeah!" I say, excitement blooms in my voice. I hadn't felt like a kid in so long.
I pulled out chalk after chalk drawing lines, circles, words, and scribbles. I drew squares with red and circles with yellow and dots with blue. My childish masterpiece was finally coming together as the sun began to rise.
"B...Y...C...A...R...L!" I put the finishing touches on the artwork and stood back.
It was a house, a red house, with my dad and my mom. They were happy. And I was on the side of the house, wearing my dads hat and playing with my little sister or brother.
It was a dream. A dream I had drawn on pavement.
;
I once again find myself staring up at a motionless fan and an unlit light on a bare ceiling.
Dreams out of recalled memories.
I rub the sleep out of my remaining eye and sit up. I glance over to the bed across from mine and see it empty.
"June?" I call into the empty air.
The only answer I receive is what sounds like cans dropping.
(Chapter four anyone?)
"Juniper is that you?" I call again.
I get up, pull on my blue t-shirt and start heading into the hallway and down the stairs.
"Juniper?"
"Yeah?"
"Jesus Christ you scared the shit out of me... What're you doing?"
