Prince Dreams (Follow up short for Paisley)

Chapter 3: There's no cherry moon yet

That morning I decided to get out and change my scenery for a change. These last two nights have been horrible. I couldn't figure out what I was having these crazy dreams for. Maybe I need a shrink! I can't go around admitting that Prince the super star has been haunting me. People will think I need to be committed and wearing a straight jacket on a daily basis is not a fashion statement. I took a long hot shower to clear my head of the dreams and got dressed. It felt like a good day to get dressed up and put on make up since I've been crying for so long. I'm surprised I have eyes to see with. The sun was out and it was pretty warm for mid May so I grabbed the yellow sundress Derrin sent me for my 29th birthday. He always said that I should wear a dress to match my smile and sunshine yellow was perfect. For some reason it always made me look like chocolate dipped lemon drop. The thought of that alone made me giggle inside. I put on the dress and started to put on my eyeliner when there was the flash of a figure in the mirror. I thought maybe I was just reliving my dream from the night before until the figure flashed in the mirror again. I let out a loud shriek and dropped my eye liner. I turned around but no one was behind me. I dropped my head into cupped hands in disbelief.
"God why are you doing this to me?"
I asked myself.
I picked up my eyeliner from the marble floor.
"Crap! It broke!" I said disappointed in myself.
MAC eyeliner is too expensive to replace these days. I guess I can use that as an excuse to go to the mall today. I could use some retail therapy after my last two nights of whatever dreams or nightmares. As I reached over for my mascara Derrin's reflection was staring back at me. I was frozen in place. He didn't say anything. He just smiled and faded away.
"Derrin wait!" I said reaching for him but it was too late.
My hand was laying on the mirror where Derrin was. Should I tell Casey? No. She's already freaked out by me enough today. With shaky hands I put on my mascara and raced out of my bathroom. I didn't want to stay in there to see if another being was going to show up and surprise me. I slipped on my sandals and headed downstairs to the kitchen. As I rounded the corner Casey was standing at the stove making breakfast and calling herself doing the Cupid shuffle.
"Casey what are you doing?" I asked laughing at how bad she was dancing.....if that's even what it was.
"I was gettin down girl! What did you think i was doing?" She said with a smile.
"It looked like you were trying not to step on a bed of hot coals!" I said still laughing.
"You know you sound just like Derrin. He always laughed at me for dancing when I cooked."
"Yeah but he did say that you how how to salsa your brains out too!" I said.
Who would have pegged Casey for a salsa dancer? Most certainly not me.
"Me and Derrin used to go to salsa night at the dorms all the time when we were dating in college. He had two left feet but I managed to always dance circles around that man!" She said.
She was really missing him badly because the smile slowly began to fade as she stared out at the swing I the backyard Derrin built for the two of them.
"Those days are.......all gone now." Casey let out a sad and lonely sigh.
"Oh how my heart misses that man something terrible. My parents loved him. He was the perfect man. My mama believed that love had no color or creed. If we had the same heartbeat that's all that mattered. And his heartbeat matched mine. Like the perfect song."
Casey got quiet for a moment. I could tell that she was fighting back her tears. She never tried to look at me. Just stared out the window. I didn't want to tell her about what happened before I came downstairs so I let that conversation leave my mind as I came up with something else to talk about.
"Hey Casey, you ok? I miss Derrin too. He was a really good guy. There was a time when my bike got stolen and he went out and tracked to creep down and brought it back to me. Took him a week to find it."
Casey then turned to me as she wiped her eyes. She sat down at the table with our breakfast and looked up at me with a half smile.
"Well that's good. At least he got it back." She said.
"Not necessarily!" I said.
She looked at me puzzle.
"What happened!"
"I had to clean his room and do all of his chores for a month before he would give it back to me. He was the epitome of evil when we were young. Somehow you managed to change that. You must really have the goods!"
Casey laughed so hard she almost fell out of her chair.
"Girl I swear you should do stand up!"
I smiled at Casey and shook my head. I was glad that I finally got her to laugh.
"I'll keep my day job. Speaking of job I gotta get going. You mind if I take breakfast to go?"
"Say no more darlin!" Casey said as she wrapped my plate in plastic wrap and handed it back to me.
I grabbed a plastic bag and stuck the plate inside.
"Have a good day senior editor!" Casey said as she handed me my purse from the closet.
"I should be saying that to you interior designer!" I said as she gave me a hug.
I was out the door and on my way to the metro train station. I really liked riding the train to work. If I got there in time I would be able sit in the very last car in the very last seat. The metro in Atlanta was always so clean you could eat off the seats. I wouldn't do it personally though. The idea of doing it is still disgusting. Today I was lucky enough to get that spot. The train wasn't full of people like is usually is. I didn't mind it. More peace and quiet for me. As I got to my stop I saw a couple holding hands and getting all lovy dovy on the platform. Love is a beautiful thing an all but geez you're only at the holding hand stage? They looked like they could have been in their mid sixties. They both had on wedding bands. Odd. I walked up the ramp and to the street. My building was right across the street. Storm magazine is one of the most popular places to work. Everyone who knows everyone works here. Prince was the reason I got the job in the first place. Since I refused to be his next rising star as an artist he made me a rising star as an editor. My job is ok. It pays well, but whenever I have to tell a writer on our payroll that their article sucks it's my head that they want to slice and dice off of my body. The last time I made an intern cry. I didn't mean to but what teenager wants to read about how to use bath salts as a cleaning scrub for your toilet? I was a teen and even I wouldn't read that crap! I got to my office and settled in. Just as I suspected my phone was lit up with a bunch of messages and tons of files of articles to pick apart, rewrite and reject sitting front and center at my desk.
"What a fun filled day I have ahead of me!" I said to myself sarcastically.
I sat down and began checking my phone messages and going through the stack of trees that lost their lives to become paper. As I went through the next article something written on the page stood out to me.
"There was never a dull moment when we would jam. She is one of my many inspirations and she became that at just the age of 17 years old"
I was then urged to keep reading
"Prince and I continued our conversation in his studio where he had asked her to sing for him. It scared her to the point where she ran out of the room. He convinced her to try and when she finally had the courage to sing he was immediately smitten by her voice."
Who's article and I reading???? I quickly scanned the top of the paper to find the owner of this two page profile of my life.
"Rick Donson." I said as I sighed.
I picked up my phone and called him into the office. Rick was a tall Caucasian with curly red hair. He had the cutest dimples when he would smile. His eyes were a honey brown. He wore glasses but only at the office. When I ran into him a the company Christmas party he didn't have them on and he looked very Rico Suavé. Just then there was a know on the door. The door swung open and Rick popped his head in.
"You wanted to see me boss?" He said.
"Yeah.....uh Rick come have a seat." I said as I waved him in the office.
He sat down by my desk and folded his hand across his lap. He noticed that I didn't look too happy. I wasn't mad at him I was just more concerned.
"You ok boss?" Rick asked.
"Yeah I'm fine." I said.
I paused for a moment to gather my thoughts.
"Rick I found your article and as I was reading it I was taken aback with the information that you used. Who were your sources?"
"You mean the interview I did with Prince 3 years ago?" He asked excited.
"Yes! How did you manage to pull that?"
"I met him at an after party and he asked me to do an interview with him. He had just got done performing and he jumped down from the stage and came up to me out of nowhere! It was pretty awesome!"
Yup that definitely sounds like something Prince would do. Now I wasn't so surprised.
"I wanted to ask you if it was ok if I could oversee the Prince tribute edition of storm magazine."
I was pretty in awe of this kid! He actually wanted to take charge of this project.
"You sure you wanna do this Rick?" I asked him.
"More than anything. Prince was my idol! He made it cool for weirdos like me to not be afraid to be who we are!" He said.
Rick did have a valid point so I could t say no.
"Well then Ricky I guess the job is yours!"
"Thank you so much Erin! I promise I won't let you down!"
Rick stood up, shook my hand and bolted out of my office. I guess he couldn't wait to get started. For the rest of the work day I edited and rejected articles until the clock turned 5pm. I collected my things and headed across to the train station to go home. My ride on the train was pretty normal compared to any other night. There was always a fight breaking out a it somebody sitting too close to someone else. Then the same metro cop would have to come and break it up. Some fights are hilarious and others were just wrong. I reached my stop and got off the train. The house was a walkable block and a half so I didn't feel too hurt about walking home from the train. As I reached my townhouse I noticed there was no music playing from the living room. Casey must be out. I went inside and called for her.
"Casey I'm home!" I sad.
She didn't answer. I walked into the kitchen and found a lonely plate of food sitting on the stove neatly wrapped in plastic wrap with a purple sticky note that read
"Sorry I won't see you at dinner. I made your fave! Enjoy! Love Casey"
Casey always makes me dinner even though I told her that she didn't have to. I unwrapped the plate and found chicken parmigiana and string beans with a small dollop of mashed potatoes. I unwrapped my plate and warmed it up in the microwave. When it was done i headed to the living room to eat. The house was quiet. Almost too quiet for my liking. I turned on the tv and went to my room to change. I started to head for my bathroom but then the images of seeing Derrin began to replay in my mind. I didn't think twice about it. I just left my the pajamas from last night in the bathroom and changed into new ones from my dresser. I quickly put them on leaving my dress in the floor and made my way back downstairs to the living room. I sat down on the couch and got nice and comfortable. I grabbed the remote began to channel surf until I found something decent to watch. VH1 was beginning to show under the cherry moon for the second time this week. Since it was Friday night and I was alone I figured I'd go pour myself a glass of wine and watch. Prince knew this was one of his movies that I barely watched because it was always on at weird times. Guess I got lucky. I got back on the couch and took two huge sip of wine and covered up with my purple zebra striped blanket. I wasn't too far into the movie when I began to feel the wine getting to me. My eyes got heavy and I let out a yawn. Before long I was asleep. Hopefully I won't be dragged away in my dreams tonight because my psyche needs a break.