A Never Ending Dream

Chapter One

Chapter One : Clover

   The cold morning air rushed against my cool emotionless face. The pebble stoned lane, crunched from the frozen poodles cracking, as I walked. I held two pales of milk, that Pa had ordered me to fetch every morning. It's fresh, the milk, that is. I had just gotten it from Bell, our oldest female cow on our farm. I remebered my lips fainting into a quiet frown due to the thought that she would soon die from old age. I remembered that I would lose my friend. Yes, Bell was my friend. My only friend that actually existed. That was actually real.

   Those days I needed many things the weren't tangible to reality. I needed My friend Bell, I needed my imagination, I needed my dreams. My dreams. The only thing that kept me alive were my dreams. Without them, yes I'd still be living but I wouldn't be alive.

   It was freezing outside. I wouldn't be suprised if the pales of milk were frozen by the time I got back home. Trying to distract myself from the weather, I looked up into the pink dawn cloudy sky. I watched smoke rise from or gray bricked chimney, and merge into the fog. It was a beutiful sky that morning. Such a shame that the fog covered so much of it. The fog covered everything out here. The tall gray grasses, as far as the eye could see, reached towards nothing but gloom. The gloom reached toward only cloud, so that all you could see was our home, our farm, our crops, and grass touching gray air that surrounded it all.

   We were the only ones that lived out here. It's a scary thing if you think about it. Just me and Pa out here on our farm. Our old farm, that could only provide for enough food for the two of us. Was it even safe to call it a farm? The crops never got harvested. Our scarecrow sits in the fields in vain, as a welcoming for all crows. Our chickens are dieing off, and poor Bell will soon join them too.

   After walking for some time down the path, I'd finally reached our house, it was a rather big house. Too big for only me and Pa, and it was all wood. No color or life in it. Just wood. The red curtains that were scantly seen through the windows, wood. The bricked chimney, wood. The cracked gnomes that sat on our uncut lawn, wood. It all seemed like old wood.

   I stood outside the front door of our house taking a deep breath, and watching the puffs of air rise from my mouth only to join the fog. I didn't wan't to go in. I didn't want to deal with whatever problems my father had. Still holding the two pales of milk I regretfully entered the house with the loud creaking of the door following. I head straight into the living room, pass the stairwell, and into the kitchen.

   I began tranfering the milk into the glass jars that my Pa always has me fill with his milk. He told me that these jars used to be my moms. That probably why he adored them so much. All the things in this house that used to belong to my mother were things that Pa treasured.

   "Pa, I'm back"

   I heard the ceiling above me crack, Pa must've been on his way down to get his milk.

   "Clover, that you? You got my milk?"

   He knew it was me. Who else would it be?

   Yes, my name is Clover although I'm a guy. The story is that I was born in a field of clovers, somewhere past the fog where the sun shined on all. So they named me Clover. Well, I dont believe it. Not one single word of it. The sun doesn't shine out here. The sun is hidden behind cloud. We stay under a shadowy sky. As far as I'm concerned the world can only get darker, and definently not brighter.

   "Yeah Pa it's me" I said sighing.

   He was downstairs now, looking at the back of my neck as I continued fillinghis glass jars with milk. I didn't want to turn around. I didn't want to look into his dark brown eyes covered by wrinkles. His eyes were filled with hate that grew with his age. He wasn't always like that. He used to be happy. His days filled with promise and joy. I guess he just lost all of that when my mom died. 

   "Pass me that glass" he pointed towards one of the jars tha I had already filled with milk.

   "Here you go. It's kinda co-"

   "What took you so long Clover. What kept you out there in the freezing cold, that kept you from bringing me my milk?" He grabbed my shoulder and pulled me to face him. I forcefully turned around and accidently hit on of the mpty jars off of the table, sending into a crash on the wooden floor.

   In that momet everything was still. There was nothing I could do now, no running or hiding from this. Pa was right here and for sure he was about to beat me.

   "I only got milk and came straight back home. Nothing more." I cried. "I'll clean this mess up...uhh...heres your'e milk" I said handing him a jar of milk. "sorry"

   I took of my shirt and started wiping the milk up as quickly as I could. I just knew he was about to hit me. Right there. I knew he was behind me looking for his stick to wack me right in the back, for breaing one of his jars. I tensed up my back, filled with long gashes and scars, preparing myself for an early morning beating. Then as I stayed there waiting for the first blow and wiping up milk, I dared look back to see what was taking him so long, to finish the job. He wasn't there. He'e left the kitchen.

   He must be in his room getting his stick.

   I finished cleaning the floor and silently walked into the living room, making sure that my father couldn't hear me. I had to get out of there. My dad had beat me for so many small things before, but this was nothing to lagh at. This was dangerously terrifying. What would he do to me? I quickly put on my shirt, and darted towards the front door. Opened it, but I couldn't move. Pa had his hands clinhed around the back of my neck. He pulled me back and I gasped trying to catch a needed breath.

   "You runnin away from me boy? Where you gonna go? Huh? Where?" He threw me to the ground. "If you ever break another on of those jars boy!" He wakced his stick against my back. " I swear you wont ever get to see the sunlight again, I will lock you up in that basement for the rest of your life! You hearing me boy?" He continued beating me on my back for a long time.

   " Stop Dad! Stop please! Aaaaah! Please Dad, please stop!" I screamed. There was nothing I could do though. The inevitable couldn't be stopped. He was going to beat me like he had never done before, and I would have to lay on the ground crying, and endure the pain.

   I dont know how a person could cause another human this much agony, and their own blood at that. I did know one thing for sure. I knew that I wasn't going to take his anymore. I knew that today I would leave, and I would go past the fog. I don't know where I'd be heading but I know I would be going somewhere far away from him.

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