I wish it was only a dream (Awaken)

~Chapter 1~

        The soft alarm clock noise in the back of my mind slowly brought me back to the real world reluctantly. I hit the snooze button and closed my eyes to say good-bye for another day. Then opening my eyes once more; throwing the blanket aside and sliding from my bed to the cold wooden floor. When my small bare feet touched the floor it let out a soft creaking groan. I wiggled my toes wishing my mother would get me a rug or even a large towel that was somewhat fuzzy. I started towards the closet opening the old white wooden doors which also let out of a small creaking groan. I looked at my options for what to wear today and settled on a pair of worn black jeans with the frayed ends and a blue T-shirt with a logo on it. The logo was a shark holding a surfboard with a name under it I had trouble pronouncing, my mother used to work at a surf shack, but when we moved she lost that job. This shirt had been my ninth birthday present it wasn't much but I was still glad my mom actually cared, unlike some kids my age who were beaten on a regular basis. I walked from my room towards the kitchen one shoe on, finally I noticed I only had one shoe that was worn to shreds and had several shredded stands of duct tape holding it mostly together or trying to at least.  Sighing I started the very short search for my shoe starting in the kitchen where I was standing and slowly making my way back to my room. Tears started to silently roll down my face as I couldn’t find it anywhere; I went back to my closet and started riffling through my small amount of belongings. I stopped stiffly remembering I only had one pair of shoes. I slowly stood up and walked to my bed a small succession of creaks and groans following my every step. I crawled into bed and burrowed into my bed trying not to be loud, mom was sleeping. I then felt a hand on my back as my mother sat me up and pulled the blanket off my head. She looked at me sadly before asking "Skyler what’s wrong?" in her normal tone that was void of any emotions. I gulped down the tears I had yet to spill before choking out “I can’t find my other shoe" that’s when the waterfalls appeared as I buried my face in my mom’s shirt. Slowly my crying stopped and my tears halted and my mother took her arms off of me and handed me a box " Happy Birthday Skyler" she said softly a small smile coming to her young face making her look less tired, and worn out. I stared down at the box in stunned silence before cracking open the old worn shoe looking box and let out a soft squeal of delight as I saw a new pair of shoes, no duct tape holding them together. I stared down at the pink and white sneakers with the white and pink sparkly laces that seemed to glow as the dim sunlight came from my window and reflected off the stands of the artificial plastic braided into the laces. I hugged my mom the box next to her on my small bed, I squeezed her as hard as I could which wasn’t hard when your only nine, but small for your age. My mother smiled widely her white teeth showing up brightly against her tanned face her eyes closed as if in relief.     I slowly let go as I knew she had work soon and needed to get ready for the day “thank you mom" I said with a lingering smile on my face as I now put my shoes on.

          I walked to the kitchen in pure delight of having a new pair of shoes that didn’t dig into the bottom of your feet, or fall apart more every time you took a step. Grabbing an apple I slowly cut away some of the bruised bits and got  a glass of mostly clean water and drank it while picking up my small bag that was also mostly made out of worn out stands of duct tape. I peeked in my mother’s room once more to see her fast asleep, so she wasn’t going to work... again.  I felt tears coming on so I quickly turned around and left the house trudging in the rain to the place where I would wait for the bus to pick me up.

  To me it would have been amazing to dance in the rain, but today I felt different like I was disconnected, slower and distant. Everything seemed to be in slow motion or going way too fast that it normally would have let alone for me to keep up with. Making my way towards the Bus stop, I kept trying to look where the darkness appeared only to make myself slightly light headed and stagger to the side. I laughed finding this all amusing, which made me seem my age for one of the first times in seemingly an eternity.  I had the mind and knowledge of someone five years older than me; I skipped grades until they worried about my social and mental health and stopped at sixth grade. Was this all just a coincidence or was it to do with my second world? I often wondered about this but I never found an answer no matter how hard I thought. I came to stand on the corner of my lonely dark street the only child that could go to school for miles. Seeing the bus round the corner I smiled softly to myself; today would be a great day as everything was looking up. The bus rolled to a stop not too far from where I was standing, I silently clambered aboard and took my normal spot behind the driver, hoping no one would sit by me today.  I looked out the window just staring at the dead landscape for the rest of the ride, unaware of everything slowly changing around me. With a jolt I noticed that the last of the kids were getting off the bus, I quickly got up and got off the bus heading towards my class that was at the end of the large building. I stepped into my class room, the ceiling was falling apart and the floor was multicolored. I never looked at it as it made me sick, who knows what spilled on the floor to make one color or another. 

~~

 While normally I would have remembered the whole lesson front to back, and could repeat anything the teacher said, today I don’t remember a thing. My last memory was of the day was missing the bus so I had to walk home, the lights blinded me, the horns defended my hearing and then everything went black.  The next thing I know I can hear my mother, but the darkness enfolds me with its loving arms, I try to understand what she is trying to say but I cannot. I finally realize my eyes are shut and I force them open with more effort than one would originally think, nothing just black.  Perhaps I was dead hit by a car on my way home? No such luck. Blanking out or really passing through realms to a different universe, a whole different world left me in a coma. I wouldn’t  mentally wake up for 13 years, it would be hard as I would mentally be gone for extremely long periods of time and come back only for a short moment before being lost again.