I was with my family, my mother, my two sisters and without my father, as is natural. We found ourselves walking into a carpet and clothing warehouse the size of a school building. I have been here before, but it has been some time since then. My entry into the mountainous complex was just like any other patron, but in my eyes I saw opportunity.
The warehouse is enormous. I can't see the entirety of it all at this angle, something tugs at my ear to get up higher. Above are many more floors accessible by escalator just a ways away. Each floor above has a neat square in the center to bring more light from the sky above us all. I want to touch it eventually, but first, I must investigate these mysteriously bold colors that surround me.
Blue, yellow, orange, green, and pink. Each of these colors adorn the scenery, and strictly in their single hue. The yellow is oddly bright, the orange is uncharacteristically subtle, and the green is warm like pine in the spring. I'm searching for everything bright pink, magenta to be precise. In all these colors, patterns and decorations add personality, giving the illusion that one hue isn't redundant through the warehouse, but I know otherwise.
Leaving my mother and sisters to wander on my own, I find myself fascinated by a machine dispensing the uniform colors in spheres the size of tennis balls. Among the machines I find friends, but none with faces or names I recognize. Somehow they aren't interested in my presence at all and I find myself discouraged. Once I clear away from them I recover my comfort and return to my lightheaded awe at all the glow from fabric all around me without a light source besides the minimal sliver of honest sunlight through the sunroof. It almost makes me sad that the walls don't need light to be bright. I'm disappointed.
I finally wandered my way to the escalators. Up I go, seeing my sisters and my mother far below. I glance at them, but nothing more. Something caches my attention from behind my head. It's a magenta pink blanket, pale with white clouds, hung like a curtain against the wall near my acceptance off the escalator. That's not the one I want though, It's close. But not it.
Another glimmer of pink calls to me from far above on the fourth floor. It's a magenta blanket, warm and soft like my painted horse throw back at home. The white etches a snow topped mountain with uplifting clouds accompanying. That one is the one.
I didn't know I was on the search for something. A small voice inside me recognizes the fact that I didn't walk into this warehouse with the intention of buying anything. But another voice within pats the other voice's shoulder saying that I'm always on the search for that one thing. Let me have it this time. That faceless voice gave me a feeling like wings. I don't have much time left to get the blanket, but I'm too close to let it go this time.
Courage unfurls wings I didn't know I had and aid in my jump and climb to the fourth floor inaccessible by escalator. Only once I come face to face with the brilliant pink blanket do I feel a sense of unease with heights. I had forgotten about it until now.
Without hesitation other than to smile at my new friend, I swipe the blanket gloriously from its wire and cover myself with the softness. It's warm and comfortable. It hugs me tenderly and sews itself together into a shoulderless, sleeveless dress that touches just above my knees in the same powerful hue that gave me the strength to fly all this way.
This is what I wanted. The feeling of comfort and the fearlessness of wings. My fear of heights dissipates and I am able to look down with full control. This is who I was searching for.
And then I wake up.
