Where The Sun Never Sets

Chapter Three

I went straight home after I left the nursing home. No more visits today. I told myself. I wanted to end the day on good note, and having my ninety-six year old grandmother with Alzheimer's tell me she loves me was about as good as it could get. When I got home, I looked at the clock on the stove: 4:45 p.m.. It felt like it should be later, partly because every day seemed to be dragging by since Mama died, but also because I was exhausted. After watching TV for a few minutes, I decided to take a short nap on the couch. "You won't sleep well if you take a nap this late." Mama used to say. I never listened.
I sat up slowly and stretched. I was sitting on an old bed with a beautiful wooden head board. The room was decorated in white lace and pearls. A pretty white vanity sat in the corner. Everything was perfect, or at least seemed to be. I got up and went down the hall, looking around in the old house. I didn't know where I was or how I got there, but I was sure of one thing: I never wanted to leave. I walked through the kitchen to the screen door, and out to the front porch. The scenery was absolutely stunning. Rolling green hills on one side, a sparkling pond on the other. The house was surrounded by tall oaks and weeping willows. There was also a willow hanging over the pond, the branches barely reaching the water. I walked to one side of the wrap around porch and looked behind the house; there were fields of cotton as far as the eye could see just a few yards away from the house. I jumped off the front porch steps and ran towards the hills across the road. I reached the top of the hill and sat down to watch the sunset. I waited for what seemed like hours, but the sun never went down. How is that even possible? I asked myself. Is it possible that the sun never sets here? I didn't look away from the sky.   It was true, the sun wasn't setting. It hung low in the sky with a backdrop of purple, pink, orange, and red. It looked like someone had took a blank canvas and just started painting it with the colors of the sunset. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I sat and watched for a while longer. Still, the sun never set.
I woke up and I was back on the couch. It was all a dream. I thought. Maybe so, but it was still the most vivid dream I had ever had, and I knew it meant something. I had to know more. I had to find the place where the sun never sets.