At twenty-two-years-old, a journalist named Charles Munakata got a chance to improve his career by contributing to a project involving Soma, a tropical island occupied by scientists. While he was there, he learned some upsetting truths about the isl...
After I witnessed that exchange, things went back to normal. I opened my eyes to find myself standing on an infinite plane. Above me were countless stars and clouds which were reflected on the ground, and a bright light marked the horizon. I couldn't tell if it was day or night, but it didn't matter—the two blended together nicely. Beneath me were very shallow waters, and a cool zephyr would come and go. I was amazed; I had never seen anything like that, and I never thought I would get a chance to. Even if it wasn't happening in the real world, it was still a vivid, unforgettable sight.
Once I admired my surroundings, I felt that familiar presence behind me once again. I turned around and noticed Joseph standing with his back turned away from me. He didn't seem to notice me at all. I began taking small, quiet steps toward him, but I soon became impatient and darted in his direction.
"Joseph!" I grabbed his wrist, causing him to turn around immediately.
"You found me? What are you doing here?" he gasped. "Please, no questions!" Joseph broke free of my grasp and backed away from me. He was shaky and unmistakably anxious about seeing me so suddenly. "Damn, you must be so angry with me. I have all the answers, yet I refuse to give you any. I'm pathetic."
I felt guilty about startling him and moved in his direction. He didn't protest or back away any further, so I gently wrapped my arms around his waist.
"It's okay, sweetie. I'm not mad at you," I assured. I rubbed soothing circles into Joseph's stiff back until he regained composure and loosened up. After a while, I felt calmer, too.
While I was still embracing him, Joseph peppered a few soft kisses on my lower neck. Quiet moans and whimpers escaped my lips. That move was unusually bold for him. I was surprised.
In response, I tilted his head toward me and lovingly observed his flawless facial features. While I gazed into his eyes, I secretly hoped to remember his face upon waking up so I could finally find him. I brought my face closer to his, and our lips met.
"Can I please just ask a few questions?" I muttered as I petted his head.
"Three. You can ask three questions." Blushing Joseph responded.
"Thank you," I breathed a sigh of relief before asking about what he just showed me. A number of questions came to mind, including ones about the house, the visual telepathy, and Grandpa. However, I still complied initially and picked only three that bothered me the most. I wanted to know about the vase thing as well, but I decided to save that question for later.
"Is my grandpa alive?" I inquired.
"Yes," Joseph began. "I know exactly what you want to do. You want to look for him, correct?"
I nodded. "I wanna look for you, too."
"Whatever you do, don't search for your grandpa, Chuck." That broken smile appeared on his face once again. His harsh words were spoken too kindly, and that offended me to some extent.
"Huh? I-I don't understand. What do you—"
"I'm not completely sure where he is or what he's doing. I know which country he's in, but that's it. Besides, we're not supposed to look for him. He will return someday, I think...I hope." He paused when I nervously grabbed both of his hands and intertwined our fingers. "Y-You only need to find me," he shyly continued. I didn't want to waste the second question by asking about Joseph's whereabouts, and he seemed to already know what I was thinking. "I'm closer than you think. I still live in Vafria."
The next question I had was killing me inside. I was in a rush to get an answer from him.
"Are you an alien or something?" I asked.
"Technically, I am from a different world than you. That's all I can say." I assumed that was a yes.
"What was that world like?"
He gave a typical indefinite answer, but it was an answer nonetheless. "It was...small. Anyone could talk to anyone, and from what I can recall, it seemed like anyone could do just about anything."
I was confused by his statement, of course. For a moment, I couldn't imagine what kind of world he could've possibly been from. After remembering the modern house however, I speculated that he might have seen part of a future time period somehow. I kept those thoughts to myself, though.
"One more thing—"
"Why do you ask so many questions? You already asked three," Joseph whined.
"This is the last one, I swear."
"...What is it, then?"
"Did you ever help your dad's friend?" I couldn't believe I'd never thought to ask before.
Upon hearing the question, Joseph had a distressed look on his face. He tilted his head to the side as if he didn't understand.
"What's this all of a sudden?"
"I just wanna know. I mean, you wrote about him a lot, and it sounds like you really care about him."
His eyes widened slightly. "I haven't quite helped him yet..."
"Oh. I was just curious." I was moderately disappointed with the answer he gave, and honestly, I felt bad for him. It had been about forty years since he was told to find his dad's friend, yet he still hadn't been able to help the guy out.
I looked at Joseph's face again, and for some reason I suddenly realized we were the same height. I put my hand next to my head to confirm the latter, then did the same next to his head. I smiled in an attempt to cheer him up.
"Aww! We're the same height." I petted his head again.
"Oh, you're right."Joseph sheepishly smiled, but I could tell he was still suffering a bit on the inside. He then put a hand on my shoulder and said something cryptic. "You're still good at making people smile, huh? That's good. For a second I was getting worried."
Our conversation ended there, but the following silence wasn't awkward at all. I could tell Joseph was finally starting to feel more comfortable around me. Maybe the reason Joseph feels more relaxed is because he finally showed me some more important memories, I thought.
I gave Joseph a kiss on the cheek and embraced him again before the dream finally ended. After I woke up and placed the dream diary on my lap, I felt the inevitable loneliness set in again.
"Damn it. I should've asked him if he was single," I thought out loud. It seemed like we were finally in some kind of romantic relationship, but neither of us mentioned it. Besides, part of me kind of wanted to find him in real life before I actually asked...
I picked up the pen again and wrote down the things I saw. While I was writing, I remembered how Joseph told me we'd spoken to each other in person before. I sat idle for a few minutes trying to recall the last time I spoke to someone named Joseph in real life, but nothing came to mind.
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