Washing up on a Dream

It was early in the morning on a quiet island when a sleeping girl washed up on the shore while the inhabitants were fast asleep and the ocean made no noise except for the tranquil sound of waves reaching the sand. There she laid on the wet sand in a black dress, her eyes closed and the waves gently passing over her body on their ultimate journey to push father up the shore. No one would be awake at this ungodly hour and they would have no reason to be up anytime soon. The moon still lingered above in the light blue sky as it would soon disappear and the day would slowly but surely commence the sunrise. Once the waking morning had begun a few fishermen, dock workers and various other souls wandered out of their homes and took on the quiet world. Boats were loaded and dock workers hummed so sweetly as they worked on their tasks. Some fishermen prepared themselves for the day at sea but no one noticed the sleeping girl. A boy with dark hair and tan skin noticed her though, he just saw her there and he wondered what she was doing there. He approached her very quietly but his presence had not startled her at all and she was still fast asleep on the sand that rested under the boy's feet. He called to her "Hello, hello? Are you awake?" Just as he called to her, her eyelids fluttered open and she sat up with a startled expression on her face. "Hey, good morning!" He told her but she gave him no response but instead looked around in a controlled but slightly frantic way. "You okay?" He asked but again she stayed silent. He looked down the beach at the dock and the people working busily and then back at her "Where are you from?" He questioned her but she seemed so distant. "How did you end up here?" He raised his voice and asked to try to get through to her but she still seemed so far away. Then ever so lightly she spoke and said "I was dreaming" the boy rolled his eyes and with an annoyed tone said "and then?" "I don't know, I guess I just fell." the conversation was going nowhere fast but the boy quickly knew exactly where she was from even though it was strange that she was here. He checked his watch just to confirm his suspicions and sure enough it was past six and she should've been long gone by now.

For a few moments they waited there in silence. Waves and the distant sounds of fisherman and dock workers yelling were the only things that could be heard. The boy knew exactly where this girl had came from; she was dreaming just as she had previously stated. The closing of her eyes at night whether it was a light flutter or a forced shut trying to blind herself of the real world; she was dreaming. Somewhere in her dreams she managed to slip so far away from reality and into the sea to float on the never ending blue. It still puzzled him that she wasn't returned to the safety of her own bed in whatever world she lived and wake up the next morning to the sun. Instead she fell through her dream ripping through it like a knife across a canvas. Tearing through her world into another one entirely that only exists in over active imaginations of the sleep deprived. It seemed impossible for this girl to ever go back to a world concocted by awake minds with its vastness and beauty. "So she's confined to this little island" was all the boy could think to himself and he knew she would simply fade to nothing on the beach by the time the moon came around. "You can't stay here." he told her but the girl still made no response to him and he grew a bit frustrated. "You'll die out here if you don't get up." he said more forcefully and the girl's eyes widened a bit and for the first time all morning she seemed attentive.

Her fragile body lifted and her pale skin seemed almost translucent in the sun's light unlike the rest of island's inhabitants that were all dark from the strong rays of the sun. When she stood up she was quite petite her hair was a tangled mess and she lightly brushed the sand off her damp dress. Her eyes were a faded sort of blue that resembled more of a gray and her hair was a light color so alien from anything else on the island. The steps she took were cautious ones as if she was afraid that the sand would try to suck her under. The boy looked at her doubtful if she could even breath but he pointed to his house up on the hill and told the girl "that's where we're going" and she nodded. They didn't speak as they trekked up the sand, it was a tranquil walk and the girl felt at peace.

When they pair reached the boy's house they entered and were greeted by the boy's joyful mother. "Hello honey." she said when she saw her son's face but looked at the girl and automatically asked "Who's the girl? My god she's white as a sheet!" The pale petite figure shifted her weight unevenly understanding that she was so different from the rest. "Mom, she was on the beach sleeping I think. She said she fell from a dream." He answered her calmly. "Oh, why didn't you tell me sooner she looks in bad shape. Would you like a cup of water sweetie?" Barely making a sound the girl answered with a small "yes" and the middle aged woman went to the sink to fill up a glass. The teenagers sat down at the table and the woman came back with a glass of water that she put right in front of the girl. The girl's bony arms reached the glass lifting it with the little strength that she had and took tiny sips being ever so careful.

When she drank enough water she spoke shaky words about where she came from. "You must be wondering who I am and where I came from" she said breaking the silence and when her audience was about to answer she continued. "I don't really know myself how I got here but I do know who I was and where I came from. Who I am now is a mystery one I cannot simply solve like a jigsaw puzzle. I do know I have a problem falling asleep. I dive into shallow pools of dreams to be pulled out quickly and fall into another. That is sleep to me, not a full night just a few hours of a still body and an awake mind at a time. My mind never rests it is beyond my control because I live in it. I occupy space in a world where there's every color imaginable and every day begins with a beautiful sunrise and closes with an equally beautiful sunset. There's miles and miles of green and vast blue oceans and even white powder that falls from the sky called snow. It is a wonderful place to be but I am not awake there my eyes are closed and it's simply a slumber. I indeed went to bed the night I disappeared from the world that I occupied space in and fell into a particularly deep dream pool. I ripped through reality and went down underground until I resurfaced gasping for breath in a sea that I created deep within my own unconscious thoughts. I washed up here, whatever here is. I can't go back, there's no way to pull myself out from inside." The boy and his mother were frozen by her recount so the girl got up, paid them no attention and walked straight to the guest bedroom. When they recovered from their shock they stood up and waited in the kitchen for her to wake up knowing that she was fast asleep. She didn't wake up when eyelids started to get heavy and her hosts were a bit worried so the boy went to check on her when the sun did it's daily vanishing from the sky without a sunset. When he reached the room he saw the door wide open and the girl was no where to be found, he called to her a few times but she was gone. He walked back out and told his mother about what had happened. "She didn't want to be here that's for sure." His mother told him and he nodded in agreement. "Who knows where she's going, to somewhere else that's apparently in her mind or maybe she'll escape her mind. Maybe she'll go back to reality. Or maybe she'll just cease to exist." His mother said but the boy wasn't paying much attention to what she said. He walked to the window and pulled back the curtains to see the dark sea with the moon above casting light on a glint of light hair. It could be her he said to himself, she might be going back home or falling through another dream. While another part of him wondered if it was a totally different girl that would be on the sand first thing in the morning, one who fell from a dream.