Mated to Morpheus

MTM.2

he's not dead

I twirled the sucker between my thumb and pointer finger before finally unwrapping it. I shoved the paper covering into the back pocket of my corduroy pants and stuck the sucker into my mouth. The taste of blue raspberry melted into my tongue, but it was more than alright, because the flavour was totally worth staining my teeth for.

My black ankle boots slapped against the concrete sidewalk with each step. I looked up towards the clouded sky, frowning as the darkening clouds glared down at me with a vicious vendetta. I continued walking towards my destination, even though the clouds seemed to be both threatening and warning me to stay inside. But, I would never listen to them on a day such as this. I smiled up at the sky like a defiant chipmunk with one cheek full, "Not today, rain. It's my visiting day."

Humming a catchy, childhood tune—rain, rain, go away, come again another day—I kept to the farther side of the sidewalk. The cars occupying much of the road zoomed past me with a hefty whoosh. There were some drivers that didn't even bother with the speed limit as they rushed to get somewhere, or nowhere, on time. The mere sound of the cars fighting against the wind was enough to annoy me.

After finally making it to the front entrance of my destination, it was time to manoeuvre myself across the crumbling path that I have, unfortunately, been on many times before. The trail guided me straight towards the back, but it was so old that I had to be extra careful in order to not step on any used land.

"Hi," I greeted her as soon as I got close enough to discern the poking wildflowers. As usual, I sat down on the recently trimmed grass, just off to the side, and placed my hand lovingly on top of the stone. "How are you, Mom?"

"So," I drawled out the word, knowing that she obviously wasn't able to give an answer, and puckered my lips together. I dragged the lollipop stick away from my mouth. It felt like bad manners to talk with my mouth full, especially to her. "Today is my birthday, but you already know that. My twentieth birthday. The big two-zero. And, I have no plans. Not one."

My smile shrunk as I continued to stare at the gravestone. I started reading a part of the short engraving aloud without actually meaning to, but doing so out of habit, "Loving wife and mother."

"I don't even think that I want to have plans," I mumbled frantically, looking down at the ground and picking at the spiky growth. "I mean, it's not as exciting as I thought it would be, so I'll probably just end up going to Amanda's coffee shop, or something. Viv might be free."

I stayed still for a minute, finishing off my sucker with a quiver to my lips and my head held low. A few stray drops of rain suddenly hit against the back of my neck, and the following sound of a light pitter-patter filled my ears. I ran a hand over my thick hair, brushing the humidity down, and muttered, "Great."

It was fine, until it wasn't.

Quickly, I scrambled to get off the ground as the rain started really pouring down, beating harshly against my body as I tried to move as fast as I could; as fast as my stubby legs could take me. My shoes slipped against any mud that was underneath my feet as I ran through the graveyard with my arms held up way above my head in hopes of protecting my face from the merciless attack from the sky. The wind was definitely in on it as I heard it screaming at me, mocking me about how I didn't heed their warnings.

My eyes scanned the area for shelter while the rain had managed to turn everything blurry—the surrounding bushes were reduced to green mush, the profusion of grey stones became jumbled until they were a single rock, and the mixture of clovers, sludge, and pebbles turned into a young child's potion. The only thing that I was able to make out was the faded outline of a mysterious building lingering off in the distance. I tried tell myself no, but the rain had me in a chokehold and it was so unbearably constricting that I was finding it hard to breathe without inhaling gulps of water. It was surreal. Deciding to give it my best shot, I booked it towards the building until I eventually found myself standing in front of a freakishly large door.