The Dream Machine

Thirty

SANDLER

The only thing weird about having Harry becoming nine years younger is him deciding to go to my middle school. Another weird thing about this occurrence is that he decided to get the exact same schedule as me. This also landed him the locker next to mine. I had to face the facts, me and Harry were middle school buddies.

Before Math, as usual, Lizzie and me were walking to class together. But this time, Harry joined us. Lizzie was, of course, surprised to see him. Like, what was he doing there? I briefly assured her that to fit in, Harry was trying to adjust into our school district by joining the wonderful world of our middle school. He seemed extremely freaked out, but he was fitting in well enough.

"So Harry, how are you liking eighth grade?" Lizzie asked him as we entered the math classroom.

Harry found a desk and sat down. We sat down next to him, "It's definitely strange going through this life again, because I swear I already have. But if that's true, none of this makes sense."

"Think about it this way," I said, "If I healed you, I must have healed something else inside you that was making you older."

Harry seemed unsure, "Do you think Bob knows?"

"He never mentioned it," I continued, "But who knows? In our lives, it's entirely possible."

Harry didn't seem to like this at all. Throughout the rest of the day, he tried to give me reasons why this happened.

At English, he said, "Well, what if your healing abilities were just some sort of fountain of youth thing?"

I replied, "Fair statement, but if that's true, why did it take you to fourteen, the exact same age of Lizzie?"

"Ugh! You make too valid of a point!" he exclaimed.

Back in Frederick, er, Harry's house, we decided to go under once more. This time, however, with Lizzie by our side. Harry had found another cot in his basement and put it in the middle of the room. We all laid down while George hooked us up.

"Are you sure you guys wanna do this? It seems every time I hook you up to the Dream Machine, a new revelation is shown. It's actually really cheesy." George said.

"I'm sure," I said, "If there's anything else that needs to be discovered, we need to know now rather than later."

"Yeah," Harry and Lizzie agreed.

George swallowed and muttered, "It's your funeral".

And soon, we were once more in the white, blank room. Lizzie seemed excited and started walking around. I saw her grasp the wall for support and soon, a painting of the Mona Lisa appeared on the wall.

"Glad to see that she knows how to use her powers," I stated to Harry.

Harry responded, "Yeah, but is she gonna start by turning this place into the Louvre?"

"Have you ever thought of changing the color?" I asked him.

"The color changes on its own," he said, "based on my emotions. Remember?"

"Oh yeah, that was such a long time ago, I didn't even think about that."

"It actually wasn't too long ago, Sandler."

"Well," I said, "when you start dreamscaping, weeks feel like millenniums. Have you ever thought of breaking this room?" I made a gun appear in my hand and shot the wall, opposite of Lizzie.

Harry clutched his heart, "Ouch! Did you ever think that since the wall changes based on my emotions that it was connected to me?"

"Oh, gosh, sorry!" I exclaimed and ran over to check on him.

"No need to fret," he replied, "only felt it for a split-second. That's the beauty of the dreamscape."

Lizzie rejoined us, "Wait, if this room is connected to you, are there different rooms connected to us?"

Harry seemed taken aback, "You know, I hadn't even thought of that, but it totally seems likely. I mean, it makes sense that there would be."

"Let's test this shall we?" I said, pushing my fingers into my temples. Suddenly, a tollbooth, with its own yellow and black block appeared. I ran over and jumped inside.

"Do you really think that it's that easy?" Harry stated.

"Yeah," I said simply, "now, what's the name of this place."

"I call it my mindspace," Harry said.

"Wow, that's original," The interior of the tollbooth lit up with a seat and a nice keyboard and thin monitor, asking for only one thing: a destination, "Lizzie, who's mindspace should we enter first, yours or mine?"

"Yours," she said, "I'm still pretty new to this whole dreamscaping thing."

"Alrighty then," I typed in Mindspace of Sandler, because come on, who else's name is Sandler who can dreamscape. Nobody else. I clicked enter and a red lever popped up from the table. I'm guessing this was the on-switch. I pulled it down and the block outside the booth rose.

I jumped out of the tollbooth and looked into the distance. The wall behind the block had disappeared. In its place, a giant teal circle illuminated brightly. It wasn't swirling or moving, just being very bright. I grabbed sunglasses out of my breast pocket and put them on. I also made some more and passed them to Harry and Lizzie, which they immediately out on.

I said, "Ladies and Gentlemen, Sandler's future is bright."