DREAMING

Again the dream; with the world as it was and would never be again. Once more she was on the tallest Ferris Wheel the boardwalk had to offer, grinning as it slowly moved her up into the inky sky of night.

She looked to her right, seeing the bright lights hanging from colored lanterns while people passed below, heading toward the cotton candy stand or the rollercoaster, with its steel rails and strange looking clowns painted on the sides. The Atlantic Ocean, just beyond the noise, moved, like it always had, back and forth with the wash of waves.

The second time around, with the swing moving just a little faster, she looked down. He waved at her then, young with his dark brown hair cut short, his black pants snug, and his shirt showing off the dark curls that dusted his chest. She waved back, anxious to get off and walk with him. Perhaps, she hoped, he’d sing one of the songs he’d been working on, and then question whether someone would like it enough to listen and then record it.

And even dreaming, the tears seeped from the corners of her eyes. Restless, she turned over with the story still playing in her subconscious mind.

She waived back at him and smiled. She loved him, but the truth still stood there even if it was a future yet to be. And the tears rolled down her cheeks…because somehow her mind understood.

Her head moved from right to left as she sighed in her sleep. Boulders, thrown down from the hills sometime in the past, stood like soldiers along this beach. Here the sand was lighter in color, as if it was cleansed daily by the waves flowing from so far away. In the distance, a sailboat scooted across the water, heading toward an island near the coast.

And again, he was there, sitting in the sand as a seagull flew overhead. He was older now, with longer hair…but not as long as it had been a few years earlier. This time he didn’t wave as the wheel came down once again. Instead, he looked at her as if wondering why he didn’t remember who the girl was he saw perhaps in his own minds eye…why he didn’t remember the love they had shared for only a few months: A love that had been so deep.

She begged the dream to end, to allow her to wake knowing that now she was old…too old to even be a far-off memory.

But once again, it refused her. Instead, she watched as the years flashed by with pictures of him singing his songs, smiling at the camera, or just working on his music. She watched as he grew older, knowing his smile and those light brown eyes refused to change. He waved often now…but not at her. He waved at the throng of people who’d sit for hours listening as the words from his soul poured out.

The last part of her dream, a dream that had stayed for what seemed like forever, always ended the same way. She’d see herself no longer on that Ferris Wheel. Instead, she’d be in the front row waiting…waiting for him to look down. He always did. He always smiled a smile meant only for her…as he silently said her name.

She woke not long after, padded to the kitchen, made coffee, stuck in the DVD, and watched once more at that moment somehow caught on film…the moment he recognized the girl from so long ago.