A Dream Within A Dream

A Dream Within A Dream
By Dave Teifel

Walking in her room with unorthodox movements, he notices her sitting on the perimeter of the bed opening a letter.

"It has no return address", she quietly says to herself.

She puts the letter down on the Lavender material covering her lap and looks up at him. She smiles at first. The smile then changes to confusion. She reaches out to touch him but he pulls away inches before contact. She likes him – is almost fascinated by him. She has never met an individual like him before. She imagines herself with him.

When together in a room or on the streets, they giggle, tease, and think of each other as being weird, fun, enticing. He sits upside-down on a sofa; She’s doing a nonsensical jig, the music produced in her head, in a silent room. His face lit up by a smile produced by her presence, is content, happy, sad; the same as a face on a puppy. She sees this and says with a tease, "you crack me up." They talk, serious, then with no sense of normality. They laugh.

Gaining a perspective on reality, her dazed look returns to confusion as she’s with him once again. She reaches out again, hesitates, and again withdrawals her touch. Picking up her letter and opening it, joy glows in her eyes. She recognizes her boyfriend’s handwriting. She looks back up at him. The glow turns dim in his presence. She need only reach out and take him before he fades from her life.