1.
DID YOU EVER HAVE ONE OF THOSE DAYS WHEN YOU WAKE UP WITH NO IDEA WHERE YOU ARE
OR WHERE YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE? THIS WAS ONE OF THOSE DAYS...
I remember waking up
that morning with a sweet lingering memory of a tender kiss on my lips, and visions
of a perfect world still dancing in my head.
As I opened my eyes, angelic whispers of hope faded away, leaving me with a nasty
foam rubber taste of reality in my mouth. The bed lunged as I tried to sit up.
I grasped and I
clawed, trying to reach the edge. Finally, I threw my legs over the side and fell
back in exhaustion.
"I
don't have a water bed," I suddenly realized. As soon as that thought started
to materialize in my groggy mind, I noticed a naked blue foam rubber mannequin
leaning over my bed as if to kiss me good morning. A warm stream of water spurted
out from beneath the sheets and hit me square in the face.
I
fought the waves and leaped onto the floor. Wiping the water from my eyes, I saw
to my utter horror that I was in the furniture section of some fancy, deserted
department store.
"This
is a dream, isn't it?" I mumbled out loud, but the blue mannequins that seemed
to be standing all over the store were silent.
I
tried to take stock of my memories to determine whether or not I was dreaming,
but I couldn't for the life of me put my finger on anything tangible to convince
me one way or the other. Remembering the teasing tastes of heaven and hell still
lingering in my mouth, the thought flashed through my brain that maybe I was a
mannequin who had just now come to life. As hard as I tried, I couldn't
find anything in my mind to convince me otherwise.
Panic-stricken,
I quickly felt my body. I felt real. Flannel shirt and old faded blue jeans, with
a hole in one of the pockets, and no money. Too pathetic to be a manequin.
Nope, I must be human.
I scratched the stubble on my face and tried
to grab hold of even one of the fleeting thoughts that danced beyond the reach
of my perception. The oddest half-memories of paradise and first love taunted
me, and for half a moment I was almost certain that before I'd awakened, I might
have been a twelve year old living forever in a peacetopian fantasy. My five o'clock
shadow and tattered clothes seemed to state otherwise, and the vague memories
slipped away through cracks in my mind.
I grasped frantically at the disappearing
memories, and tried to focus the last remaining thoughts that strayed behind while
I absently plugged the hole in the water bed with a piece of gum someone had stuck
under the night table, and then clumsily made the bed I must have slept in.
My
head was spinning as I continued to try in vain to remember why I was there, and
where it was I was supposed to be. It had to be someplace important, but as nothing
more came to mind, I waved goodbye to my silent blue friends and slipped out the
back door into the alley.
