Sweet Dreams

"You didn't stay out here all night, did you?" I hear as I open one eye and look up to see the man who calls me the dreamer.

"Uh, yeah..." I say as I rise and shake some of the ashes off my clothes.

"Didn't they tell you where to sleep?" He says as he offers me a hand and we begin to walk towards the tavern for some breakfast.

I nod, "They did, I just -- it just got to me.  That's all." I say as he opens the door for me and we walk inside.  This morning there is some sort of cereal concoction being served with what I assume is a powdered milk.

"It's soy milk," says my new friend as we walk back towards a table.  "They had it in storage for the cancer patients in the hospital," he tells me as we sit down and scoop into our breakfast.

"You know, you don't have to help them today if you don't want to," he says casually when the silence has gone a bit too long.

"I don't think its a chore that anyone wants," I manage to say as I take another spoonful of my very bland concoction. 

"Aren't  you going to ask me my name?" He quips a moment later when he's finished his food.  I do, and he tells me it's Jim -- so I tell him mine.  We do the polite 'where'd you come from' questions; and when it's time to begin the day we return our dishes to the washing station and head outside. 

"Dream anything special?" He asks me as we both walk toward the hospital on the road that will lead him back to his station.

"Not really -- if I did, I don't remember." I tell him.  He pauses when we reach the front entrance of the hospital and says, "Is that your car?"

I nod, and he begins to whistle -- then laughs.  "Well, you'll have to do some magic on it if you want it to take you out west."

At least he's not telling me that I shouldn't go -- or trying to convince me that this place is Utopia.

"How long will that take?" I ask him.  He tells me that it could be as long as two weeks.  That he is happy to do it for me, and that there are a few garages in town that would have any parts he might need.  I thank him and tell him that I feel stronger already, so as soon as I can I would like to leave.

He gives me a smile before turning to continue down the road and says, "That's the thing about dreams you know, they happen -- you feel like you're in them forever; and before you know it they're over."

I chew on his words for a while.  Perhaps it's my fatigue or maybe I misheard what he said; but I don't really understand what he's talking about.  In any case, I take a deep breath before re-entering the hospital.  I try to imagine that the bodies I remove this morning are in a dream.  That each of them is in a majestic place filled with the wonders of their imaginations.  I hope that each and every one of them are really free -- released from the bondage of the mental anguish caused by their time on this planet.  I hope that somehow in their dreams they manage to release themselves from any pain that comes from existing within a physical universe; and that more than anything they are happy and at peace; and that this nightmare we are all still living is as forgotten as my dreams were to me this morning when Jim woke my by the embers of last night's fire.