A dream

I was sitting in the kitchen, having my morning coffee. I just sat down after seeing my son to school, and took a long and thoughtful sip. This was one of those mathematical days, when I look at the calendar and numbers pop into my head. 34 – is my age. 10 – is my son’s age. 3 – is my divorce’s age. 25 – is my husband’s new passion’s age. 6 – is their daughter’s age. Then a silly number popped into my head: 11 months… since a very strange dream my son and I have shared. Till this day it strikes me as more and more weird and unbelievable – mostly because you rarely hear of 2 people having the same dream. But at that moment I believed it so much, I convinced my 9 year old son that this stuff… well… happens. It’s so stupid to brood about a dream 11 months later! This thought brought the vivid memories back…

I remember thinking about it all being a dream in it’s first moments: right when I found myself in an enormous unfamiliar room with 7 more people and several wild animals squatting on a metal floor. I hugged my son who was right there with me, confused no less than me, and whispered to him: “Honey, it’s all just a dream”… I looked around the barn-like room and remembered an important rule: it’s definitely a dream if I can’t remember how I got there. I closed my eyes and concentrated: today I woke up. Went to work. Got a call from the principal: “Your Jared has thrown firecrackers in the girls’ bathroom!!! I’ve confiscated all the fire-crackers, but it’s your job to make sure he doesn’t bring them to school ever again!!!” After work I sat in my car. I drove to my son’s school. He sat in the car, and I frowned at him through the mirror: “Where have you got those fire-crackers, mister? If I find any in your room – I’m going to flush them down the toilet, you got that?” – “I get them for making everybody’s “super-duper-hard” homework! It’s not my fault you can’t afford getting me into a decent school! Oh, yeah, dad has all the money!!!” I squeezed the wheel in agony. Yes, he was the money-bringer, and he’s had the genius genes, and he’s the one who walked over his family! And then it all went black for a few seconds, and here we are… Well, I definitely don’t remember getting out of a car, and into a strange barn… So… yes, definitely a dream. I hugged Jared. He was terrified – He was wearing his back-pack, as if I just picked him up from school. As if he’s just told me all those terrible and right things… But he didn’t seem to remember now. I got up, muttering “Jared, relax – this is just a dream – if we can’t remember getting here – it must be a dream” – “Then why can’t we wake up?” – he whispered with trembling lips. I caressed his hair and rubbed his shoulders. Then a man came up to us, and simply said “Hi, I’m Adam. And you are?..” I couldn’t reveal my name to Adam – the joke was too old, so I replied: “Miss Rain, this is my son, Jared. Can you tell us where we are?” – ‘On board of a spaceship, obviously’ – he replied cheerfully. “Definitely a dream” – I nodded to myself.

‘How do you know?’ – I asked.

‘Sorry, you’ve missed the briefing. The Mother-Queen has just entered and said in a multi-language, that we are on board of their friendly species’ ship, waiting to launch to their planet’.

“All right, just to play the role, I could show some emotions here…”:

‘WHAT?! Why would they take us anywhere? Why us?’

‘They have this statistical technology that predicts who will be missed the least’

‘Oh, that’s comforting!’ – I snorted.

‘It’s quite right too, I haven’t asked the animals, but the humans have revealed that they are single, widows, orphans, and homelesses’

“Oh God, this is the most Freudic dream that was ever dreamed… Just because I was angry that my husband has dumped us means ALIENS will now abduct us because nobody needs us on this planet?! Nice! And also, where else could I meet such a handsome guy, who also doesn’t belong to anybody? I am sooo dreaming”I took Jared by hand, and we walked around the room, contemplating surroundings. Some of the animals were definitely wild, others were taken from shelters… One dirty dog saw a special friend in my son and licked his hand as we passed by. He stopped shaking and rubbed it’s neck. I smiled at them, when the Mother-Queen entered the room:

‘Hello, new arrivals! I welcome you onboard. Let me help you relax and please, ask questions’

Jared looked at her. We both were big sci-fi fans, and thought an actual alien couldn’t surprise us anymore, but she did. No, it wasn’t a doll, it wasn’t 3D, it was real. She looked nothing like us, but she managed to stand, walk, talk, blink… I thought she looked like a scorpion a bit, but no… more of a wolf… no, a spider, or… maybe some deep sea creature?.. There were no earthlings who would ring a bell. She definitely had 4 legs. 2 hands. A tail… a sting? Or just a tail?.. A head… like a bee’s… no, like a dragon’s! Jared cocked his head, he was probably having the same struggle in his head – trying to identify WHAT familiar creature resemble. But somehow it was obvious – it was a she, she was adult, and she was a queen.

The Mother-Queen has beckoned us with her… tail… and asked to ask questions. I prayed that my son wouldn’t ask “why we” because I knew the answer. He only said: “Why?”

‘We see your planet is undeveloped, we come and help. We take you on a journey. We feed you. We keep you alive. We bring you to our people’

‘Then you return us home?’ – Jared asked hopefully.

‘Of course, we return you where you belong’

‘How long will the journey take?’

‘It takes 1 year to reach our home planet. We have examined your life-spans and saw, that it might mean a lot to some of your species. So we are going to give you a special preservative. It keeps you young for a year. For this whole year you will stay young, healthy, happy, and fresh’.

I fancied her eyes sparkled at the word “fresh”.

Then she made us drink a tea-flavored preservative and left the room.

I don’t remember whether we asked her any more questions, and how she answered them. However, I had the uneasy feeling that her answers might mean they were going to take us on a wonder tour and return us home with our head stuffed with new ideas and technological solutions, the other meant they would simply gobble us up. Jared was rubbing his new dog behind the ear, and I walked up to Adam to share my fears with him.

‘Well, I haven’t noticed that when she spoke to me… And I definitely didn’t see her eyes sparkle’ – he chuckled.I thought, we all were acting strangely on an actual alien spaceship, so I guessed:

‘Do you think it’s all a dream?’

‘Definitely. Come on! Aliens?’ – he laughed.

I laughed too. But honestly, watching so much sci-fi may sort of blur the boundary where “No way” and “extremely improbable” meet. Jared seemed to believe his eyes, but it didn’t bother him anymore.

I looked around and put the pieces together: this creature definitely looked like a carnivore. She used words that could be understood as “We are turning you into conserves and take you with us on a year-long journey to our home-planet. You won’t be missed and looked for.”. Different species might mean a well-balanced meal. And come on! We are in a barn!!! That’s where humans keep their cows!!! All right, I might still be wrong, but I wasn’t ready to take my chances. I took my son by the sleeve and made him sit with me by a sleeping zebra.‘Honey. I need you to use your genius head now. Like, really use it. Like we’re on a super-duper hard quest level, and you’ve only got one life. I need you to get us out of here’

‘All of us? Or just you and me?’

‘Just you and me for now. If my fears are right, we’ll come back for them’

I was talking like a movie-hero. This was supposed to be the point where someone asked “Who put you in charge?” But nobody cared about our whispering. Everybody was too busy convincing themselves this was just a dream. I still hoped they were right.

‘Look, a ventilation shaft!’ – he answered immediately, pointing between the giraffe’s legs.

‘Come on! Characters use it to wander about unnoticed in too much movies!’

‘Maybe, but the aliens might just not watch our movies’

‘They’d better not…’ – I sighed and helped him unscrew the bolts. We both discussed how funny it was finding ourselves on an alien spaceship that has recognizable bolts, doors, ventilation shafts, etc. It might look like a giant soap bubble, or an ant-hill, but instead it looked like a giant bunker. We found ourselves in the ventilation shaft, and closed the lid behind us. I only told Adam about my plan. He said it was silly, but agreed to lie that a lion ate us if someone noticed our disappearance. I said, he might pretend to look shocked – a lion just ate two people in front of his eyes, but he only laughed harder: “Come on! It’s a dream lion!”

We actually managed to wander about the spaceship using the ventilation shafts. I don’t remember my dream’s details – obviously – people forget 80% of their dream upon waking up, don’t they? – I remember peeping into aliens’ private chambers, corridors, medical bay, diner, nursery… Wow, it looked like an actual village! From the size of their food portions we judged gluttony wasn’t their favorite sin – the plates and cups (however unrecognizable they looked, they must’ve been cutlery) were very small. If my theory was right, these 8 humans, 6 wild animals, 10 shelter animals, and a dozen of fish might suffice for a year-long journey. I remembered this was Adam’s argument: “If they want to eat us – they’d need much more than this lot to last a year. I heard, there are hundreds of aliens on this ship”. I remembered, we never asked them what their species were called.

Finally we saw a secluded staircase and decided to get out of the ventilation shaft. We walked the stairs, reading the floors names. Pointless as it was, for we couldn’t read alien. We saw a brightly painted door and peeped inside. There were little aliens sitting and running in a brightly colored room. They had stuffed toys that resembled no known animal, and they studied an unfamiliar alphabet. Must be a kindergarten. One of the aliens noticed us and hissed at us with glistening hungry eyes. Then he threw a stuffed toy and my son caught it before we slammed the door and ran back into the ventilation. We didn’t care if we might be wrong. If they were peaceful – hell with them anyway!!!

We found the barn and climbed into the room. Adam was standing by the ventilation entrance, waiting for us.I told him everything we saw. He said that he’d love to wake up now. Then my son had a brilliant idea:

‘Preservative! It keeps us alive, she said! What if it will keep us alive even after a major explosion? If we could destroy this fu--- – ‘language, young man!’ – ‘ship! We will destroy the ship and fall to Earth!.. Or just wake up. Either way, we’ll survive!’ – ‘Let’s give it a try!’ – Adam agreed. Jared climbed back into the shaft, and Adam grabbed my hand much to my surprise:

‘Listen. I have to say this. If this wasn’t a dream, and if we ever met in real life – I would ask you out – there is this amazing pizzeria right under my apartment on Twin street – I wish I could take you there’

‘Ughm… Thanks, though you just made me believe it was a dream again – makes sense – I meet this gorgeous single guy, who actually likes me, and we are on this crazy sci-fi adventure… you know what this dream lacks? A perfect kiss!’ – I intended to chuckle, but his lips were suddenly touching mine. I turned back to the ventilation, when the Mother-queen with two guards shoved the barn-doors open and entered:‘Who’s left the room?!’ – she shouted.

The animals didn’t mind her. The 5 people didn’t mind her: they split in two groups and were busy discussing their belief in aliens – 2 believed they might exist, 3 – didn’t, but they all were still convinced it was just a dream. Adam ran to her, only whispering ‘I’ll distract her!’ and closing the lid behind us.

We heard his echoed cry: “Oh my God!!! A lion!!! He just ate 2 people!!! NOOOOOooooo”, while we crawled away towards the staircase. I believed Jared when he claimed it got hotter in that direction, and that it got even hotter on the kindergarten level. This meant we got closer to the engines. 

We got to the staircase and ran down towards the heat. We approached a huge ball of light that looked pretty unstable, but must’ve generated tons of energy. 

‘Now we need a spark’ – Jared said, and added, - ‘It’s such a bummer to have a non-smoking mom…’Then it stroke me and I exclaimed:

‘It’s so great to have a mischievous son! Quick, throw those fire-crackers!’He dug 5 small balls from his pockets and took aim at the reactor, when the Mother-queen appeared in front of us, terrified:

‘There are our children aboard!’ – she screamed.

‘Then you have 3 seconds to evacuate!’ – I shouted.

As in every decent dream, especially when the ending was near, I was expecting some kind of deus ex machina and was absolutely sure they’ll find a way. The Mother-queen vanished with in a blue shimmer, and we saw a flashing light and a video showed a capsule being torn off and emerging away from the ship, the Earth, and into a worm-hole.

‘This was totally sci-fi’ – my son admitted.

‘Boring and expected’ – I agreed.

Then he threw the ball.And that was it!

We woke up in a hospital, though no scratch on us. Apparently, we were lying on a road unconscious, so somebody picked us up and brought us to a hospital. The police asked us lots of questions about how come my car was hugging a tree and we were miles away from it? The final conclusion was that we were drugged and kidnapped, but then for some reason thrown out. “Because nobody will look for us and no one to blackmail?” – I suggested. The policeman nodded, and left the hall.

That was 11 months ago… It all still looked weird, I believed the kidnapping theory more than the aliens, but the fact that this dream was still so vivid in my memory bothered me very much.I took my son from school, and asked him why he looks so grim today. He mumbled:‘Everybody’s making fun of me: we’ve had a measuring day today, and I haven’t grown AT ALL since the measurement last year. Seriously! Not an inch, not a tenth of an inch!!! Now everybody says I’m a dwarf and I’ll never grow again’

My hands trembled. I muttered something like “We’ll see next year, no need to worry”, and when we arrived home I ran to my laptop and searched “Pizzeria, Twin street” – there was only one reliable profile, and he lived in another state. But we didn’t care. We packed out bags and drove there on the very next day.I saw the Pizzeria and rang the apartment on top of it. My son held my hand.Adam opened the door and his jaw dropped.

‘Miss Rain?!’

‘Eve… My name’s Eve’ – I answered with a smile.