HAPPY & AWAKE

Belinda awoke to the sound of her alarm clock at the start of her new day at 4:15 am. Her bones crackling out of bed, her body aching and joints tight, not feeling like rising from her warm bed, she still had visions from her dream even fogging her head.

As she did every morning, she went and started up a pot of coffee and went to the living room where she did a few mornings stretch before getting on her treadmill for a mile walk, sometimes a mile jog or run.

Today was indeed a mile walk. She then hit the shower. Today in the shower, as she soaped her body, she thought about the bizarre dream she had with some powerful elements still vivid in her mind.

She saw herself or what she felt was a representation of herself walking through an open window at a certain point. She had a strong sense that being there was a bad idea, so she began running, hoping to get to the safety of the forest on the other side. She began to run feverishly. She looked behind her to see three representations of people in her life. One was her boss, the other was her neighbor, and the last was a family member she had all but forgotten.

Seeing these three figures forced her to want to run faster, but the more she tried, it seemed, the slower she became and the closer they drew toward her. Up ahead at the edge of the forest was an actor from a show she had grown up on where the main character was a man from England, who had a thick accent and was telling her, "Oh come on, will you and stop fussing about?" Upon hearing those words, she began to break away from the gaining trio, and just as she was at the edge of the forest with her actor image, she woke up.

Now showered and dressed, she was just in time for a full pot of hot coffee, which she added sugar and poured herself a cup, and poured the rest of the steaming hot coffee in a thermos she grabbed from the above cupboard. As she watched the thermos fill, she wondered what her dream meant. Was there even some explanation as to why she dreamt about these people?

She then left her apartment, still fixating on her dream. The outside world was still dark at 5:10 am. She got in her car and drove to her worksite, a giant box store that contained nearly any item for personal or for home. She was there to open as other workers faced another grinding day of work and customer service.