Drem

I had been walking down that path for as long as I could remember.

Now, on exactly how much 'as long as I could remember' measures up to, I cannot say. When you have nothing but a lonely dirt road ahead, time no longer holds any weight. Nowhere to go, nothing to do, nobody to meet… it was all very dull. But it was simple, too.

Dull and simple.

Simple and Dull.

The switching of those two words was about as much variety as I could handle.

Well, I suppose that wasn't entirely true. Variety did find his way around my beat path. He slid through the crevices of my scenery, warping my environment into strange and wonderful things. I didn't mind this because he was very clever and always knew exactly what shade of purple I wanted the sky to be. Or how tall the grass was to grow. Or if the sun would scorch or freeze on a certain occasion.

The only thing I didn't really appreciate about him was the whispered things.

Little breaths that he would echo between leaves and tickle my ears. Each just on the edge of being a coherent thought, but would hiss and sizzle away before fully forming, like a drop of water on a stove. These had irritated me to no end, for I was sure he had put these in on purpose. He had of course, but he never came clean about it.

So you can imagine he and I hadn't been on speaking terms… though we could have never been, since he couldn't talk. The same could be said about my three other companions, who had communicated with me through means of shared thoughts and petty assumption. The first two were mere ideals, who had watched me and kept me on the long and narrow. I mustn't touch and I mustn't step off my path were rather gray and dry, and smelt strongly of alcohol and adhesive bandages. An unpleasant scent for an unpleasant pair.

But the third, and by far the favorite, had been my ring. Well, I wasn't sure if she was mine. She was too small for all my fingers except for my pinky, so she settled to sitting in my shirt pocket, just above my heart. The strong mix of iron and roses stuck to her, a bittersweet combination well fitting with her personality. At times she was soft, warming me and assuring that I belonged here on this little path, and I made the right decision to stay there. Though this was always followed by a metallic edge that carved a hollow space in me, leaving me with an abandoned despair that made keeping forward nearly impossible.

But no matter what, I had kept walking.

For the longest time, I plowed on, and barring my dear friend Variety, nothing changed.

I never changed.

Of course, this was all about to take a turn very, very quickly. Otherwise we wouldn't have a story, now would we?

One day, the most curious sensation spread across my right arm. At first, I fancied I was being touched, but when I turned to look, no one was there. Then I realized if something had touched me, what could it be? All my friends were the figurative kind, and weren't ones for physical contact. So it couldn't have been them. And variety was too busy building up a levee that reached so high, it nearly blocked out the sun.

Could it be… someone new?

The thought frightened me, knocking all around the hollow space in my chest. I scurried to the far left edge of the path, and to my relief, the warmth faded. Soon I was back to my busy afternoon of walking under the levee's shadow. I told myself that it must have been my imagination getting to me, and there was no use bobbing around looking for something that most likely wasn't even there.

But then it began to grow on me again.

Grew and grew it did, until I was as close to my path's edge as I dared go and I could still feel it brushing up and down my side. Finally I had to stop. I dug my feet into the gravel and closed my eyes, wishing to my very core that this feeling would leave me.

A silly thing for me to do, really. Because no matter how tightly I screwed my eyes shut or clenched my fists, that sickly heat still held me close. So with I sigh I relaxed and opened my eyes, preparing to accept yet another constant in my little world.

But no amount of preparing braced me for what I saw next.

Just ahead of me, a girl balanced on the opposite edge of my path. Ten years old with traces of baby fat lingering around the edges. A bit pigeon-toed, with a slight wobble to her steps that suggested she had a hard time keeping balanced on the sloped edge of the trail. But she lacked any of the child-like wonder most girls her age had, choosing instead to hold a more mature air.

For a few moments she continued forward, head ducked and hands folded in silent prayer. Then she slowed, hands unfolding to allow one to stray up her left arm, as if she had felt a sudden chill. And like her hand, her gaze floated off course.

She stopped, frozen in time as she stared into empty air.

Then she turned to me.

It's impossible for words to capture what I felt when our eyes met. Joy that I was no longer alone? Anger that my world might change? Fear that she may abandon me? Wonder at the novelty of meeting another? Any of these could have fit the bill perfectly. I suppose it was hard for me to judge, seeing as I couldn't compare it to any other meeting.

But there was one thing that I knew for certain. She was something. A special, unique something. One that you didn't push away and shut out like a bad memory. How did I know? Even now it's hard to say what exactly made me think this way. Maybe it was her messily parted hair that spilled over her shoulders in a waterfall of curls and playtime knots. Or how her snowy Sunday dress stuck to her knees, holy white marred by the dye of grass and earth. Or maybe it was the way those pure pools of blue shone when they fell on me.

A something. She was definitely a something.

For ages we stood, drinking in the other's gaze. Then her shocked expression melted into a warm smile. A glorious smile, one that made her eyes spark with delight,

"Can you see me, Lev?"

Lev? Did she just call me 'Lev'? My name was Andrew. I knew the name well and didn't intend on forgetting it anytime soon. Why would she… my gaze wandered to the levee Variety had now smoothed over to a more regular size.

The feel of a warm summer breath caressed my face along with the itch of pollen that would undoubtedly send me into a sneezing fit. Up on the levee, a little boy sat in a marshy patch squeezing the mud between his toes. He was thinner than a corn stalk and had a mat of brown hair that stuck to the top of his head suggesting that it had been a few days since his last shower. He beamed a gap-toothed grin down at an amber-haired girl that was dressed like she had just come out of chapel. It was the same girl who had been standing on my path, except this one had her arms crossed in a huff and looked at the boy like he was the dirtiest creature to ever squirm into the world.

The air left my lungs when I realized that the boy was me, years and years ago.

"Who're you?" When the girl spoke, I cringed. Her voice didn't fit inside her at all, scratching across the back of her throat like a whirlwind of dead leaves. Just like the whispered things.

I was horrified when little-me spoke with the same rasp, "I'm the levee king!"

The girl shook her head, "No, you're not. You're just covered in mud."

"So are you!" little-me shouted.

"Well, I'm not calling myself the levee queen, Lev." She emphasized the name, her frown quirking up into an amused grin.

The mischievous light from my young eyes faded, "My name's not Lev."

The girl stuck her tongue out, "You said you're the levee king. So I call you Lev."

"It's weird."

"It's better than Mud."

My head began to spin. I didn't even know I had a childhood, let alone one that involved the very girl who had intruded my path. In fact, as far as I was concerned, I didn't have a past outside my trail. So what's this?

I forced myself to look away, and focused back on the girl who had called me Lev. I waited her to say something, to acknowledge what was going on behind her back. But she simply stared at me. Then I remembered her earlier question, and nodded in hopes that she would speak again once given an answer. Something unrecognizable flashed in her eyes, and to my dismay she remained silent. Instead, she stepped forward, holding a delicate hand out to me.

At this, I stared, unsure of what to do. It felt a little too late for a greeting, even with what little was said between us. Perhaps it's just to be polite. I approached her, awkwardly placing my hand on hers. The strength in those fingers surprised me, and I stumbled a little when she pulled, "You have to come back with me, Lev."

It took me a moment to realize what she was expecting of me. My heart pounded a dizzy beat in my ears as I looked down at our feet, realizing just how close to the edge of the path we were. "I…" I pulled back, my now free hand shaking so hard it looked like it would fall off, "I won't- I can't!"

To my horror, she reached for me again, "Lev, you don't—"

"Stay away from me!" When I screamed, my voice cracked. But that didn't stop me, "You don't know what you're doing… you're wasting your time—I'm never crossing over!"

Those words gummed up my lips with a sticky, foreign feeling. My ring was burning inside my pocket. But I wasn't sure if it was because she shared my fury or if she was displaying some sick sense of pride.

The girl's smile had grown cold during the exchange, empty and lacking any of the kindness it previously had. Dew had begun to collect around her lashes, her face hardening into a stiff mask to keep the tears from rolling. This doused my anger, making me want to snatch the hurtful words back out of the air… but instead I put on a mask of my own and continued down my path.

I didn't notice that she was following me until I heard her whisper, "Another time, then."

We walked in silence from then on, occasionally stealing glances at one another, but neither of us following through with conversation. Variety must have noticed our quarrel, because the levee's grass had shriveled into a parched brown, and the summer breeze had been high-jacked by a howling wind that tore the weeds and cattails out by the roots. My ring singed my skin under my shirt, and I could almost hear her say, "We both you know you can't brave that, Andrew. No one should expect you to. You can't brave anything."

I spared a glance out at the ravaged levee. To my surprise, little-me and the girl were still out there, if not blurred by the hurricane blasting around them.

"Well, if you're gunna call me Lev then I'm just gunna call you Girl. Because that's what you are, a stupid girl." Little-me plopped back into the mud, letting the thick grime envelope the whole of his backside.

Girl stuck her nose up, putting on a show of pretension, "Fine. Lev and Girl it is."

And with another powerful gust, the two vanished, and the levee began to flatten out into an expanse of soy crop.

"Girl…" The name emerged no louder than a murmur, but the way it grabbed her attention, you would have thought I had shouted it. With her eyes on me, I felt the need to at least finish my thought, "You're name… it's… Girl?"

A smile played across her lips, "You could say that."

I frowned. Girl… such an odd name. Almost as odd as Lev. Though, who knew, maybe where she came from everyone had such names. Perhaps she had a brother named Boy as well.

Where she came from… is it the same place that I maybe…? Questions aside, I forced a smile back, acting like hers was a normal name to have. To this she turned back around, signaling the end of our brief chit chat. So we walked on, leaving me to my thoughts. My troubled, troubled thoughts. The things I'm seeing… what are they? Am I going mad? If I am, how'd Girl connect with what I'm saying? Is she just a vision along with the children?

I stopped and buried my head in my hands. But what if this isn't a hallucination? What does this mean? Could there… really be… something before this? My fingers clawed into my hair, twisting and pulling and tugging as if the answers would come through the pain. God… please… what the hell is happening?

Now, to this day I can't be sure if it was that I'd gotten myself into such a fit or some divine force was the thing that knocked the wind out of me. But whatever it was, it was powerful.

When my eyes flew open, my path had shifted into a shoulder of a county road. I was no longer standing and instead I was parked in the driver's seat of a Nissan. It was dark out, brightened only by the patch of yellow the headlights threw out onto the gravel. To my right, the door clicked shut and I looked out to see… Girl?

"Anything serious?" The words were forced out of my throat, and fluttered through the air like a dying moth's wing beat. Just like little-me and Girl. Just like the whispered things.

"It's a flat." Girl had crouched down, and I could barely see the top of her head over the hood from where I sat. She straitened up to look at me, "Do we still have that spare in the trunk?"

My head shook on its own, and she groaned. She was much older now, knocking at about twenty. I couldn't help but stare. She was beautiful. Her hair had straitened out, and now fell down to the small of her back like a silk headdress. There was a pair of glasses perched on her nose, but it didn't take away from her aqua eyes one bit. And even under her windbreaker, I could see that she had rounded out quite nicely.

She got up, taking a step back as my hand traced along the seam of my coat. I leaned back in my seat, reaching into my pocket, "I guess we'll have to walk from here."

I would never know what her response was. Her eyes bugged and her mouth opened to shout something, but by then it was too late. A second pair of headlights splashed across my back, and the last thing that registered was the feel of a wooden box that held the symbol of my affection resting in my pocket and the thought …what a surprise this will be.

I was slammed back onto my path with a startling jolt, overrun with a shaky sensation and a sickness in my gut.

That's when it dawned on me. The reason why Girl was here, the reason why she was so adamant about me crossing not just over, but back over. You're lucky to be alive, Lev.

My ring pressed against my chest when I reached to pick her up. I nearly dropped her; the metal was white hot in my palm. Her silent scream ripped into my ears, shouting at me, telling me that it was my fault. My fault that I got hit. My fault for leaving Girl behind with nothing but a too-small ring and a lover that may never wake up.

My fault for not dying like I was supposed to.

My ideals weakly backed her, but they already knew I wasn't going to listen. Girl's smile burst out into an all-out grin when I lifted my hand, and in one swift movement, I sent my ring flying into rows and rows of beans.

She flew further than I expected, and crashed into the ground with more force than one would expect from such a small thing. For one fantastic moment, I felt lighter than air, like I was pumped up full of helium and would be blown away with the wind.

But I was soon shaken out of my high when the quaking began. High and shrill, like a nail dragging across slate, fractures shot across the sky. My hands flew to my ears in a vain attempt to claw out the sound. The path tremored beneath my feet, and I nearly lost sight of Girl when the earth lurched to one side, reacting to the heavens' wrath.

"Grab my hand!" And I did. This time without fear of the outside. Without fear of what was waiting for me.

I pulled her to me; both of us precariously perched on the edge of my trail as the world tore itself apart. The fields were melting away, like they were a painting that had just met with an unsavory about of water. My gaze strayed downward, just in time to see an abyss yawn open at the path's edge, stretching wider and wider until its jaw was gnawing on the back of Girl's heels. Her eyes caught mine, "Promise me, on three."

I simply nodded, urging her to keep on speaking in her angel voice.

"One…" She held me close.

"Two…" I buried my face in her hair. It smelled of sweat and strawberries.

"Lev…" She whispered, and I could feel the hot tears staining my shirt, "You're coming home."

Reveiws are love~