It's about an hour or so after we'd met when I decide to text her. I was feeling nervous for some reason, and I wrote and rewrote that text umpteen times before I decided on something simple : I asked what her name was. And then she replies, 'Ess', and I text her back, 'Ess?', and she says 'Yes, like the letter 'S', you know?', and I say 'So is that your name or does your name start with an 'S'?', and she just says 'Yes'. I'm dumbfounded. Well then, if that's the way it is. 'My name is Gee', I say. She takes a little bit to reply, and says 'Last name Willikers?', and I say 'Something like that.' We do away with the small talk and I offer to tell her about the dream straight away. She waves that notion away, and demands that I meet her at her place later on. She doesn't live far from me, though it's still probably an hour or so away. That means that when I get home, I'll have to shower and change, maybe shave, and I'll have precious little time to do it. We do talk throughout the day, and when I'm on my way to meet her, she texts me. I'm sitting on a bus seat, but I nearly fall. 'Remember! IF SEX, NO NOISE!', and here she is with the sex talk again, and I don't think I'm going to meet her expecting sex. Or am I? I don't know, I don't think I am. What do answer? A shaky 'I promise'.
I text her and let her know that I'm outside her door, maybe ringing the door wouldn't be such a smart idea, I don't know. She opens the door, peaks her head outside, and says, 'Ah, it's you!', and I mean, who else could it be? She whisks me away inside, and in the blink of an eye we're inside her room. She tells me to sit down by the side of her bed, and stays standing by the door, looking at me, studying me. Then she say, 'Huh.', and I say 'What?'. She just nods her head and asks if I want something to eat. I say I might, but I could wait until I got home. She says, 'Scratch that, you're spending the night with me.', and all I can manage is a very weak, 'I am?', to which she replies, 'For sure. I just decided that we're going to have sex.', and I say, 'We are?'. 'Like right now', she says, starting to undress herself, and she tells me to do the same. And I don't even know why I'm obeying her, but I'm getting undressed too. She comes over to me and with her hands lays me down on her bed. Then she gets on top of me, and we do it for a while. But its' not going great. Hell, it's not even going very well. I can't seem to get that turned on, I'm, uh, more flaccid than hard, and it eventually just peters out. She lies down beside me, and says 'Well, that was certainly something. Pretty unremarkable, If I may say so.', and of course it was, it was an unmitigated disaster. 'Can we try again?', she asks. 'Listen, slow down. Please. I'm not opposed to more sex, but just let it happen naturally, ok?'. She remains lying down by my side, and spends a few moments in silence. Then she says, 'OK.' But something strange happens, because the sex bit wasn't anything to write home about, she acts as if she likes me, as if she's liked me for a long time. She's caressing my body intently, her fingers running down my bicep, until they entwine with my fingers. I feel like I'm in an episode of the Twilight Zone. She kisses me, and I kiss her back. 'The dream', she says, 'tell me.'
I have to think about it for a few moments. I'd not had that dream again, not that I can remember, so I don't remember much about it. 'Do you know how sometimes you have recurring dreams, that seem more like a slice of life episode from some TV show that neve existed, and you don't really recognize anyone, you don't recognize a single face, you don't even recognize where it's taking place?', and she says 'Uh-huh', which is my cue to continue. 'Well, I know now that these dreams that I sometimes have, ever since I was a kid, are about you and me. Only... not 'you' and 'me', but like an alternate reality version of us? I don't know. So that last dream I had, where I finally figured out where it was I knew you from, we were getting a divorce, and I had to go to your place to go pick up some stuff I'd left there. There was some sadness between us, because I think we still loved each other, but maybe we just didn't know how to make things work. But besides us, there were two other people there - a young boy, who I think was your son, but from a previous relationship, and your mother. And boy, your mother hated my guts. I have no idea why, but she loathed me - she was positively beaming at the idea of us divorcing. As I picked up whatever junk I'd left there, you were showing me this song that you liked, and when you started playing it, you told me its name - but I knew the song well, and I realized that you were playing me the wrong song. And that's all I can remember - I woke up shortly thereafter.'
My recounting of the dream had left her somewhat perturbed. I could sense she was ill at ease. She says, 'The woman you say was my mother, can you describe her to me?', and I roll my eyes up, as if in deep thought, and then say, 'Well, she was definitely taller than you. Lanky too, but in a wiry kind of way. She had either light brown hair, or maybe a blonde that was a bit darker. Very intense, very scary. For whatever reason she really did not like me. But she also, in a way, seemed to be much older than usual - her face, as far as I can recall, showed some signs of advanced age.' She's listening to me, barely without moving, then in one swift move she's up and out of the bed. 'Stay here', she says, as if I was like to go anywhere else, 'I'm going to get something to show you.' A few minutes later she comes back, and then sits back down by my side. She hands me a tattered, old scrapbook, and tells me take a look at it. I recognize her at once - her face hasn't changed that much since she was a kid. But it's mostly pictures of her, or her with some other kids. Then, as I flip a page, I see her mother - though much younger than in my dream. I feel myself go white, as if I had seen a ghost. I start tapping on the photo, and I tell her that this is her, this is the woman in the dream. 'Shit.', she says. 'This is going to get complicated. What time do you need to get up for work?', she asks, and I had forgotten all about that. 'Well, if I'm staying the night, then stupid early. Do you want me to stay?', and she says yes, absolutely. Then my stomach groans audibly, I'm feeling hungry. 'Pizza good for you?', she asks, and we order in a couple of pies. After we've eaten, she takes me with her to the bathroom, and hands me a new toothbrush. She joins we as we brush our teeth, then we go back to bed. 'I have stuff I need to do the next couple of days, but saturday I need to take you somewhere, if that's ok with you.' I nod in agreement, anxious to see where it is she wants to take me.
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