Dreams, Dreams, Dreams

Page 1

By

Howard M. Fitzcharles III

 I opened my eyes and the first thing I noticed was the smell of coffee. I had an overwhelming feeling of relief. I felt myself take a deep breath as though I had to, not as a voluntary action. I was home again from “That” place where I seem to always go in my dreams. The strange part is that it’s not like a nightmare but I do feel a relief to wake up and see that I am home. That wonderful smell of coffee invigorates me to jump out of bed.

 After a quick shower and shave I raced down stairs to find Meg in front of the cook top making breakfast as she has done so many times I had to wonder if it ever got tiring for her. She was wearing her long blue bathrobe I got her this last Christmas. I like it because it shows the contours of her body more than the others she has do. I reached around her waist and pulled her tight to my body until I could feel the warmth of her body even through our clothes. She playfully squirmed out of my hold and reminded me that I would be late for work if I didn’t set down and eat. I sometimes think I appreciate Meg and my lot in life more because of the recurring dreams. As soon as I wake up from one of them I feel so grateful for having a wonderful and beautiful wife, a job I enjoy doing and a nice home.

Yet it worries me that I am having these dreams. So much so that I have scheduled an appointment with the company schrink next week. I would normally not bother except that the dreams are always of the same place and time. Not the same dream just the same place and as with most dreams, vauge and difficult to remember details of after I wake up. What finally forced me to contact our company Doctor was when I would drop off into that dream at work. That scared me. 

Meg, as always, has my keys and my briefcase in hand with the door leading to the garage open and with a quick peck on the lips tells me to drive careful.  As I drove the few miles to work I thought of how Meg and I met. I still had a year to go before I graduated collage and I had accepted an invitation to a picnic sponsored by the church that Phill and Cindy attended. They were good friends and always trying to play matchmaker. They have been happily married since we met as freshmen and I guess they assumed I should be married also. I didn’t know anyone else there and I had been so wrapped up in my studies for the last few years, I felt like a square peg in a round hole.  Phil and Cindy were having a good time and seemed to know everyone there. They introduced me to quite a few people but their names and the small talked soon went in one ear and out the other. I started to realize I didn’t have anything in common with anyone here and that was mostly my fault, as I was so engrossed in my engineering studies I blocked out the rest of the world. All of a sudden my eye caught sight of the prettiest girl I had ever seen. She was sitting at one of the long tables set up under the large maple tree. Her long blond hair glistened in the small rays of sun light that were dancing around as they occasionally broke through the leaves of the shade tree. 

All of a sudden I was shocked back awake with the sound of a car horn behind me. I realized I had dosed off at a traffic light. Again into “that” dream.  When I walked into our building, Sally, our receptionist told me I was scheduled for a 9:00 o-clock meeting about the Office bldg. project I was working on.  That would give me time to go back over my figures and to make a small change in the floor plan of the fifth floor. I sat down and logged into the computer system and opened the fifth floor floor plan in our Auto Cad 13. After making the change, I saved it and sent it to one of our plotters.

I wanted to cover the change in the meeting and I found that if I had a copy of my proposed change on paper it would be much easier to make my case. I looked in my briefcase and as always Meg made sure the scientific calculator that her parents gave me when I got this job was back in my briefcase as I use it at home quite a bit. I didn’t have the hart to tell her that I didn’t need it at work because there are scientific calculators in the computers and the company supplies us with desk models. Glancing at the clock, I picked up everything I needed and the floor plan from the plotter.