Dreams Come True

Moonlight Tears

A couple of hours later, I awoke once again. I was still snuggled up next to Maria, who was showing no signs of waking up.It made me give off a tired smile, so I cuddled up to her more and curled up in the blankets. I was about to close my eyes, but then I saw the fireplace wasn't on for some reason. So, as carefully as I could, I reached forward and grabbed the remote for it, pressed a button so it clicked on, and as the flames sparked to life I returned to my cosy position.

Maria stirred just the slightest bit, but all she did was mumble and pull me into a tight hug like I was an oversized teddy bear. I closed my eyes and smiled as I just let it happen, nuzzling my head against her shoulder. This was what I needed, this was all I needed after the complete emotional disaster yesterday was. Just the memory of what happened made my mood dip, and my smile fell.

I took a quiet, deep breath, which seemed to make Maria stir just a bit. I stilled, and she soon quieted down. I gulped, decided to not let these thoughts run me dry.

"You're thinking really loud, mijo..." Maria whispered into my mop of hair. "You're still hung up about yesterday?"

"I think I always will be..." I mumbled. "That... That was the most I have ever talked about that ever since... I ran away. So it's just... all this noise in my head." I wiggled so I could look up into her eyes. "Did I wake you up?"

She half nodded. "Kind of. I was already a bit awake for a few minutes, but I could feel your heartbeat, so I knew something was up."

I sighed. "I'm sorry, Maria. It's just been so hard."

"Hey, Caleb, don't apologise." Maria pulled me into a hug and started to rock me back and forth. "We all deal with trauma and tainted pasts in different ways. And it affects us all differently."

"Yeah... Yeah, you're right..." I leaned into her more. "I just need some time to cool off."

The wooden woman hummed. "We could make a day out of that. Like the last one. Just all of us here, spending time together. I think that's something we all need."

"But what will we do?" I asked.

She shrugged. "Whatever we want. But I'm going to make sure we are all nearby no matter what." She leaned back and looked towards the door that went out to the hallway. "I'm going to go and talk to Rainbow... If I can find her. I'm going to tell her about what happened and our plans today."

I opened my mouth to voice my disagreement, but Maria quickly sealed my lips and continued. "She needs to know, Caleb. I wouldn't be surprised if Katania told her last night, but for now we don't know. So I'm going to tell her because I need to. She's your mama."

I gave her a long look, then relented. "Okay... Just..." I sighed. "Tell her I want to talk to her later sometime. I think the two of us need a one-on-one talk at some point."

she nodded, then shot me a smile. "You got it, mijo." She kissed me on my forehead and stood up. She stretched, then headed out into the hallway, humming a calming tune as she went.

When the door closed behind her, I turned back to face the fireplace. The fire was warm, which made me calm down significantly. When I glanced at the TV above the glowing fire, I decided to just get something on. So I turned on the TV and movie player, and noticed a menu. It said "DVD selection". My curiosity peaked, I selected the menu. It showed a massive list of all the movies that were currently resting on the shelves.

Even more curious than before now, I selected Who Framed Roger Rabbit from the list, and watched as a small drone came out of the player and began to make its way to where the movie was. It scanned over the shelf, pulled out the movie, and put the disc in like one typically would. The small drone tucked back into the player, and the movie blinked to life.