Fairytale

9• The Place She Awaits At

Hot air balloons in a vast array of bright colors drift across a pale blue sky with fluffy white clouds. Dark blue mountains surround the landscape in a far distant place looking like a dragon's spine.

Between the mountain ridge is a lake so still it looks like glass. It reflects everything above it like a mirror. On the water in front of me is a Ferris Wheel, slowly spinning with wicker baskets full of happily bleeting sheep. A cute little tune sings along with their happy calls. I begin to smile to myself as I continue to spin around, sniffling as my tears stop.

Cherry blossom trees grow on top of the water as well, the pink petals blowing in the light breeze. They fall endlessly, like snowflakes in the winter. An old sheep sits on a bench under one of the cherry blossom trees, reading a newspaper through his gold spectacles while puffing on a pipe. His fluff dramatically poofs out from under his green Japanese silk vest. It completely ruins the sophistication of the fabric.

Hoping he'll be able to explain this place, I walk over to him. My eyes glance down at my bare feet. Underneath where I walk, ripples spread quickly and disappear as if I'd never taken a step at all. The clouds above are mimicked below, disorienting me a bit as the world suddenly feels upside down yet still right side up. It's so bad with the rippling my feet causes that I'm not sure if I'm looking at the sky or walking on it.

Putting my hand to my head as I drunkenly look back up, I try to keep my focus on the old sheep. It's a bit overwhelming to try to look down while trying to walk at the same time.

When I near the old sheep, he looks up at me over the top of his newspaper and sets it down. Briefly I catch today's heading - 'It's Quite the Pickle'. I give him a friendly smile and wave," Hey! Can you tell me where I am?"

The old sheep puffs on his pipe," It's the place you wait, of course."
I tilt my head a bit confused," What do you mean?"

"It means whatever you need it to mean.", he replied.

I sigh, realizing I'm probably not going to get anything out of him, and turn away. He bitterly tosses one last thing at me though," You Dreambriars are all the same."

I look over my shoulder so abruptly my hair tosses in the wind. I blink at him," Excuse me, did you say 'Dreambriar'?"

I remember the monster tapping on my bathroom door using that same word. I don't think I really heard it then, too lost in my fear. Here though, I feel safe and content. Safe enough to question everything.

The old sheep puffs on his pipe as he picks up his newspaper," That's what I said, wasn't it?"

I watch as he goes back to reading his newspaper and sigh in exasperation when I realize he's not going to elaborate on what he said. Sometimes the beings in my dreams can be so cryptic and hard to talk to. It makes it more difficult to find my way out.

Other times they're very blunt and then I'm off to join pirates or slay a beast. All of which leads to opening my eyes.

Sometimes though, I don't want to open my eyes. Sometimes I want to stay in my dreams forever. This makes me sigh too as I walk away from the grove of cherry blossoms with the Ferris wheel towards the mountains far in the distance.