My Land of Dreams

Chapter 6

"I honestly don't know where to begin." I really didn't.

"Anywhere. Just start." Elliot waved.

"Well in secondary school, we didn't talk much at first, but we knew each other considering we were in the same year. Got to know her more when doing our GCSEs as we shared Science classes." I took a sip of the hot coffee remembering her smile.

"Jane had this amazing smile. I think if you could compliment any of her features, it's her smile. Her eyes too. Funny I never noticed them." I said whilst trying to remember her eyes but her smile kept clouding everything. It was just a shame things didn't work out as it should have done.

"Wait a minute, so her name was Jane?" Elliot interrupted.

"So one day, we all had our exams coming up, so a bunch of us crowded the library to study together. I somehow ended up sitting next to her. It wasn't weird then, you don't sort of think of any of those things-"

"-ok Adam, stop blabbering and just fast forward!" Elliot cut in as I chose to ignore his question.

"Yeah sorry, ok fine, we were all sitting on the bench with books and papers spread across the table outside, complaining about the heat and she just turned to me, passed me a bottle of water and said 'do you get weird dreams?' And then just smiled."

"Yeah so what did you say?" Elliot really seemed interested.

"Just said no and asked her why. That was the end of it." I simply stated.

"What? That's it? I mean you said something about her 'Land of Dreams'."

"Look we had exams. It was like the fourth or fifth time that I actually started talking to her. But that's only if we happened to sit next together, otherwise we hung around with different people. Anyways, she brought up the topic of dreams again. I told her I dreamt that I failed my German exam, even though we were revising together. She burst out laughing and pointed out that that's a nightmare!" I chuckled.

"Yeah well she's right," amusement ran across Elliot's face.

Yeah that was embarrassing to say the least, but the voice. Oh wow, I forget the voice!

"Hello? Adam, continue." Elliot stated as he clicked his fingers.

I suddenly realised my eyes were closed! "Yeah well, she started saying that she had these dreams that she's in a land of her own. A land she built that is. I remember one that involved her being a soldier in the Second World War, and she pointed out that it doesn't make sense because how can a female be a soldier at the front line during the war? They were working on the home front in factories right? But then the area seemed familiar, so they can't have been France or Britain fighting. They weren't in the Western Front. But she was certain that a Spitfire was flying above. Could have been the Blitz, but definitely not Dunkirk. Actually, if it was the Blitz, then it makes sense for her to be there as it was the bombing in Britain." I looked up at Elliot, he just seemed dazed.

Hmm I remember being just as dazed, the different sort. But then, that's what love does to people I guess. Did I just say love?

"There's a bit of history there for you," I added and raised eyebrows. "Ok I've confused you. I don't know. Every time we met from then on, I she would talk about her dreams, I mean come on, unicorns? There was always a historical reference, and I mean always. But the weird thing was that once, I think the last few days I was with her before we sort of separated, she made me close my eyes and try to imagine her land. It wasn't the green with palm trees type, it was rough, brown, long grass, but I could actually picture it. And I remember clearly going to sleep and having a dream of my own. It wasn't a developed land at the start, more like just sand. I think the more I thought about it, the weirder the land got. It's so weird, it's like I created my own land in my dreams and I sort of understood her." I finished off.

I knew I was talking rubbish, but there was this feeling as if it was real back then. I didn't go as far as talking birds or flying unicorns, but there was a jungle that slowly built over time, no houses or huts though. But I do remember seeing a judge in the midst of everything, and me throwing some papers at him. He wore the usual grey wig, black cloak, large and extremely intimidating. Piercing blue eyes looking down at me. A table in front of him. He seemed like a giant come to think of it! And this time she was there, no smile but all serious. I woke up sweating head to toe.

"Yeah so El, what do you think? Not in depth. But something like that."

"Sounds a bit like Inception to me mate." Elliot replied, "A touch of Matrix too," he added.

"Nothing like that. Maybe if you spoke to her she'd be able to explain it more. Besides, would rather use Plato, Aristotle, Socrates even!"

I seriously need to see her again!

"We need to get back to work. I'm pretty confident we'll win. But still."

"Hey Adam, what if the judge that you saw was a sign that you're going into Law?" Elliot mused.

"Yeah maybe, but then she used to say she had colourful butterflies and flowers floating around. What did that signify?" I responded.