Don’t Pinch Me If I’m Dreaming

I wrote this in the second person earlier today for fun.

You’re so alone you can barely breathe; you know you need someone by your side. Each day your introversion haunts you. The memory of someone close to you continues to linger in your deep, hopeless thoughts. You continue to drift. But maybe you haven’t thought of this person even until this moment — they just appeared in your mind’s eye. You can’t erase the idea. Is it destiny?

The headaches prolong from a lack of sleep. The dizziness persists no matter how many times you try to extinguish it. Finally, you can take it no longer.

So what if you suddenly decided to get out of bed for a glass of water or a bag of potato chips… but the hunger doesn’t cut it? You’re still ambitious. But suppose you happen to make the decision to go outside in the cold but fresh midnight air. So you take a walk on the slippery pavement of the sidewalk. But as you’re strolling, you see a haze. The haze becomes clear and you see the outline of a person: it’s that someone you’ve been missing.

You and this person of opposite gender begin to talk about how ironic it is for the two of you to be outside at the same time — in the middle of the night. Eventually it seems it wasn’t so ironic after all, because it was just God’s humorous, brilliant plan, because the both of you feel the same way. So maybe you reach for the person’s hand and maybe that person grabs yours back. Before you know it, the both of you just can’t stop talking. Maybe you or the other personsays, “Don’t pinch me if I’m dreaming because I wouldn’t want to wake up.” And as the sun begins to rise you say goodbye. And then you walk back into your bedroom as your heart slows down and thaws from the warmth of love itself, and the cold vanishes. But as you stay in bed with hopes for at least an hour or two of sleep, you get to thinking again. You toss and turn.

But before you fall asleep, you wake up. Was it all just a dream? Unfortunately, it was. But maybe — just maybe — that other person was dreaming about the same thing.