Dream - 17th April

(Josie Sayz: Last night, I had a very peculiar dream. I woke up in the middle of the night, having had a very brief dream. I haven’t dreamt like this in a long time. I will write my dream in the form of a story, in the universe of my ‘Jane Chronicles’ characters.)

 

As Jane’s eyes fluttered open, she found herself sat at a round, pinewood table, with a mug of steaming olive, coloured liquid in front of her. A frown furrowed her brow, as she examined the mug’s image, depicting an illustration of a cat in space. Her nose snarled, as seeing this image reminded Jane of a person from her past, Wendy. Shuddering, Jane pushed all memories of Wendy from her mind and looked up at her surroundings. A window, to Jane’s left, illuminated the room with sunlight. Beneath the window lay a row of kitchen counters, with a sink in the centre. As Jane looked ahead, her cheeks blushed bright and a lump leapt into her throat. Sat on the opposite side of the table from her was Peter Pan. Inhaling a nervous breath, Jane’s lips parted, as she gazed at the man she had not seen in years. Peter leant forward, with his hands around his ‘Life Begins at 30’ mug, full of black coffee, with a kind smile on his face.

“So, Jane, how have you been? It’s been a while,” he said, with a soft smirk. Jane felt the heat rise to her cheeks, and a smile spread across her face, as she gazed back at him. Although a considerable period of time that had passed since the two has last seen each other, Peter had not changed a day. His dark chocolate brown hair remained deep and vibrant, and it still curled in the same way that it always did, with no signs of greying or receding. No lines creased under his eyes or curved around his cheeks. His stubbled cheeks looked the same as they always had. Despite being a few months shy of forty, Peter still looked the same as he did ten years ago, when they had first met. A shudder crept up Jane’s spine, as she felt as though she had aged a fair deal during their time apart, and felt almost unrecognisable. She was consciously aware of the dark circles beneath her eyes, the lines that creased her cheeks and how her hair had receded up her forehead as she continued to lose it from stress. Lowering her sight to her hands on the table, Jane focused on the silver ring, with a deep olive, peridot, on her ring finger. Her chest tightened. She sniffed, feeling the inner corners of her eyes sting a little.

“A lot has changed, Peter,” Jane replied, as she found her voice. Her throat grew tight, and she wrapped her hands around her biceps, pulling her arms tight to her chest. Pinching her lips in, Jane looked over at Peter, expecting to feel fear, seeing anger and hatred for her in his eyes, but instead she felt her heart melt, as a warm, caring smile spread across his face. Jane’s eyebrows slanted together and she relaxed her shoulder blades, not realising that she had been tensing them.

“I’d love to hear what you’ve been up to,” Peter said, with a soft chuckle to his voice. Smiling back at him, Jane hugged her hands around the mug in front of her, as she found herself getting lost in Peter’s deep brown eyes with little green flecks in them.

- Josie -