Chapter II: “It’s Just A Dream”

Fifteen seconds.  He feels so good for fifteen seconds.  He opens his eyes, blinks three times, takes a deep breath and it’s gone.  He’s awake.

He lays there for a minute or two, trying in vain to will himself back to sleep… back to that amazing dream.  He can’t.  Instead he lays there in silence and tries his best to seal every detail in a neat little capsule to relive throughout the impending day until he can dream again tonight.

The dreams are becoming more detailed and somehow longer in duration.  The locations are becoming more exotic and exciting. 

Last night they visited the dinosaurs;  he and his six-year-old son, Luke.  They sat on a high mountain peak and watched the pterodactyls fly by at eye level and a T-Rex stalking his unsuspecting prey far below.

“Daddy, who eats the T-Rex?”

“Nobody, son.  He’s the top of the food chain.”

“I want to be a T-Rex.”

“They are pretty cool, aren’t they?”

It’s ripped from him.  Just like that, he’s awake.  That’s all he gets today.  Maybe tonight they’ll visit Mars… or the Amazon… or Hollywood.   But for now, it’s time to get up and make some bacon.

Luke is already downstairs, lying on the couch in the dark fidgeting with one of his toys.  He calls out to his son, “Good morning, kiddo.”  As usual, there is only silence.  Diagnosed with Autism at the age of four, Luke is nonverbal.

Dad tries to navigate the living room in the dark, stubs his toe on the couch and curses under his breath.  He reaches down, strokes his son’s hair and kisses him on the forehead.

“Hey Buddy.  How did you sleep?”  Silence.

He reaches over to the end table and flicks the switch to turn on the small reading lamp.  He looks back at his son, lying on the couch and stops in his tracks.  In his left hand, Luke is making a little plastic pterodactyl fly and dive.  In his right hand… a T-Rex…