The Place Between Dreams

The Place Before

As far as Janey Nye could recall, she stopped lucid dreaming by the time she reached age six. But memories of her dreaming experience prior to that age always remained vivid. Before the abilityleft her, she'd always been aware of her dreaming state and could effortlessly control her dream content. She could touch unwanted dream participants and they'd simply vanish. If she entered a nightmare by accident, she knew to remain unafraid, and could seamlessly transition out of it without waking.

Sometimes, Janey would simply ride out the nightmares because she liked thrills. In her dream world, Janey had been a brave little girl.

She'd been skilled at leaving and entering the same dreamscape again later. She could wake in the morning and then go back to the same dream again that night; picking it up in the exact spot she left it. Janey could recall a long period of nights spent in an empty shopping mall with a magical light source at its center; where a decorative fountain had once stood. The light delivered a cascade of glittering tendrils every which way into the darkness and blanketed the whole place with an atmospheric glow.

There she could come and go from all the stores as she pleased. She could play elaborate games of dress up or have access to any toy her imagination could conjure. She could skateboard on hovering purple light orbs. Never mind the dormant escalators which always scared her in wakefulness. She didn't have to walk or climb; she could fly.

Her shopping mall was quiet because there was only one person who ever joined her there and he was called Outlet.

Janey played herself; a child, in most of her dreams (unless she cared to be a bird or a dolphin, for a change.) But, Outlet was a teenaged boy and she always felt like she didn't invent him. He was tall and thin and wore rolled jeans and a neatly tucked flannel shirt. His tuft of black hair was typically slicked back but with becoming wisps escaping the careful coif. He reminded her of some of the movies and TV shows she'd liked to watch with her mother that told tales of a different time.

Even though she could've easily plucked the imagining of Outlet from her everyday life, Janey had the uncanny notion that Outlet was a real person somehow. He was a player in many of her dreams, and the one element she couldn't seem to control; though she didn't really try. She always enjoyed his company despite the fact she largely preferred to be alone. Sometimes she tried to ask him questions, who was he, why did he have such a funny name? But when she got curious, he'd just smile and disappear.

She couldn't remember exactly when her last lucid dream occurred and certainly didn't know why they stopped. It wasn't until high school and some lesson on dreaming came up, that she learned lucid dreaming was special; not something everyone could do. She recalled her own treasured experiences and wished she could have them back.

Always, someplace in the shadows of her mind, she kept Outlet, expecting to meet him sometime in her life. It was the one thing Janey Nye truly looked forward to.

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