Dragon Dreams

Chapter 3: Back to School; A Wish (1/2)

My heart was heavy with disappointment at waking up from the amazing dream. I rolled over and looked at my alarm clock. It was too close to my wake-up time to sleep any longer. Briefly, I closed my eyes again and imagined the feeling of flying as a dragon. The memory brought a small tear to my eye. I brushed it away and slowly dragged myself out of bed. It actually felt different to have just two arms and legs again. I shook my head and stretched, yawning audibly. "Time to write this one down," I thought.

There was no way I could completely capture the essence of the dream, of what it was like to be a dragon. However, I didn't think I would ever forget the time I spent ruling the skies with Rofar. It took a few minutes for me to write some paragraphs down anyways. Then I had no choice but to prepare for another ordinary day. I showered and put on whatever was at the top of my drawers. My mind was back in the dream world as I rode to school; my sister didn't notice.

When I got to class I sat down next to my best friend. Scott Chatfield lived down the street from me and I had known him most of my life. He was a really cool guy who was like me in a lot of ways. We were both fairly laid back and not really into school. He was interested in computers and video games whereas I was more artistic. Another friend I had in my classes was Roderick Alvarez. Roderick was pretty much a class clown who was always in a little bit of trouble. He was a good kid, though, spontaneous and hilarious to be around.

My first class was English, which I usually liked. The others must have noticed that I was more out of it than usual. Scott hit me on the shoulder right after the bell rang and I was too distracted to react. "Earth to Josh," he said, "somethin' on your mind this morning?"

We packed up and started walking to our next class together. I thought I should tell them what was going on since they were my closest friends after all. "Yeah I guess," I said. "Something a bit weird happened to me. I had one of those dreams last night. Like, a dream where I knew I was dreaming, but could still experience the dream like it was real life."

"What was it like?" Scott asked, "What did you do?"

I decided to skip over the becoming-a-dragon part. I had never really told them about my interest in dragons and fantasy stuff. It would be a little embarrassing for me since I figured I was a little too old to enjoy things like that. So I went with an abridged version. "Flying mostly. I flew all over exploring this amazing mountain landscape."

"That sounds awesome, bro," Roderick said. "I've never had that happen to me where I realize I'm dreaming. I wish I could, though."

"Yeah," I replied, "it actually felt like it lasted a really long time too. Plus, this is the second night I've had one of these dreams. That's what makes it a little weirder. The first night it was much shorter and I woke myself up, but I was definitely in the same place."

"Were these dreams, like, out of nowhere?" Scott asked. They were a little more curious than I would have liked. I viewed these strange dreams as a personal matter, and I didn't want to be interrogated.

"Not really," I replied, "I've had lucid dreams a few times before. These ones were just especially vivid, that's all." I didn't have to change the subject because we arrived at our Chemistry class. It wasn't usually my favorite class unless there was some kind of flashy demonstration. Unfortunately, it looked like a normal lecture. I doodled through the class, picking up a few bits and pieces on chemical bonds.

My classes with Scott and Roderick ended after lunch. I finished out the day with Math, which I hated, and Drawing, which I loved most of all. Any lingering anger and confusion about logarithms evaporated when I put pencil to paper in Drawing class. Mr. Glover was my teacher, but he preferred that the students call him Drew. He was a great teacher, but all the puns about his name got old really fast. Nevertheless, having that class last in my schedule was good for me; I always left in a good mood.

"That mountain range looks cool Josh," Mr. Glover said. "Nice contrast there as well."

"Thanks, Drew," I replied. The image was already stuck in my head so I had started drawing the mountain landscape from the previous night.

"Did you go on a vacation to a place like this or something?" he asked me.

"Not quite," I said, "it's actually from a dream I had last night. It was pretty vivid so I remember the surroundings well."

He smiled and looked a little surprised. "Interesting. Well, dreams are great for inspiration. Keep going."

Pretty soon my school day was over and I was back home, bored. Scott had soccer practice so I couldn't go over to his house until later. I went for a quick run to the nearby park and back, showered, and even then it was only 4:30. Homework could wait a while, so I got out my sketchbook. This time, I tried to draw my dragon dream-self. When I outlined my draconic form on the page, I leaned back and just looked at it. A strong longing to be back in the dream swept over me. I sighed and got back to work.

A few sketches later I heard my mom arrive. She came upstairs and said hi to Alex and me before heading down the hall to the guest room which doubles as her office. A little while later Dad came home from work with dinner. He had picked up some Chinese food on the way home. We all gathered together to eat and chatted about our days. Alex said something about a research paper she was working on. It was a history project about one of the Native American tribes here in Washington. Mom and Dad asked her a bunch of questions and seemed very interested. When it was my turn I told them about reading Shakespeare in English. It was nice to sit and talk together as a family.

After dinner I went back upstairs to do homework and study. It didn't take me too long and I had time to chat with Scott and Roderick on Facebook after. This entertained me for a while. If I ever got too serious those guys could cheer me up. I signed off after a while and did some more drawings before I got tired. The last thing I did before going to sleep was read and reread my dreams from the previous nights. My hopes of escaping into that world welled up inside me once more.

I lay on my bed for a long while, alone with my thoughts. Again and again I asked myself if I was happy. I didn't think I was unhappy. I had friends, a loving family. But I couldn't shake this feeling that I was treading water. I was going through the motions every day and not really getting the most out of life. Part of me wondered if I needed to see a therapist. Was I on the verge of real depression? Eventually, dreams came to relieve me of my troubled thoughts.

If you are enjoying this story, please consider leaving a vote or comment to tell me your thoughts! I really appreciate any and all feedback. Thank you for reading!