Day 4—Friday:

I opened the email Alice sent me; it had seven attachments and a brief message that read, “Hope these work for you, Tom.  Looking forward to tonight J.”  I read the message a few times over—it was a short letter that never said anything new, but each subsequent reading made my smile grow a little.  I downloaded the attachments and loaded them into my program’s library.

I spent the little time I had before the meeting getting the sound effects working with the game’s actions.  I wasn’t going for perfection, just something that was presentable.  I was getting close to that point when Matt appeared above my monitor.

“We’re ready for you, Tom.”

I looked up at him, he was holding his phone’s display toward me.  It had a clock face on it that was telling me it was time to get to the conference room to show off what I had been working on.  I nodded in acknowledgement; Matt turned toward the conference room as I saved my progress and unplugged my phone.  I followed behind into the conference room.

When I walked through the door, the sun shone brightly in my eyes.  It was brighter than I expected, and I had to squint to see anything… but something caught my attention—out of the corner of my eye, I saw a green awning.

Day &—7H314$7day:

When I saw it, I opened my eyes and focused on them.  It hung over the entrance of a tall hotel building—it was the same green awning I saw every night in my dreams.  I knew I had to be dreaming.  It was odd, then, that I was standing outside my office instead of under that green awning.

Maybe, I thought, this dream is different.

I had no idea where I was—how I got there.  Everything in my life had been an unintelligible string of events playing out of sequence.  So, not only did I not know where I was, but I was clueless as to when I was.  It’s entirely possible that I had already taken the leap—flown—I just hadn’t experienced it yet.

If I had flown but am still in the same dream, maybe I need to find out why exactly I’m climbing to the top of the building.  Maybe when I climb the building so I can fly, I’m climbing it for the wrong reason.

I needed to know why I stood on top of that damned building.  Every other night, my dream began with me standing beneath the green awning of the hotel just three blocks north of my office.  Based on that, I felt that the hotel would be the best place to begin my search.

I made my way to the hotel building and shortly found myself standing beneath that green awning.  I took a deep breath as I reached for the handle of the door and opened it.

Alice stood on the other side.  She was wearing a black and red dress—it looked fancy and far more formal than anything I owned.  I felt underdressed in my khakis and three-button polo.

Night 4—Friday:

“You’re awfully dressed up,” I said.  She seemed surprised at my comment.

“Some guys might say, ‘You look nice,’ or, you know… a compliment of some kind.”

“Oh, well, you do—you look great!  I just wasn’t expecting you to be dressed so… nicely.”

“Well, I wasn’t expecting you to dress nicely either,” she gave me the once-over, “which I’m glad I had low expectations… otherwise, I’d have been disappointed.”  She smiled as she made her way past me and into the house.  “I brought a movie to go with dinner,” she handed it to me and began peeking around—acclimating herself to my home.

“Would you like the tour?”

“Maybe later.  I’m getting hungry, what’s on the menu?”

“I was planning on some steak, if that’s alright with you.”

“Sounds great.  I’ll have mine medium-well.”

“Oh, uh… okay.  What do you want for a side?  I have potatoes, some mixed veggies, or rice.”

“Potatoes would be fantastic.”

“Okay.  Just make yourself at home,” I pointed toward my couch in the living room.  “I’ve got cable—remote should be on the coffee table.  Dinner shouldn’t take too long, the potatoes are instant.”

“Fancy,” she said, shooting me a smile as she sat down and reached for the remote.

“Nothing but the best,” I replied as I made my back into the kitchen.  I kept my potatoes in the pantry beside my stove.  I opened it.  There was nothing in there.  Nothing I felt like I could wear, anyway—cheap white button shirts and a vast array of unspectacular three-button tees.

Day 5—Saturday:

She was so beautiful when she came over Friday and I felt like I had to dress a little better when I went over to her place on Sunday.  I had to buy a new shirt and maybe some black slacks.

I never really had a sense for fashion—I had always been just a t-shirt and blue jeans kind of guy—so I didn’t really know what would look nice when I was out shopping.  I didn’t feel like making a whole day out of finding a shirt and some pants, either, so I just asked for help at the first store I went to.  I approached the woman who was stocking the rack with new pants.

“Hi,” I said as awkwardly blunt as humanly possible.

She looked up from the stack of clothes in front of her and, with a store policy grin on her lips, returned my greeting, “Hello, how can I help you today?”

“Well, I’m not terribly well-versed in fashion, but I’ve got a date tomorrow and I wouldn’t mind having something nice to wear.  So, if you could just help me get something along those lines, I’d really appreciate it.”

“How nice are we talking?”

“Not like suit and tie or anything, but button down shirt and some nice slacks.  Something along those lines, I think.”

I guess I never realized how difficult clothes shopping could be.  It took seven different fittings and probably three dozen shirts over the course of nearly an hour before I settled on something that I didn’t find obnoxiously over-colored or tacky in some way.  I couldn’t help feeling that the clerk’s fashion sense was as bad as mine after the third time I undressed in the fitting room.  I began to question how she ever got employed at a clothing store.  In the end, it didn’t really matter—I got my outfit and I could tell by the expression on her face when I checked out that she was as sick of me as I was of her and her awful clothing suggestions.

I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the clothes, but they were inarguably nicer than anything I owned, so that was a plus.  I left the store and walked back to my car.  I sat in the driver’s seat and checked my watch.  It was about half-past six and I told Alice I would be at her house at seven.  That would give me plenty of time to pick up a movie and some flowers before I arrived.

Night 6—Sunday:

I stopped in at the brick and mortar video place a mile from my house first.  Alice and I never really talked about movies, so I wasn’t entirely sure what she liked or didn’t like, but I figured comedy was always a good choice.   I grabbed two older releases; they were two for a dollar for a night and I figured it’d be nice to have an option in case she didn’t like one of the films.

After I got the movies, I walked to the grocery store near the video place for the flowers.  It wasn’t an elaborate bouquet, but I knew she would appreciate the gesture.  With flowers in hand, I had everything I needed, so I took off for Alice’s.

I parked on the street in front of her house.  I could see her kitchen and living room lights were on.  I figured she was in the kitchen working on the meal.  I grabbed the flowers and movies from the passenger seat, walked to her door, and rang the bell.

To be continued…

Freefall is the creative property of Andrew T.S. Bedgood and is protected by US Copyright law.  Any use of this creative work without permission is prohibited.