Flight of Fancy

He was having one of his vivid dreams, where he was flying. It was one of his favourite dreams. The feeling was so amazing – the rush and excitement, the exhilaration and profound sense of happiness.

It usually brought him to life and woke him up feeling refreshed, rested and ready for the following day, even if he did believe life in general was a stinking pile of crap. That dream somehow made life seem better. It filled him with hope, at least for a few hours, or until some part of reality hit him flat in his face and gave him a shock notice that this was no longer a dream, only a rude reminder of how cruel life could actually be.

Yes, he loved flying. But his was different. It wasn’t like the usual fight with gravity, this was even more fulfilling. In his usual dreams, there had always been a sense of fighting for control, trying to manoeuvre and get his body to do his bidding. In this particular instance, he was in complete control. He still felt the wild rush, but he also felt like he was holding the reins. It was as if he was protected from any harm, yet totally free to do anything and go anywhere.

There was something else as well. He no longer appeared to be flying in the Earth’s atmosphere, but instead floated in the vast expanse of space, with only the stars as his company. There appeared to be something around him, keeping him safe, but he couldn’t tell what, as there seemed to be nothing underneath his feet, yet he could feel solid ground beneath.

There was also a sense of gravity. He thought he was flying through space, yet somehow the rules of gravity still applied, as his feet were planted on something solid – solid but invisible.

How am I flying? And how do I have so much control?

He woke up in bed with a jerk, remembering at once the vivid flight. His movements woke up his wife, who shifted in bed nervously and moaned: “Are you alright?”

“Yes,. I’m fine,” he replied. “I just had a crazy dream. Don’t worry about it, go back to sleep. I’ll tell you all about it in the morning.”

The reply was nothing but silence, which didn’t surprise him. It simply meant that she had gone back to sleep even before he could finish his thought.

A warm emotion of love and tenderness for her lulled him back to sleep and he was also dead to the world until morning.