Another love story (Part 1)
-- PART ONE --
"Ray...Ray...Get up, honey, it's almost 6:30."
(A grunt followed by muffled words indicates lack of alertness.)
"Ray!", she said standing at the foot of the bed hitting him on the leg.
"Um-hmm. Huh? What!?"
"Get up, Ray. It's 6:30."
"Okay", he said still not moving.
When he opened his eyes, his mind slumped into the typical early morning scenario. As usual, his feet hit the cold floor where his slippers should have been. They were not there because his wife was wearing them as she prepared to go to work. And though he bought her a pair of slippers with a soft, comfortable lining, she said that she liked his better because they felt warmer and cozier. As usual, she is in the nearest bathroom making it necessary for Ray to walk down the hall on the cold, hardwood floor to get to the other bathroom to begin preparing for work. As usual, either the toothpaste, shaving cream or soap or a combination of the three (or maybe all three) are in the other bathroom with his wife. The trip down the cold hallway was just to find out which items to come back and get from his wife.
"Sheila, I need my shaving creme out of there."
"Okay, honey...as soon as I'm through shaving my legs."
"And the only soap we got down the hall is a few slivers. And would you hurry up. You've been in and out of there since 6 o’clock...you should have done all of this by now."
After a few minutes, Sheila came to the door and gave him the things he needed in preparation for going to work. Ray tried to figure out how many mornings that scene had been repeated. He wondered how many mornings he had to spend as much time looking for things that his wife misplaced somewhere as he did actually getting dressed for work. He wondered how many mornings they were both late for work because she insisted that they have something for breakfast when they really didn't have time to cook or eat. And after roaming through the house up until the last possible minute to get the things she needed for work, what would be the item that she would need him to bring to her job that she had forgotten to get before leaving home?
"Good morning, Mr. Bradley. Mr. Boston said for you to call him when you got in and your wife called and said that she needs you to bring the papers she left in your car when you go to lunch."
"Okay, thank you, Ms. Jones."
‘I knew it would be something that she left somewhere.’ Ray thought to himself. ‘How she keeps up with anything at all is beyond me.’
(Telephone rings in Ray's office.)
"Yes, Ms. Jones."
"Mr. Bradley, your wife is holding on this line. When I hang up she'll be there."
"Thank you, Ms. Jones."
(The secretary hangs up and Sheila's voice can be heard talking to someone in the background.)
"Yes, what now, Sheila."
"Ray, I need those papers before lunch time. Can you get them to me now?"
"You know I can't. Whenever I'm late for work, it delays everybody who needs my work in order to finish what they have to do...I don't even have time for this call. My boss is waiting for me to call him and the longer I take to do that the later I appear to be."
"Okay, I'll send somebody over in my car. Then you can go to your car and get the papers for them. Bye, bye."
"But I won't have time to...Hello?...Sheila?"
Documents, keys, glasses, shoes, clothes, pictures--one thing or another can get left behind before a busy workday. On other workdays, Ray would get irritated when his wife would call during a time when he was busy to talk about things that could have waited until after work. It has also bothered him to receive calls from creditors about payments that she forgot to send in or lost somewhere. He was annoyed by the weekend plans of things to do that she would schedule for him without bothering to find out what he was going to do...plans such as cleaning out the attic--a week-long job that he had managed to avoid for about five years. It would get on his nerves when old friends and/or relatives would come to town and his wife would bring them over to see where he worked; in spite of the restrictions against visitors around the lab. Security guards had to learn to just overlook what Mrs. Bradley did. Ray felt frustrated when he had to deal with things like these.
Of course, frustrations themselves may be a natural part of marriage, but the real problem was the dull, monotonous, tedious existence that their marriage had settled in to. He felt that each annoyance was stealing a little more from their relationship. He sensed that each bothersome incident was making their marriage that much more tedious. He believed that their lives together were growing more dull and lifeless as time went by. And the boredom and futility that he was feeling affected everything else in his life. But something was about to happen that would change all of that.
The next morning, Ray was suddenly awakened as a dream he was having ended leaving him wondering if the events he saw had really happened or not. Once his eyes were open, he noticed that his heart rate was accelerated, sweat was pouring from his body and he was breathing heavily. When he was fully awake, he caught his breath and sat on the side of the bed making mental reflections of what he had just dreamed. From what he could remember, a young lady wearing a short, orange dress with long hair had caused all the feelings he was having. Though he did not know her in real life, she was very familiar to him in the dream; as though they had met before. In the dream, it seemed that he knew and loved her a long time ago but she was never aware of how he felt. Throughout the dream, he found himself travelling all over the world to find and tell her. Unfortunately, by the time he would see her, she would be leaving to go somewhere else. Near the end of the dream, he was in a taxi on his way to the airport. Then, on the sidewalk on the right side of the street, he saw her walking; going in the opposite direction. As he got closer to her, the car began to speed up. So he yelled and waved his arms frantically to get her attention. Then, for the first time in the dream, she noticed him, smiled and waved back at him just as he passed by. When he tried to get the driver to stop the car, it began to go much faster and even lifted from the ground as it changed from a taxicab into an airplane. Since he didn't know when or where he would see her again, he decided to jump from the plane. Just as he did, he woke up from the dream. The physical sensations that a person would have if they jumped out of an airplane all seemed to be present as Ray sat on the side of his bed. It felt as though it had really happened.
While at work that day, he thought about the woman in the orange dress throughout the day. Every time there was a break in what he was doing, she was on his mind. Was it someone he met before but couldn't remember? If not, why was she so well known to him in the dream? Even though he did not have answers for all of the questions he had, there was such a quiet contentment whenever he thought about her. He noticed that the things that usually tried his patience, made him angry or caused him to feel frustrated didn't have the same effect upon him. Even when his wife called to get him to bring her the shoes she left in his car because they matched her dress, he did it without complaint or disapproval. For a couple of days after the dream, the feelings lingered. Then things returned to normal with small things getting on his nerves and the dreary, boring lifestyle he was used to back in its place.
Then, about a week later, he had another dream involving the woman in the orange dress. The first part of the dream was beyond his recollection but he did remember the part where he went into a restaurant with some of his friends. On the way to their table, he saw her sitting at another table with her friends. He wanted to talk to her, but for some reason, he didn't want his friends to see him with her. As the dream progressed, he tried over and over to get her attention; he even walked by her table a couple of times. He was about to give up hope that he would get a chance to talk to her when he noticed that a couple of her friends got up and left the restaurant. In a few minutes, another one left, then another. Since all of her friends were leaving, he wondered if she might leave too. If she did, he knew that he wouldn't be able to talk to her because he didn't know where she lived. He decided to put aside what his friends might think and follow her and her remaining friends when they got ready to go. When the only remaining person with her decided to leave, she remained at the table alone sipping the liquid in her glass. He wondered why she had decided to stay...if maybe she was waiting for someone else. As he watched her, he noticed that when she sat back in her chair, her facial expression changed and it seemed to change the color of the whole room to that of her dress. And though the color was bright and cheery, her expression was pensive yet pleasant. Then he decided to get up and go over to her table. While walking across the room with his eyes focused on her, he didn't notice the waiter backing out of one of the booths. When Ray ran into him, he knocked the tray the waiter was carrying out of his hand. The loud sound of glasses shattering was enough to awaken Ray from his sleep and cause him to rise up from his pillow.
"Oh, honey. I'm sorry if I woke you when I broke this glass in the bathroom.", Sheila said as she came out of the bathroom. "When you get up, would you clean up all of this glass for me? Here, let me give you your slippers and I'll put on my slippers and use the bathroom down the hall."
'Well...I guess it's about time to get up anyway.’ Ray thought to himself. 'Maybe I'll be at work on time today.'
He did get to work on time and so did Sheila. And just as it happened the first time, his thoughts were about his dream throughout the day. The thing about the dream that stayed on his mind that day was the expression on her face. The contented yet contemplative expression of her countenance was almost like a faint melody being heard from far away. Though he still did not know what the dreams meant or what the woman represented, he wondered about the expression on her face and worried that something might be wrong with her. He was beginning to feel as though she was a real person.
He dreamed about her again three days later. In that dream, he was walking across a school campus with his friends when he noticed that she was walking alone on her way to another building. This time, it didn't take as long for him to decide to leave his friends and join her. He ran across the campus toward the building she was about to enter. And though he went in right after her, he could not find her anywhere in the building. Over the weeks that followed, he dreamed of her more frequently. And though he didn't remember every dream he had, he could remember the parts where she was involved. Usually, she would show up in a dream, not always as the center of his attention, but as just another person in his dream. In each case, she would be wearing the same orange dress, walking somewhere or sitting down, with her long hair blowing in the wind.
Then he had a dream that shed some light on the reason that she seemed so familiar to him. This dream disturbed him more than any of the other dreams he had had. In fact, when he woke up that morning, he was strongly tempted to call in sick from his job and go to the playground of the elementary school he attended when he was young to find the woman from his dream. He knew that if he did, it would be taking the dreams too far. But he still wanted to do it; he wanted to know what significance, if any, the dreams held for his present life, especially the dream he had that morning. So he decided to talk to someone about it; someone with...psychiatric expertise.
-- END OF PART ONE --
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