A Bird In The Hand

 

Photo credit: Robsalot (that's me!)

“I can grant you one wish” the genie said with a wink.

“Perfect” I replied.

I had been experimenting with lucid dreaming, and here I was, finally aware I was in a dream. This was going to be fun.

“OK,” I said, “I want to go back in time to the day I graduated from college, so instead of starting on that shitty career path in that shitty town I can save up some money and actually travel the world like I always wanted.”

“Done” the genie said with a bow of the head, and in a flash of smoke he disappeared with a bang, and I woke up with a start.

“Damn,” I whispered into the darkness of my bedroom. With a sigh I rolled over to try and fall back asleep. Only something was wrong, it was the sheets, I didn’t recognize them.

I sprung out of the bed and felt around the wall for the lights witch, only it wasn’t where it was supposed to be. Finally, I found it, but when I flipped it on it became apparent that this was not my bedroom. The bed was too small, and the walls were the wrong color, and the pictures on the walls were not my pictures. I stood there in the corner of the room, trying to figure out where the fuck I was, when the door swung open and in walked Joel, my high school sweetheart. Joel who I hadn’t seen since I broke up with him ten years ago, just before college. Joel, who was now standing in front of me wearing nothing but boxer shorts.

“Are you okay?” he asked, “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“Joel, what’s going on? Where are we? What are you doing here?”

“What do you mean where are we? We’re in Paris… our honeymoon.”

“Our what?!” I replied as I edged around the bed and peered out the window. Sure enough, there was the Eifel Tower, all lit up in the distance. And then I realized what was going on, I was still dreaming!

“Ha ha, yeah, our honeymoon. You know how it is when you travel and sometimes wake up confused about where you are”, I giggled, “anyway, I am tired, lets go back to sleep.”

I climbed back in the bed, Joel flipped off the light, and I tried my hardest to fall back asleep.

I woke up with the sun streaming in my face.

“Good morning beautiful,” whispered a familiar voice in my ear, “you look just as beautiful as you did the day you came back into my life six years ago.”

I rolled over and locked eyes with Joel, and that was when I realized, this wasn’t a dream. As I lay there staring at the man I had broken up with ten years earlier, I tried not to cry thinking of the other man, the one I should have married and the life we should have had together, before I made that horrible wish.