Child of Dreams

Sometimes I dream a dream so real I am deceived The curtains part.  The stars reveal a story that I must believe. They turn a page, they see a stage and wonder who they gaze upon.  Am I dreaming or dying for love?                                                                                               Sometimes I Dream, song by Mario Frangoulis

 

Chapter 4

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It was a familiar phrase and a familiar place but there was something different this time. He wasn’t an observer. He couldn’t see himself, only the woman before him. He heard himself answer, felt the rumble of it in his throat. “Yes.” He felt himself moving and it seemed odd, the sensation one he wasn’t used to in this dream realm.

“Is it enjoyable?”

“Sometimes.” His consciousness rebelled and he struggled to take over the sequence, to change it. The repetitive conversation got him nowhere each time. He reached out, touching her hand. “Why do I dream of you?” It surprised him that he was successful in changing the conversation. She seemed surprised too as she looked up at him. Wind whistled around him, causing him to stand. As he did, the floor dropped away, as did the walls. The jagged cliffs of Hahnala formed under his feet and lightening flashed in the sky. Thunder rumbled its displeasure, and the rain began to fall. It felt so real, so wet and cold that he shivered. He thought of the children and turned, searching out the temple.

“Jonathan!” A hand caught his arm and he spun at the contact, amazed to see T’Pol standing there. She was barely visible through the rain, but the emotion in hers eyes pulled at him. “Do you dream?”

He looked around as the lightening crashed wildly. Waves crashed against the cliffs in a wild turmoil of nearly black and frothing white crests. Lightening flashes and the rain blinded him, but somehow he could hear her. He struggled to bring her into focus. “Why do you always ask me that? Why do I dream of you?”

She shook her head. “Do you dream?”

His brows drew together in confusion. His eyes locked on hers. “Yes! Yes I dream and sometimes... sometimes it is pleasant! But always I dream of you! Why?”

The storm faded as suddenly as it had appeared and she waved her hand to the sky. A magical display of color filled the night, illuminating the dark with a breathtaking display of light. It was vaguely familiar, and filled him with both wonder and grief.

The heat of her hand burned into his arm and he faced her once more. “Why T’Pol? Why you?”

She released him and took a step back. Her hand came up to stroke his cheek. “Sometimes we just need someone we can trust.” With that she stepped back, disappearing into the night.

His eyes snapped open and he sat up with a jolt. All was quiet. Someone to trust...why? He rose from his bed and slipped from the room. His first stop was the children’s room. They lay snuggled together like a pile of happy puppies, curled into and around one another. With paternal adoration, he stroked each cheek and tucked the covers in around them. His dream puzzled him and he knew sleep would not be returning that night.

The choice was one that he made frequently, but the trip to the graveyard offered him no peace. He thought briefly about returning to the children, but they held no answers for him tonight, despite the comfort they gave. He soon found himself on the cliffs, staring over the edge. The water lapped lazily at the rocks. The night was calm and clear, the sky full of stars. The moon showed its beautiful silver face for all to see, and lit a path anywhere he wished to go. It seemed though, he didn’t want to go anywhere. His thoughts were in turmoil, and determined to sort through them, he lay back on the grass and studied the sky.

There was something to the skies, the stars specifically that drew him. His mind transposed another sky over the one above him, one with a pattern of stars whose shapes he knew by heart. This wasn’t his home, or even his world. Despite what he might think, the Hahnai were not his people. Oh the skin tones were similar, as were the shape and build of the bodies, but he was taller than the Hahnai he had met, and paler. T’Pol wasn’t Hahnai either. Her features were slightly more exotic, her ears pointed. None of the children had pointed ears, they were rounded like his. But that could be a simple matter of genetics he rationalized. So how had he come to be here, and why did he dream of T’Pol? Was it a reminder of who he was? A plea for him to come back to himself?

He shook his head and tried to find familiar patterns in the stars of this world. The questions brought a strange comfort in that they were formed and considered. It was disconcerting to accept he was not Hahnai, and he wondered about the children. They looked Hahnai, but then they looked like a blend of T’Pol and himself. All but the eyes... Luna and Gabriel’s eyes were blue, as deep and dark as the sky above. Where had they come from? Some ancestor somewhere? That was feasible. It didn’t matter, did it? He closed his eyes as a story floated in his mind. It was a sad tale about the moon wanting a child. In her desire to have one, she granted a woman her fondest wish, the man of her desires. In return the woman was to turn over her firstborn child to the moon. The woman agreed and soon conceived a child. The child however, was blessed by the moon and looked so different from its parents, that its father decreed its mother had betrayed him. In a rage he killed his wife and abandoned the child to the night. The moon took the child as her own and her cycles were said to be a reflection of the child’s happiness.

He shook his head. He had named his children after celestial beings, but he did not believe them to be. Perhaps he had been dreaming too much. That thought was reinforced with a twinkling of light to his left and the forming of a body in the light. As he watched, T’Pol formed before him. She was as lovely as she always was in his dreams, and he smiled and sat up as he saw her. It only took him another moment to stand and then he was moving toward her. She didn’t speak at first, just stared at him as if she doubted he were real. He must have fallen asleep watching the stars. Ah well, if I am dreaming, it is going to be in my control. Perhaps I can keep her from speaking. He acted without any deep thought. If she didn’t speak, control of the dream stayed with him. He drew her quickly into his arms, smiling again at her look of shock. “I’ve missed you, T’Pol.” With that, he dipped his head and kissed her.

continue?