Dream Me Away.

He found himself in an open meadow-looking area. Golden yellow stretched out around him as far as he could see. The sky, blue with the slightest puffy, white clouds, seemed never ending. Everything was so beautiful as he looked around. He felt the slight, yet familiar, weight on his shoulders and slung around a guitar, acoustic and an impossible gold.

His fingers ran absentmindedly across the strings, and then again harder, pulling at them and sending an echoing chord of sound out into the beautiful scene surrounding him.

He glanced ahead of him before going to sit down, finding himself standing straight again as he noticed a dark figure on the golden horizon. He could only stand and stare as it slowly, so slowly, came forward.

Black hair whipped around her in the wind and the pale blue dress she was wearing fluttering freely around her legs. She had her thin arms spread out as if she could fly as she walked slowly and steadily forward, head down and watching her own feet.

His own shirt rippled around him as he took a hesitant step toward the mystery girl. His hands reached out and the guitar fell heavily. He ignored the strain it left on the side of his neck.

“Hello.” Her voice was bright, radiant, soft, smooth… he could go on all day describing her voice alone. He couldn’t help but to stare as she stopped feet away from him and lifted her eyes to him. Bright blue filled his vision.

The sky was in her eyes. Beautiful and clear.

“Hi,” he whispered hoarsely. As if he had never used his voice. He was hesitant, always so hesitant.

She smiled, soft and pale, up at him and reached out to touch his guitar.

He had so many dreams about her. He loved every one of those dreams.

She was his dream girl.

And she was nameless.

He took one last drag off of his cigarette before throwing it to the ground and smashing it into the concrete with his shoe. Today was not a good day.

“Kale, come on!” One of the boys from inside the garage yelled out to him. He sighed shaking his head as he turned to go back in. He couldn’t explain to them why he was in such a horrid mood. They wouldn’t get it.

He didn’t get it.

He grabbed the neck of his guitar, flipping the strap over his shoulder. He hit the top of the amp with his fist to turn it on and strummed a chord, checking to make sure setting it down hadn’t set it out of tune.

He shook his head.

“Snap out of it, Kale,” the boy behind the drum set muttered, snapping his fingers loudly in Kale’s direction. Kale simply rolled his eyes.

“Whatever,” the boy with the bass muttered.

The drummer counted off quietly to himself before starting to hit a fast beat, the boy with the bass coming in immediately, Kale too busy dreaming on his feet to come in on time.

When he did start the other two stopped. “What’s your deal, Kale?” the bass asked rhetorically, annoyed.

“Sorry, man,” Kale mumbled.

“Just come in right this time, okay?” Bass-boy muttered.

Kale nodded and came in the minute the drummer’s sticks hit the drums. He played along to the well known melody before all three of them stopped. He almost forgot that was his cue to start singing.

“A dreaming girl embedded
In a golden plated world.
Gossamer smiles,
Just hang on for a while.
I’m coming for you...
I’ll find you…
I swear.”

He was tapping his feet to the fast beat, leaning into the microphone as his rough voice belted out the words. He usually didn’t write the lyrics, the others did, but he had to write this one.

They didn’t have to find it, though.

“Dream me away.” His voice cracked as he went into the slower chorus, and the tightness in his throat made him stop moving all together. Leaving his head bowed, ashamed.

How could something so small get to him so easily?

“Okay, that’s it. Practice over for the day,” the drummer muttered lowly, throwing his sticks down before storming out of the garage. The bass player approached the melancholy Kale and placed a hand on his shoulder, shaking his head for a second before pushing himself away, making Kale sway.

He stood alone in his own garage, surrounded by instruments.

And memories.

He hadn’t meant to make her go away.

He was in the golden field again.

Lately, this has been his favorite place. Lately, she’s been here.

Today, though, she was no where in sight.

His dream girl was gone.

He put the cigarette between his lips again for one last drag before throwing it to the ground. For a second, he wished that it would catch the gold on fire. For a second, he wished the whole place would just go up in flames. For a second, he wished this place would just disappear. For a second, he wished he would wake up.

His throat got tight and he let himself fall to the ground. No pain met his back as it should have. Just a small reminder that this was merely a dream.

A dream that was slowly turning into a nightmare.

He sat up and pulled the satchel from his shoulder and spread it’s contents out in front of him. For a second, he could feel her bare feet in his lap as she would lie backwards and point out all the little mistakes the clouds had made when composing their pictures. For a second, he could almost believe she was there.

He closed his eyes tightly.

The notebook he grabbed was old and worn. Many words filled it’s pages and all of them his. Most of them happy.

He wanted to rip the happiness out of them and burn them. He wanted to watch the torn pages go up in flames.

Because his happiness did.

He started scribbling his feelings across the page.

“Now the loneliness is killing me,
Yeah, you know, oh, you know it is.”

He stopped and held back from tearing the page out.

He shoved the notebook back into the bag, pushing everything else back inside also. He stood again and looked to the sky, suddenly wanting to scream.

Because suddenly there was a burning in his chest and he felt that if he didn’t make it go away that it would kill him. And he’d die right here in this field of gold he used to love so much. Suddenly, he just didn’t care.

She was gone.

He wanted to disappear, too.

Then maybe, just maybe, they could meet up in the nothingness, and not be so alone.