These Dreams

I’m leaning against the counter, my chin resting on the palm of my hand as I stare blankly at the woman in front of me. She is talking on the phone, trying to handle a kid that is under the age of two and trying to order a coffee… for ten people. All the time that she is trying to handle all the things at once she is holding the line up.

“Miss, if you are not ready to order please step aside and let the costumers that are ready order.” I said dully with a hint of annoyance in my voice.

“Excuse me, I am trying to talk to my boss, do you want me to get fired?” The lady said with venom dripping from every word.

I open my month to speak, but I decide that it would be a better idea to keep my month such. Even though I would have loved to said ‘yes miss, I would love for you to get fired. Then at least it would make my job a little easier.’

After what seems like an hour to women starts to order, I take to order like a robot that this job has made me into for 12 hours a day. As I hand the dreadful woman her ten or so coffees (which is incredible that she can juggle a two year old and ten or so coffee at once) she says

“You don’t deserve a tip; it was a tip enough that I graced you with my presences.”

My mouth dropped open and my eyes went wide, I close my mouth and with a sickeningly sweet smile that I can wear so well I say,

“Have a good day Miss, come again.”
I roll my eyes as I turn back to the next customer.

This is how my days have been ever since I moved out of my parents house as soon as I turn 18. It wasn’t like I hated my parents and really wanted to move out, it was more like I needed a sense of independence, the sense of independence that I couldn’t have while I still lived with my parents. Of course my mother is the type that never wants her baby to leave, and yes she still calls me her ‘baby’ even though I’m pushing 22 and have two siblings that still live at their house that are younger than me.

Every once in a while I feel like I’m being watched, I would look all around the coffee shop; nobody was every looking in my general direction. This would continue throughout my shift along with the bitchy and annoying customers.

Sooner than I realized my shift was over, but then again I did fall asleep for a good amount of time. I took off my apron, and said goodbye to the last of the few remaining coworkers still at the coffee shop, and started to walk back to my apartments
.
As I am walking the sidewalk gradually turns into a dirt path, a path that I’m pretty sure only I use. The dirt path is one of the quickest ways to get from the coffee shop back to my apartments without a car. It is calming walking outside in the evening when I sun is just about to set.

One thing that I like about the path is that it goes into the forest. I sometimes think to myself ‘maybe I should be scared to go into the forest considering my dreams’, however I always feel like I’m supposed to be here, like I need to go further into the forest.
I start to get the feeling that I’m being watched again, I quickly look around me think that it may be some teenagers lurking in the trees. In a haste I dismissed my paranoia and continued my walk back to my apartment.

I finally reach my apartment, unlock the door and fall face down on the couch in exhaustion. I wish I could have stayed right there, but I knew there were still things I had to do. I drag myself off my couch and walk over to my answering machine to see I have a message, from whom it’s not a surprise, my mom.

I absent mindedly clicked the button for the message to play and went around to the fridge to see if I had anything edible.

“Dominic, honey I really wish you would answer my calls, you know I’m just worried about my baby boy..”

I rolled my eyes as I heard her call me her baby boy.

“… anyway, that is not the reason I called. I called o tell you that me and you father need to talk to you… in person. I know that you don’t want to take off for your oh so busy schedule, but it is about something really important…”

“if it’s so important mother, why don’t you come to me. You know where I live” I said mainly to myself with slight sarcasm running on my words.

“… as soon as you get a chance honey please call me back, so we can set up a place where you, me and your father can meet, or even to find a time that you can come back home and talk…”

I listened to my mother talk on for a little longer about how she wished I never left and how my sisters are growing up without me. It’s the same thing every time she calls me, except for the fact that apparently they have something that they need to tell me.

The last part of the conversation that my mother was having with the air that i caught a part of was,

“… honey, remember that no matter what happens I am you mother and I love you.”

That part caught my attention, what does she mean “whatever happens” I shook my head to get rid of the thought, and glanced at the clock. It read 8:32; I sighed knowing that I would be awakening by the same dream again tonight.