Earth to Me

I almost thought things were normal again, to be honest.

For the next few nights, it was either darkness as I slept, or what I considered a “normal” dream. (One of them involved walking around naked all day before I realized there was an unusual breeze between my knees, but it could’ve been much worse.) There were no surges, and there wasn’t another spark incident.

Murray still stayed up to keep his eyes peeled for me, despite the lack of danger I seemed to be in. I filled him in every morning, and his response was still always, “Well, better safe than sorry.”

What a pal. I mean it, too. I didn’t think people were capable of being that nice anymore, at least to me.

The brief normalcy came to an end eventually, though, and it knocked me upside the head when I woke up in my spacey dream world.

I was getting used to it. The way everything was hazy and heavy despite there being no gravity, how it took me a few seconds to adjust to the stars and quietness. Then, with a silent swooshing sound, the only other person who seemed to be up there had appeared next to me. Third time’s the charm – I met her eyes, and every worry melted away.

She smiled, as per usual, but her eyes were watering.

“Mom?” I whispered, feeling my blood rush. “What’s wrong?”

“We are in danger,” was all she said.

It was enough to make my stomach churn and nearly force everything come out of both ends, and I even felt myself drifting away from her. Something was horribly off – my head was already spinning.

Before I got too far away, though, she grabbed my hands and pulled me back into orbit. “No no no, it’s not – it is not that bad. I do not want you to worry about it.”

“How can you tell me something like that and not expect me to worry?” I choked out, holding her hands tightly.

Her eyes warm again, she twisted her mouth up before settling on a smile. “I do not want to tell you everything tonight, because it is too much for one night, and you have midterms coming up.”

“I don’t care about midterms,” I whimpered, my voice shaking. “What’s going on, Mom?”

“Shhh,” she hushed.

“Just tell me.”

“The universe may be in danger, but it will not be for a while, and when it comes, you will not be alone. You will have others surrounding you who are in the same position,” she said, brushing the hair off of my forehead.

I couldn’t speak, but I hoped that the pleading look I gave her spoke volumes.

“As we are only human,” she continued, her Mexican accent almost as thick as my dad’s, “the universe could not speak to you directly. I was pulled from Heaven in order to speak to you, mijo. You are not dreaming – not in the way you normally would. You are breathing oxygen as if you were as you are now in bed, but your mind is out here.”

Her voice was soothing, and my state of alarm was slowly wearing away. “What does that mean?” I begged.

“I will tell you another night, Oshie,” she murmured, placing her hands on either side of my face and planting a little kiss on my forehead. “For now, you need to rest. You have school to worry about.”

I was going to object. I had every reason to. I wanted to know everything behind her words, everything she had implied, the things I thought were going on – I deserved to know, after all. Between the nightmares and the space dreams, talking to my dead mom, I thought it was a horrible way to end what could’ve been a beautiful night.

But I couldn’t fight her. She had given me life and I hadn’t seen her so much since I was barely potty-trained. I hadn’t heard her voice except on video tapes, and every so often I would remember the way she moved or the things she would say to me. For someone who was an ingrained memory, she was so real, and she was right in front of me. There was no way I could risk losing that.

Even though I was in danger, I felt safe. I wasn’t dreaming. She was with me right then and there, and even if I was breathing in space, nothing felt out of the ordinary.

She took me up in her arms in the same way she cradled me a few nights ago, and it didn’t take long for me to get absolutely knocked out in the same deep slumber I cherished. Everything felt the same. Similar colors, similar sounds. I didn’t feel a thing.

It went on for a while, actually. Most of the time, it didn’t even feel like my dreams lasted as long as they did; a nine-hour sleep would feel like half an hour, but that night, it dragged on for what must’ve been a few hours.

Suddenly, my limbs ached, almost as if something were pulling them down away from my body. I couldn’t move – not that I would need to, drifting in a colorful abyss – but just that feeling alone was enough to let me know that yet another thing had gone wrong.

Pulses of silence. The music stopped.

Then, I heard my name.

“Oshie!”

It was faint; I could barely hear it.

“Oshie, wake up!”

Louder. Something was sucking me back to Earth, a pressure on my stomach, shoulders, and face.

In a brilliant rush of galaxies slamming through my head, I woke up with a gasp.

And honestly, seeing Murray hovering over me was commonplace whenever I had a nightmare or odd dream, but there were a few peculiar things about the position we were in. For starters, I was on my back and he was basically sitting on my stomach. Secondly, he had a death grip on my shoulders that I knew would leave bruises.

Last but not least, he was crying.

Well, no, I won’t say that, because it’s an understatement. He was sobbing. He was repeating my name even when my eyes shot open, even when I blinked to try and wake up from the deep sleep I was in. When I mindlessly twitched my arms and legs to make sure I could still move, he started mumbling a trail of swear words, gasping and coughing like he was speaking in tongues.

Then he stopped. His face ablaze with panic, he stared at me for the longest time, and then he just carefully ran his hand over my left cheek.

“You’re alive,” he breathed, eyes wide open, “you’re alive. Fuck, thank fucking God, you’re alive.”

Of course, my first response was to slur, “What happened?”

Still not letting up on the fact that he was sitting on my stomach (seriously, the guy was straddling me), he took a deep breath. In a shaky voice, he told me, “The p-power surge. It happened again. And th-then…the lightning. The sparks. They both happened.”

“What?” I sputtered.

“You were fucking dead, Oshie,” he sobbed, still hunched over. “You had sparks flying from your bed but I didn’t tell anyone. I just – I did everything, I screamed at you, I slapped you, I’m so goddamn sorry but I had to. You wouldn’t wake up. You didn’t even have a pulse. I was so fucking scared.”

I was silenced. My heart was beating normally; had it really stopped in the middle of it all? It wasn’t even four in the morning yet.

“You didn’t even zap me when I jumped up on here. I just got right up and tried to wake you up. Didn’t even feel a thing,” he said quietly, wiping his own eyes.

Well, needless to say, that was weird to me. Ever since I had lightning in my blood, I had to make the effort to not shock people, and I could do it in my sleep apparently. That kind of stuff just wasn’t pleasant to hear at 3:30 AM, I can tell you that much.

I reached up to rub my face and see if anything would make sense if I woke up a little more.

It didn’t. I was still confused off my rocker.

“I had another dream about my mom,” I sighed, pushing my hair back. “Maybe that’s why it happened.”

Murray sat up – still sitting on me, mind you – and just bit his lip. “That was terrifying, no lie. Definitely the most scared I’ve ever been.” He snuffled up some snot.

“Yeah, but I’m awake,” I smirked. “You don’t gotta worry.”

“I was already planning your funeral,” he sighed, bags under his eyes. “Who to invite, what pictures to show…I’d play ‘If You Can’t Hang’ on repeat…”

“If you played that song at my funeral, I would come back to Earth just to haunt you.”

He laughed quietly, heaving another sigh. “That would suck if you died, dude. Not even kidding. I really thought I lost you there.”

“Well, according to my mom,” I mumbled, “we’re all in danger. So don’t get your hopes up.”

Any trace of amusement on his mug was wiped off. “What? Oshie, are you serious?”

“That’s what she told me, anyway.” He was sitting right on my bladder and I was torn between throwing him off and being too awkward to mention it. I think I thought more about that than what my mom had said to me. “I dunno. I’ll tell the others but I won’t think too much about it.”

Murray pressed his lips together and stared me down again, but everything else about him was plush as usual. His hands on his hips, he said, “That’s probably a good idea. Just relax. I don’t want you dying on me again.”

His voice broke on the last few words and his face crinkled up again, and it was the worst feeling on the planet to watch him cry again right then. I sat up and suddenly didn’t care if I had to pee because of him; I treated him the way other people treated me whenever I wailed like a baby. At least other folks had valid reasons, whereas I could never nail down the specifics.

I wasn’t used to being the one initiating physical contact, so it was awkward to hug him first. He just nestled right into me, his arms around my shoulders, and pretty soon he was crying onto my neck. I was also about 60% certain that normal roommates probably would never have to experience such a weird night.

Well, I didn’t really care, honestly. He’d been there for me countless times when I needed someone immediate to talk to, and he kept me from zapping the entire dorm building on several occasions. The least I could do was give him a shoulder to cry on.

And I was at a loss at first, wondering what he was crying so hard about. I remembered him freaking about how I had died for a minute there, and for a while I had to think about why it would affect him like that. Maybe I wasn’t totally awake yet, or maybe it just didn’t hit me upside the head, but I guess it would’ve screwed him up to see it. Why? I wasn’t sure. I mean, yeah, he was definitely one of my closest friends, but to completely break down because of it?

He had one hand on the back of my head and the other arm all the way around my shoulder; I still held him tight as he calmed down. His breathing evened out eventually, and he just leaned his head against mine as he said, “I’m really glad you’re okay.”

I couldn’t think of how to respond to that, so I just patted his back.

Murray sat back and loosened his death grip on me, a small hurt smile underneath his weary eyes, and then he actually booped my nose with his finger. I’m not even kidding. After all we just went through, he just stuck his pointer on my nose and said in a tiny voice, “Boop.”

I blinked up at him.

“Also, I just now realized that I’m basically sitting on your dick,” he said flatly.

Alright, I had danced around that phrasing all throughout this part, and he just blatantly stated it, so I felt like I had to finally acknowledge it. In fact, I don’t even think it dawned on me while it was happening – so when he said it, that’s when I just froze and did what I did best: blush like a stupid anime character.

He just laughed like old times and finally rolled off my bed, straightening his pajamas and punching my arm. Most of the time, I just kind of forgot he was gay. Moments like those brought me back to reality in the worst ways.

“Sorry, Osh,” he snorted, leaning against his lofted bed.

“N-no, don’t worry,” I stammered, trying to wipe the redness from my dumb face. “I mean, you were right on my bladder, but – but you weren’t, like, on…you know.”

“I was sitting on your penis. You can say it. And I apologize for that,” he chuckled, bowing his head a bit. “Just, uh…yeah. I’ll be up here if you need me again tonight, alright?”

I swallowed all of the weird things I could’ve said to him and just went with, “Alright.”

“Good night again, Oshie,” he smiled from his perch.

“G’night, Murray,” I replied. “And…thanks. For, like, waking me up. And I mean that in general, too. Not just for tonight.”

He looked at me like I was from outer space. “C’mon, dude, it’s no problem.”

I left it at that, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it all that night. Too many things had gone on in just the span of a few hours, and half of it didn’t even take place on Earth. I guess I probably should’ve been used to that.