Happily Ever After

Gary kept calling out the name of his personal goddess as he strolled down the light blue meadow, desperately wanting to hear an answer. For a whole week she had been appearing in his dreams, and deep down Gary knew she’d come again. They were so good together, why wouldn’t she come?
         
The meadow shifted to a dark green alley, where crickets greeted Gary with a song. As the insects chirped the theme of Knight Rider, Gary continued his walk deeper in the alley, and opened the door in the end. The door led him into a hallway which he instantly recognised. His old school. He called out for her again. Suddenly a man appeared, and twitched his way to Gary.

”Got any change for me?” the man asked with a deep voice. He smelt of strawberries.

”No. Have you seen- Wait. Have you seen a woman, calls herself-” Gary tried to say her name to him, but failed to produce any sound whatsoever.

”If you ain’t got change for me I can’t fix your umbrella. Would be bad if it happened to rain,” the man uttered and twitched away through the door.

Gary continued down the hallway, and took a left past the mountain of school bags. Principal’s office. She’s here, Gary was sure of it. The room pulled him in and he saw her. A woman with long, straight black hair, a face prettier than anything he’d ever seen, and the aura of happiness that made him feel on top of the world.

”Finally I found you. I knew I would,” Gary sighed with relief. The woman slowly approached him, and her scent filled Gary’s mind. She put her hand on his cheek, and kissed him on the forehead. Suddenly he felt a burning sensation on his cheek and cried out.

Gary woke up. He still felt the burn, and smelt her odor. He shook his head and glanced at the clock. One minute till the alarm would go off. He killed it before it sprung to life and headed for the bathroom. He gasped when he looked in the mirror. His cheek was bright red, and something wet and blue was on his forehead. He swiped the blue mass on his fingers and sniffed it. Blueberries. He shook his head and hit the shower.

On the ride to work the burn had disappeared, but Gary hadn’t noticed it. He was annoyed that he had to go to work on a Sunday. He was glad that at least Bob was there to keep him company. After what felt like an endless journey to waste another eight hours of his life, Gary finally slumped on to his chair in his little cubicle. Bob’s head immediately popped up from the next.

”Hey there! Man, you look like crap. Trouble sleeping?” Bob asked with the familiar smile on his face.

”No, not really, just pissed off I had to come here. But I could use a nap, just to kill time,” Gary said and stretched out his arms.

”Well, you do what you gotta do, I guess,” Bob said and disappeared. Gary smiled at Bob’s response. No matter what people said to him, he’d always answer the same thing before going back to minding his own business.

After one tedious hour, Gary was done. He’d go take the damn nap because that’s what he’s gotta do. He muttered something to Bob as he left for the break room. A comfortable couch greeted him softly as he fell on it. A couple of minutes later Gary was deep asleep.

A polar bear was eager to sell lollipops to Gary. He bought a green one and wondered where she was this time.

”You know, the raincoats are handy in the rain,” the lollipop shrieked. Gary freaked and let the lollipop go. He watched as it pogo’ed its way back to the polar bear.

Gary grabbed a taxi, but it didn’t have any space for him inside so he agreed to sit on the hood if the driver would take him to her. After starting up the car the driver stopped.

”We’re here! That’ll be 10 bucks,” the driver said. Gary noticed the driver didn’t have any pants on.

”But we didn’t even move, are you sure this is the place?” Gary said and paid the man.

”Yes, sure is positive,” the driver said and the taxi jumped away.

Gary looked around him. He was standing in the middle of a blue meadow. He started walking and waited for the meadow to change. But it didn’t. Instead he came across a large beetle. The beetle hissed at him, and gave him a whistle. The whistle made a sound on its own, and the meadow turned into a room filled with empty tabasco-bottles.

”Where are you?” Gary sighed and sat down. ”If I wish hard enough she’ll be here,” Gary tried to convince himself and closed his eyes. And there she was. Gary opened up his eyes in delight. But she was gone. It didn’t take long to figure out he could only see her with his eyes closed.

”Were you here all the time? I looked everywhere for you. And all I needed to do.. was to close my eyes,” Gary whispered. The happiness felt warm. He had never felt this good before, not once. ”I wish I didn’t have to wake up, all I need is.. to feel you,” Gary sighed and held on to her. The woman’s smile was intoxicating. Gary was ecstatic and he felt like the two of them were spinning wildly in space, as one without any signs of.. anything else.

”Do you want to stay?” she asked. Her voice lingered in Gary’s mind, and even though not a second went by, he thought he’d heard her luring voice singing in his ear for all his life.

”Yes, please,” Gary pleaded to her.

”Then stay,” she said, and embraced Gary in a long, blueberrish kiss.

--

Gary was found by Bob later that day. He called for help after failing to wake Gary up.

The doctors diagnosed him being in a state of catatonic stupor, and he never snapped out of it.