Mr. Sandman

Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream…

         The Chordettes strained over the static of the radio.  Ellie slowly sipped her lemonade.  Nevertheless, ice hit her front teeth, and she winced.  Cold never made her shudder in pain before.  Not until the procedures.  Oh well, the doctors told her it would happen.  That’s what she told herself when her hair fell out too and when she could no longer eat any type of food without her stomach churning, rushing past her mouth again in frothy food lakes, leaving her gasping with bloodshot eyes.  Oh well, they told her it would happen, right?  Elli raised the glass to her dull blue eyes and glanced through it.  Past the drowned, deceased lemons and lifeboats of ice cubes they couldn’t grab were the frosted figures of her sister and brother in law. 

Make him the cutest that I’ve ever seen…

         His name was Eli and she had always loved him.  Elli that is.  They had known each other since childhood and he put dandelions in her hair.  He told her he would marry her and she had always held him to that promise.  Eli and Elli, their names proved that fate was on their side.  Even now, twenty years later, he retained his boyish charm.  Those green eyes didn’t just sparkle, they danced.  His chestnut hair frolicked with the wind like it always did.  And those lips…

Give him two lips like roses and clover…

Those succulent honey drops that never touched hers, except in dreams.  Oh, what they did in Morpheus’s realm!  It was here that she was truly Elli again and no longer this personification of sickness, this skeleton.  Here, she had meat on her bones and blush on her cheeks.  Her freckles were brown and bright, not dark blotches.  That red hair that tormented her as a child, those scarlet waves Eli would tell her was his favorite color, would cascade down to her waist, gently kissing her cheek on the way.  Her breasts became perky again, no longer stolen of life by the disease consuming her.  And he would look at her with those forest eyes the way he looked at her sister. 

Then tell him that his lonesome nights are over…

    She wasn’t like Barbara, she wasn’t gentle.  Barbie told her of their love life, how it was filled with deep looks, soft touches, and gentle sighs.  Barbie would blush and giggle throughout the entire discussion, never noticing the angry tears in Elli’s eyes, the jealousy overwhelming her.  Elli couldn’t blame her; her sister was a stupid girl, after all.  Barbie was just like the doll in every way, although she was completely natural.  Elli was always the brains of the family while Barbie was the looks.  The vapid girl failed almost all of her high school classes, passing only the classes with male teachers.  It was common knowledge that she was fucking them.  That’s what Elli wanted from Eli.  She knew she could never have his love, and she knew she was dying, but if she could get just one rough, dirty fuck with him before she left this world, she would be happy.  Her whore of a sister would understand.  But Eli couldn’t…too damn infatuated with a living blow up doll.

Sandman, I’m so alone…

The tears slowly slid down Elli’s cheeks ad Eli and Barbie kissed and laughed in the sunlight.  Their tan skin mocked Elli, her body too sensitive to venture outside the shade of the umbrella.  She quickly wiped away her tears and took a deep breath.  It’s their engagement party after all and one needs to be strong for Eli at least.  All around her were former high school classmates, now married or engaged.  Their young children romped in the field, grass stains on their pants.  No one glanced at Elli after exchanging forced pleasantries with her.  They didn’t know what to say or how to react.  These mediocre people are living the American Dream while the Valedictorian is a terminal cancer patient doomed to die a virgin.  Fate’s a bitch.  Elli accepted this but the awful truth of it all still made her heart twinge and probably always would.  It was then that the tips of her fingers began to tingle.  At first she dismissed it as another side effect, but it kept getting stronger.

Don’t have nobody to call my own…

Eli’s kiss with his fiancée was interrupted by a strange tapping sound.  He broke the kiss, his eyes darting curiously.  Barbie whined.  “It’s just a mower or something!  Come on baby, kiss me again!”  He ignored her, his eyes falling on Elli.  Her hands could not stop trembling violently and her eyes were locked on him in terror.  Barbie followed Eli’s gaze and gasped in horror, running to her big sister.  Barbie stroked Elli’s hair and cooed to her softly while Eli asked Elli various questions, trying to diagnose the problem.  Elli couldn’t speak; she could only stare at him.  It was then that the skin covering her fingertips began to undulate, first slowly, and then sickeningly fast.  Everyone at the party was now watching Elli and their hosts.  Elli’s fingertips made a horrible snapping sound, and the skin popped open, blood spraying everywhere, on Elli, on Eli, on other guests, and on food.  Everyone was screaming and it pandemonium.  It was then, as Elli held her hands closer to herself to study them, that a silky white spray shot forth from her fingertips, enveloping her and her chair.  It happened too fast for anyone to identify or remove it.  Eli and Elli locked eyes before she closed them and her face was covered.  She was now calm, but her eyes seemed sad.  “If only you knew,” those blue pools seemed to say, and then she closed them.

Please turn on your magic beam…

Barbie ran to the orb now encasing her sister.  She screamed at it, clawed at it, but it had hardened.  She collapsed, sobbing.  The partygoers surrounded her and the orb, silent.  Eli tried to comfort Barbie, but was stifling cries himself.  Occasionally, the orb would pulse and strange churning, groaning noises, like a digesting stomach could be heard.  This was too much for Barbie, and she vomited.  Eli called the police.  Half an hour had passed by the time he had collected himself enough to do this.  After he hung up the phone, his hands trembling, the orb began pulsing steadily.  Everyone stared with wide eyes, gasping.  The children began to cry.  The orb began to crack.  One woman fainted.  Barbie ran to the crack.  A bright light shot out, blinding her and knocking her to the ground.  The orb began to split open.  Moist tendrils fell from the crack.  Thousands of red butterflies suddenly shot forth from the orb.  Everyone screamed and stared as they smacked into people, found their way, and filled the sky.  The orb then fell apart, disintegrating.  All that was left was a dusty lawn chair with a singly dandelion resting on the seat.  It was then that Eli could no longer hold back his sobs.

Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream.