Thursday, June 23, 2011

Eternal Dreams

**Per special request, here is another short story.








Eternal Dreams






He came to me in a dream. He wasn't a handsome fellow, but there was something about his personality that drew me to him. Surely, I must be crazy to have fallen in love with this, a figment of my imagination. I was obsessed -- fixated on the idea of him. His name was Daniel.

"But he's only a dream, Claudia," I told myself, trying to reason.

I had dreamt of this boy, now a man, for the major part of my thirty years of life. I never knew another male in the way I knew him. He was my life and my everything. I rejected every suitor that ever showed the least bit of interest in me, but things would be changing and soon.

I was, against my will, betrothed to a gentleman of the age of fourty some odd years, previously widowed. His name was Pascual Leumas. He owned a debauchery store in the upper west side of Manhattan. He was a man of good wit, pleasant, and handsome. Pascual had but one child, already a young woman; I would become her mother.

But what was I to do with the man in my dreams? I was in love with him. I had the hope that one day Daniel would come into my life, that we would marry, and have a family -- be a normal couple.

Tonight, as I dressed for a chaperoned dinner with Father and my new fiancée, I could think of nothing more, but how heart broken Daniel would feel if he knew I was to be wed in three day's time.

As I viewed myself in the full-length mirror, I could swear that I saw Daniel standing behind me, observing me as I pinned up my hair. I instinctively drew my neck back to view him, but there was no one there. Oh, how I wished that he would come for me at haste before the wedding.

In the dinning room, my father was present with Pascual and his daughter, Sophia, awaiting me to begin the dinner. I was nervous and slightly shook as Pascual kissed my hand. Sophia's smile was wide with enthusiasm.

This was the first time I had met Sofia. She was blonde and had brown eyes, like myself. There would be no misinterpretation that I was not her mother. That set my nerves at ease, somewhat.

Through the dining room window, I saw a tall figure standing, looking in at me. I gasped in surprised fright and held my hands to my mouth. My father asked what had taken my breath. I told him it was nothing, but indeed it was something.

Daniel was standing there in a suit with a wool coat on his arm. He pointed to the front door. I quickly excused myself and scurried to foyer. He gave two knocks to the door before I could reach it. I ran across the anteroom and swung the door open. Finally he was here! My love had arrived!

"Daniel," I said to him. "How I've longed for you! Take me from here. Let us be as we are in my dreams."

"Yes, my dear, Claudia," he replied, taking me by the waist and laying his cold lips on mine. "Let us go, now."

As I looked back to close the door behind me, I saw my lifeless body on the ground. My father, Pascual and one of the servants huddled over it.

"What has happened?" I asked Daniel.

"We are eternal lovers, now, my Claudia. Nothing shall keep us apart -- not even death."

We walked hand in hand, into the night and into that eternity of love.

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