our story

Our Story

As soon as he woke up William knew life would never be the same. He had finally found her and he knew it, problem was, she was a dream, and she had told him as much. William had struggled to stay with her in the dream, but
she being the wise innocence her eyes so easily projected, told him that he must wake up. If not for the sniffle and the tears streaming down her cheeks he would have thought she was trying to be rid of him (William's dream women had a tendency to do that), but this one was different.
They had made love multiple times on the bed that he was still unsure who it belonged to, and were laying contentedly perspiring in eachother's arms with the bliss of a new life having just begun when the scene had faded and suddenly the two of them were standing opposite eachother and she was back in the black and gold summer dress that she had been wearing when they met. All William had thought about as he stood there staring at her was the beautiful way her strawberry blonde hair seemed perfectly attuned to not only her clothing, but her eyes as well. Oh her eyes! The softest he hade ever seen, even though he could not see their color no matter how hard he tried to remember, he didn't mind though. She was his image of beauty, and he knew it. Entranced, it was her who had broken the silence with the saddest words he had ever heard.
"You are about to wake up." her words were choked with tears.
"what?" William replied, suddenly the saddest hed ever been. Fully crying now, her words were hammering against his heart.
"You're about to wake up now, and I'm going to disappear forever unless you write about me." She paused and looked at William with watery eyes,
"Will you write about me so that we can be together forever?"
William knew the answer to this question before she finished the words, but felt his response was needed to soothe this beautiful dreams heart.
"Of course I will. I love you." With this proclamation she made a nosie and jumped into his arms with an energy opposite the moment before. Smiling and laughing she let him hold her for a moment before she pulled back,
"Then wake up William, and tell the world our story."

And he did.

The first thing William did when he woke up was pick up the papers he left by his sleeping bag, specifically for ideas to write down, and wrote the key points to remember for later when he had more time. Then he tore down his camp before before anyone saw that he had stayed there, all the while thinking about the dream and how he was going to describe the emotions she made him feel. He needed this woman whom he'd never met but through his sub-conscious, and he was to be her husband, he knew.
The dream had been so strange it took him more than an hour to piece together and break down his camp. Walking with his gear, he lost himself in thought. In the dream William had taken a short story to an open forum, though he couldn't remember ever doing that in real life, and he'd read a story to a group of people who'd been enrolled in the writing school the building housing the forum belonged to. After the reading, he'd gone outside to smoke a cigarette, and was approached by the dean of the school and asked if he would like to enroll. Unfortunately mirroring reality, in his dream he was penniless and told the dean as such. Shrugging, the dean flicked his cigarette and walked back into the school leaving William to his desolate thoughts. That's when he met her. Walking through the arched doors with all the innocence of Alice following the white rabbit, she spotted William and delight crossed her face. He couldn't say he wasn't just as happy to see her, but it seemed as if she knew something he did not. Sitting down next to him at the top of the steps leading into the school, folding her dress over her knees and pausing as if to find her words she simply sat there looking into his eyes deeper than he'd ever though possible. He was starting to get uncomfortable under her gaze when she finally broke the silence.
"That was a beautiful story, how did you come up with it?"
For some reson he couldn't remember what the story was even about as he sat there looking into her eyes, it just didn't seem to matter, so he shrugged and replied. "I don't remember." he said honestly. Thinking he was teasing her she bumped him playfully with her shoulder, saying,
"I really want to know, it was so touching." Somehow, her eyes seemed to deepen and her smile grew wider, making it even more difficult to think about the subject her curiosity was focused on.
"I'm really not sure." William replied, this time with a smile of his own lest she think he was being rude.
"well.." she started, looking away and into the distance while she paused for the right words. "You're a really good writer, you should come to this school so you can help me to learn to write like that." The way she bit her lip when she finished the sentence told William what she was really trying to say, which simultaneously made his heart melt and made him nervous. If she learned that he lived on the streets there was no way she would still be interested in him, writing skills or not. For some strange reason though, he went against his instinct to shy away from this beautiful country girl and like a young buffalo in spring, he ducked his head and charged. "I live on the streets, I don't have the money for tuition." He blurted it out with speed even a charging Buffalo would envy and afterward allowed his head to hang a little lower, knowing he'd ruined any chance of impressing this beauty. His shock was genuine when her only reply was to laugh. At first it was shame, thinking he was about to be humiliated, but as she spoke that sentiment soon changed to honest and pleasant surprise.
"Well then.." She started as she stood suddenly, smiling.
"I guess that means you need somewhere to sleep tonight." As she finished, William up at her, and though the streetlight was behind her and darkened her features, he could tell she still liked him.
"Are you being serious?" He asked, not willing to believe this scenario for its surface appearance.
"Of course silly.." she replied, holding a hand out to help him up. Taking her hand, all he could think about as she led him back into the building and up a flight of stairs, was how soft her hands were.
As they walked into what had to be the dormitory area she turned a held a finger to her lips and her step became lighter, which William copied, suddenly worried he might get her into trouble, even expelled. Safelylocked in what he hoped was her room he was about to ask if he should be here when she turned around and kissed him fully on the lips with a passion he was not only unprepared for, but too shocked to do anything even if he were, nor did want to. His mind went blank with her touch consumning him, and he was lost in the bliss that followed.

That was what had made it so hard when she told him he had to wake up, that kiss, and when he did that was what had filled his mind. All he could do about it was write it. Dream or not, William knew he had finally found love and he would read and re-read the story every night just in the hope of finding her again in the dreamworld.
For weeks he would walk around to different open forums in the hope that reading this story would pull her out of the dreamworld and into his life. Of course, he also carried the heavy burden of knowing his life was mirrored in his dream and he was homeless, but he felt that his path had been a wise choice and having chosen to find the wisdom he had so desperately sought, he must continue the course. William also hoped that this story he spent so long carefully crafting to reflect the strong emotions of his dream would be his ticket out of this self wrought hell he had flung himself into. So day after day, he read his story and the others he wrote to any audience willing to listen, and time passed, though his misfortune did not.
At the Library one day, he was browsing the Internet for open forums where he could read, when he found something he instinctually knew was his to find. A writing school was about to open it's doors and to celebrate, they were holding an open forum reading and contest with the winner receiving full scholorship through graduation. This was it, and William knew it with a certainty that he could not define. Quickly writing down the address and looking at the map before exiting his session, he left the Library and walked the several miles to the new school that was holding the contest, barely making it in time to put his name on the list of writers. Walking into the open room he looked around for a seat, and his heart shot out of his chest like like a slug in a musket.

There she was.

He sat down several rows behind her, entranced with the surrealistic quality the scene was taking, and he was unaware how long it was that he had stared at the back of her lovely blonde head, but hearing his name shocked him back into reality. Standing up, he did his best to leave his nerves behind as he made his way up front. It was especially difficult to ignore the impulse to cry out to his lost love as he passed her and took the microphone. Instead he read as if he were reading to her, though he didn't dare look at her.
He knew the audience had loved it by their enthusiastic applause, but he still didn't dare look over at the love of his dream life as he excused himself and made his way to the back entrance of the room and outside to have a smoke and settled his shattered nerves. Outside, with the first two drags down to settle his nerves a bit he started thinking about it. She had been wearing that same black and gold summer dress, she had the same freckles, same hair that curled so perfectly to accentuate her lovely eyes set in a perfect face. It was her, and he had found her, and now his heart was racing like he had run a marathon. He had no clue how he was going to approach her, and was lost in thought about it when the doors opened and out walked a middle aged man in a suit and glasses. His composure said he had to be the dean, and this was just like his dream (though the building was a little different), so he was unsurprised when the dean asked him.
"It is time to vote William, you ready?" His proffessional tone and mannerism spoke in agreement with his assumption so he addressed him as he would a dean. "Yes sir." William followed him in. After the vote was counted the dean stood facing his audience with a look that William could not read, and scared him.
"It seems we have a tie." The dean said slowly.
"William, will you come up?" The deans question had sent William into a state of joy that would never be describable, and would be the best thing that ever happened to him until the dean spoke again.
"Anna, will you come up too please?" William had to pinch himself as Anna, his dream love, stood up and shyly made her way to the front.
"These are our winners ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming this evening and I hope you will be enrolling in our classes this fall and we get to see you again." The dean bowed to the crowd, shook William and Anna's hand, then left. Not knowing what else to do, William smiled at Anna and turned away to go outside and finish his cigarette. He smiled to himself as he thought about the strange path his destiny had taken him on and how he finally had a home now, with a school to teach him all the things he didn't know about writing, his favorite subject. He was so lost in the pleasant thoughts he was unaware of Anna's presence until she sat down next to him.
"That was a beautiful story you wrote," She said, looking down as if embarassed. He looked at her, and with his heart racing and his mind on bulls he said, "It was for you." He was surprised by the look she gave him in reply, it was strange enough to bring out the next question.
"What is it?" William asked, hesitating for an answer.
"Did you not hear my story?" She asked with a look that he couldn't read.
"No, but I would like to." He replied honestly. She handed him the story, and as he read it, everything became clear. When he finished, he looked up, afraid it was still a dream, until she smiled with tears in her eyes.
"I dreamed about you too."