We were on a roof, dancing, twirling, and getting so close to the edge a slight error in movement would send
us plummeting to the sand a hundred feet below.
I held his hand and we progressed like a current of illuminated pearls bouncing on a trampoline.
An old man sat against the building and stared off into the distance.
He reminded me of my great grandfather who had passed.
Only this old man wasn’t smiling, and I didn’t love him or miss him.
He began glaring at us like he wanted to rip our hands apart and split the energy we created within one another.
I pulled away from the boy and left him standing there.
He froze
when I let go of him,
turned black and white,
and became a motionless statue.
I knew if I lost sight of him for too long he would disappear, but I felt compelled to comfort the old man.
I went and sat next to him and asked what was wrong.
“Just need to find a purpose here, before I’m gone.” He grumbled, pulling a cigar from his front shirt pocket. “You got a light?”
I lit him a match, and asked him if he cared to dance.
“These legs don’t work like they used to. I’m not sure if I want my end just yet.”
I promised I wouldn’t let him fall.
“Just trust me. This is my dream. I won’t let you disappear. I want to be here as much as you do”
He hesitated, but slowly arose. I placed his wrinkled hands in mine, taking one last glance at the boy I left a statue. He dissipated into the air, his body blowing away like dust.
"You didn’t have to lose concentration on him, I’m not even supposed to be part of this dream." The old man felt guilty,
he knew I felt bad for him,
but I couldn’t help it.
"It’s alright, just tell me what you want to be. I won’t let go of you."
He told me he wanted to be 30 again, with silky black hair, a smooth forehead, a white suit, and a soft face. Everything else was up to me.
The cigar fell from his hand as he transformed into either his own fantasy, or one I created for him.
I cannot say for certain who decided what he would look like.
Perhaps he wasn’t just part of my dream, perhaps we were part of each others.
We started to spin in circles and we couldn’t stop.
Dizzy,
full of light, and effortlessly,
we spun- my right hand in his right hand,
his left hand in my left hand.
I can’t even put into words the joy that pulsed through me the dizzier we became, tears growing in our eyes from the wind we created.
We spun so rapidly the roof began to drop from our feet, or else we were starting to fly. I lost sight of the building, I lost sight of the shackled walls, and they began to fade.
I knew something else had to change or else I would wake up and lose the old man forever.
He would die.
I knew he still thought we were dancing on the roof, so I had to convince him to jump off the edge with me.
"Are you crazy?" he sang,
at least it sounded like a song,
his voice was velvet chords.
"Yes!" I screamed and pulled him higher and higher and over the edge. His eyes clasped shut and he started to panic.
"Please, please look at me I don’t want to wake up!" I yelled shaking my arms as he became limp.
We fell.
We fell into warm thick water the color of pink cotton candy.
We were underwater when I remembered I could breath there without dying.
It was too late.
I was concentrating too much
on the water,
on the warmth,
on the light hitting it’s surface.
He dissolved, and I had nothing else to hold on to. I had no choice but to wake up. Losing him forever.
