~ Living In a Broken Dream ~
by Eveh
Disclaimer: This is uber. Kind of alt too.
Love/Sex Warning: This would be rated like G or maybe PG. There's nothing explicit here.
Language: Mild. And uh there's just one phrase in here that's in Spanish, but for the record I don't speak the language, which makes me quite uncomfortable when I'm with my extended family who only does speak Spanish, but more to the point I'm sorry if it's wrong. I did use a translator but I can't promise that it's right.
Write me at: xengab01@hotmail.com
Living In a Broken Dream
By Eveh
I stepped out of the car careful not to move too quickly. My limbs were stiff from sitting in the confined space for so long and I wasn't quite sure they would ever work normally again. I watched as my friend's and fellow travelers walked away into the small and it looked like the only convenience store in this small town.
I wasn't quite sure where we were, most likely someplace in Texas. We had been in the state for far too long already. It was the mid of summer and I hadn't realized the true meaning of "Texas Heat" until my friends had wrangled me into taking this road trip with them.
We had no true destination but we figured we didn't really need one. We were young and had enough money to last us until we decided we needed to go home. Of course, we probably wouldn't decide that we needed to go home until we were out of money. Our trip had started in, of all places, Iowa and here we were now in the grand state of Texas.
Throwing caution into the wind I reached up and pulled off my sunglasses so that I could get a better look around at this small town. There were men walking around in jeans that were just a little too tight and boots that shined more so than I ever thought possible. Briefly I wondered if they had to supply their own snakeskin to the boot maker. They probably went out and hunted themselves down some rattlers or somethin'.
I mentally chastise myself for putting a stereotype on the people walking around, but laugh at the idea anyway. Eventually I stop thinking about the shiny boots and take another quick look around. For the first time I notice an elderly lady sitting on the porch of some antique/souvenir shop.
I don't collect antiques and am sure that I won't find any souvenir worth keeping of this town, but I call out to one of my travel companions telling them I'm going over to the shop anyway. Jen waves her hand at me in understanding and tells me she'll meet me over there as soon as she's done paying for the gas. I wonder if I should chip in my share of the gas money now and am about to turn around to hand over a few dollars when the old lady on the porch catches my eye again.
I notice that she's staring at me. Her dark brown eyes are racking over my form and I'm suddenly very uncomfortable. I can only meet her eyes for a moment before I have to look away. Going to the antique shop now doesn't seem like such a good idea anymore, but suddenly Jen is standing by my side. She asks me why I'm just standing there, making no move to either go into the shop or back to the car.
I look down into her green eyes and wonder if she even notices the strange old lady guarding the door of the antique store. In case she doesn't I point her out and make sure Jen realizes the odd stare that the woman has been giving me. I can feel the woman's eyes following me and she very much reminds me of a painting I once saw when I was younger. The painting was of a woman sitting in a rocking chair with a quilt laid out over her legs. She looked dead to the world, but no matter where you went the eyes would follow you giving the painting and the woman in it life.
Jen tells me I'm overreacting and grabs my arm pulling me towards the antique store. We approach the steps and she calls out a greeting to the old woman on the porch. I just wave and give an awkward smile. The woman gets up from her chair, with seemingly great effort and smiles. It isn't an evil smile as I expected but rather a soothing one.
She leads us both into the store and tells us to pick out anything at all inside and she'll sell it to us half price. Jen, not one to ever give up a deal automatically goes out in search of the perfect thing to buy. She's always been more of shopper than I.
Me. I just stand at the entrance of the door afraid to step fully inside, not because everything within is obviously precious and truly antique but because the air inside this place is so much different than the air outside. In here I can smell the age of all the items that surround me. I can smell the wood and brick that has gone into the frame of this structure. Inside this place it seems like not only a new place I've never been to before but also like a new time that I'd never bothered to learn about or even knew about before.
My eyes roam over the contents of the shop and I see nothing that doesn't interest me, even though I don't know what half the things are. There's an old bow and arrow that looks interesting in one of the corners. There are bronze wire figurines playing in a band. There are all sorts of contraptions that look old, but really seem to have no other purpose than to look as they do.
My eyes finally fall on the old woman again and again she's staring at me. Her eyes are a very deep brown and if there were no sunlight streaming through the windows at all I would swear that they were black. A few strands of her gray hair fall and cover her aged brown skin. She says something to me but it's in Spanish and I, unfortunately failed to learn the language.
"Excuse me?" I ask her against my better judgment. "I don't understand Spanish."
"I didn't say anything in Spanish," she answers me but I can tell she knows that I did hear her say something in Spanish.
I choose not to confront her about it so instead I smile awkwardly back. "My mistake."
I turn and look for Jen in the store and see her ogling something in the very back. I hear a car horn honk outside and know it's our friend's signaling us to hurry. "Jen come on we gotta go," I call out to her ever thankful that I'll be leaving the presence of the old lady fairly soon.
"Usted está viviendo en un sueño quebrado." I turn my head to the lady again having heard her words loud and clear just failing to understand them. I was going to ask her what she said when Jen comes running up with a few items in her hands. She lays them out on the counter before the woman and pulls out her wallet.
The sell transaction is made and Jen walks up to me with her purchases firmly in hand. "Let's get out of here tough stuff."
I scowl briefly at Jen then move out of her way and let her go out the doorway that I never fully stepped through until now. I watch her go and prepare myself for another long ride in the cramped up car happy that I at least get to spend my turn in the back talking with Jen. She's probably the only reason why I really came on this trip. She is the one that talked me into it. We really hadn't been friends for that long so I was surprised she wanted me to come with her. I was sure that she'd be one of the best friends that I'd ever have though.
I took one step towards the car but that woman's voice stopped me. "Broken dream."
She might as well have stuck to the Spanish because I didn't understand her words any better. "What?"
"Usted está viviendo en un sueño quebrado. You are living in a broken dream"
"Oh. What?"
"Denying your heart will make you live in a broken dream." The woman tells me sagely, yet the meaning of her words still escaped me.
"Usted está viviendo en un sueño quebrado."
"Okay." I nod again. "Thanks for the warning." I turn around put on my sunglasses and walk out the door. I run out to the car and hop into the back seat.
"Meg what took you so long?" Jen asks as soon as my door is shut and Bethany screeches out back onto the road.
"Nothing." I smile at her. "So you get something interesting?" The woman freaked me out and a subject change is definitely in order.
"Oh yeah. I got something that's going to look great in your apartment."
"My apartment?"
"Yeah." She smiles at me. "Your place could use some redecorating."
I shake my head but don't argue with her. My apartment is a little dull. She's really a good friend to help me out with it.
The End.
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