Inception

I had a dream. It was a strange dream, too strange to keep to myself, though I will only explore the first half of the dream, as the second half has nothing to do with the first.

I was at work. I work at a chicken restaurant, and I worked with all my favorite people. At first, I was the guy battering and frying chicken, then, so the story could happen, my boss told me that I needed to be on front counter.

I stood up front, staring into the empty lobby, and I remembered a text conversation I had had early that day. Winter, A.K.A. @Toebeans, was going to arrive. I will be referring to Toebeans as Winter because that is how Toebeans appeared in my dream.

After a few minutes, a young blonde girl (about the age of sixteen if I had to guess) walked through the front door. “Hi, welcome to [Restaurant], may I take your order?”

“Yeah. Can I have…”

As she ordered, another customer entered. She was a little girl around the age of 6 with dirty blonde hair and big brown eyes. Remember that.

I turned to the girl ordering and asked, “Winter?”

“Yeah,” she replied, smiling. Her blue eyes sparkled as she realized who she had been talking to.

After taking her payment, I walked out from behind the counter and hugged her. “So great to finally meet you!”

“Yeah,” she replied, stepping out of the hug. She looked away. Her eyes lost their happy glow and became wet and sad. I looked in the direction she was looking and saw her father walking towards the front door.

He was tall, with brown hair and stubble on his face. Had he not been scowling as he entered the door, you would never have known that he was abusive. Apparently, Winter and I talked all the time, because her sister is the reason that I recognized her, and I knew that her father was abusive. I don’t know where else I could have gotten this information.

“Did you order already?” he asked venomously, menacingly approaching Winter.

“Y-yes, sir.”

At that moment, I thought to myself, I will not let anything happen to Winter.

I didn’t hear the rest of the conversation. But when I finally snapped out of my trance-like thoughts, I was staring down the barrel of a pistol.

“What? You think your friend is going to save you? Ha!”

BANG!

I fell to the ground, blood spilling out of my skull and puddling quickly on the floor.

I didn’t hear the rest of the conversation. But when I finally snapped out of my trance-like thoughts, I was staring down the barrel of a pistol.

“What? You think your friend is going to save you? Ha!”

WHAM!

He had hit me on the head with his gun, and I fell to the floor. I lay on the ground unmoving as he yelled at Winter.

With a gun involved, I knew it would be best if I just continued to lie on the ground and act as if I had fallen unconscious.

He began yelling at Winter, though Winter stayed silent. When he had finally finished yelling, he hit Winter on the side of the head with his gun. She fell to the floor next to me, and we shared a knowing glance.

He and Winter’s younger brother (remember when I told you to remember those details about Winter’s sibling? Yeah. You don’t have to anymore) left the building.

Winter attempted to stand up. “Not yet. Wait ’til he leaves,” I said, watching her father climb into his beat up, old, red truck.

Once he had finally left, I helped Winter get to her feet.

Next time, I’ll be prepared, I thought to myself.

We both got to work (because apparently she works here now), though I don’t remember much of what I did as some Inception stuff was happening. I was day-dreaming about twenty years in the future. It was the middle of the night, and I had gotten out of bed.

I knew where my gun was, and Winter was lying in bed, asleep. In my day-dream that was within my dream, I was day-dreaming (at night) about her father breaking and entering (because, y’know, that’s a thing abusive parents do). It was this thought, in my day-dream, that kept me awake.

“Hey, Caleb, I need you to go back up front,” my manager said.

I snapped out of my day dream, walked to the front counter, and began working again, next to Winter. Slowly, the scene changed. I left work, and went across the street to my competitor’s business (non-existent in real life). This led to a less interesting dream in which I search for the employer that will pay me the most.

When I woke up and processed this, all I could say was “What the heck.”

Why did I just have a dream about marrying a Prose user I barely know? That was bizarre.