The Realities Owned

The sun shone brightly; of course, that was the only job it had. It was sandy like every beach was. I hated the gritty touches I felt as I walked barefooted on the sandy beach. I had tied the laces on my shoes into a knot and hung them around my neck. For a while, I stood and stared at the water. It seemed like it had no end as it blended with the skies above my head. I took in a deep breathe and continued walking on the beach.

“How could she say no? To me? After everything?” I kept thinking whether last night was a joke or a dream.

Maybe it never happened. I paused again and smelt my breathe. Oh yeah, last night was no dream. Then, in a distance I could see a lovely couple, happy as they played and basked in the sand.

“Why can’t we be like that?” I wondered.

One particular scene caught my attention. I enjoyed my job but it seemed like the cop on the mountain bike did not. With an angry face, he engaged in a speed pursuit of a thief while yelling at him to stop. It was more of a nuisance to me. And there were the loners, just like I had become. It seemed like he had just come out of the water after a bath as he was still wet. He sat alone staring at his phone and then to the sky and back to his phone again. Was it despair? Or something else?

“Oh God!” I prayed, “let my life not turn miserable.”

Why would I pray such a prayer? My life was already miserable; I just needed to cope with it. Yet again, I saw another man, lonely. He sat in the sand, pretty close to the water. As if he had noticed me staring, he turned to me as I stood a distance away and looked up at me, real close. He stared as if he knew me or he wanted me to feel uncomfortable and look away. That was exactly what happened. But I could feel him still staring. I continued walking on the gritty beach towards the lonely man that sat close to the water. As I passed behind his back, oh goodness, he had no legs, not even one? What a world. I felt pity for him.

“And you’re complaining?” I muttered to myself.

How I wished I could help. Oh, I could. A strong force urged me to turn back. Which I did. I reached into my pocket. What? Only coins? I began to think back to where I had left my wallet as it was in neither of my pockets.

“Damn! In my coat at Stanley’s place,” I yelped as I held my head.

The legless man turned to me. The force that had urged me to turn back now pushed me to move towards the staring legless man. With my hand still in my pocket, I collected every coin I felt and oh, a note. When I got close, I reached down to set some change in his cup. He grabbed my wrist and I immediately looked up and stared straight into his eyes. Then I stared back down. Coffee? I pulled my hand back up just before I could release the coins and note into the cup filled with coffee.

“Show us, then,” the legless man whispered into my ears.

I pulled free, releasing myself from his firm grip. I was confused at the words he had used but OMG! I was more confused and shocked for a moment when I turned around. The gritty feeling of the sand was gone. In fact, the entire beach was gone. No happy couple, no lonely man staring at his phone and then, the sky. No one; the walkway was gone along with everyone. Everyone except I and the legless man. I looked around for a while and then turned back to the …

What a miracle! He was healed and now had two legs. His hairy legs that were exposed by his shorts.

“Oh my, I must be going crazy,” I whispered to myself.

I had every reason to turn irrational.

“Oh!” I slapped my head, “you drank too much last night!”

I turned back to where the walkway laid, where all the people sat and walked and then, it appeared. What was happening? A dream? A game? Some sort of a trick? I stood, confused, surprised. Then, it all came back to me.

“Last night!” I yelled out.

I began to walk up and down the beach which had appeared again. I began to ran towards the car park. As I ran past the man who used to be legless, he repeatedly shouted the words, “show us, then!”

“Oh no, I’m not going crazy. He is crazy,” I said and kept running to find my black Benz.

When I found it, I hurriedly unlocked it and grabbed my phone. I called Stanley, he was there.

“Stanley, tell me, what happened last night?” I questioned as soon as he answered the phone.

“Last night?”

“Yeah, last night?”

“Look man, I told you to leave 'cause I had a gig but you were already drunk so I locked you in.”

He locked me in? m

Meaning I was there alone? Or maybe it was just the alcohol making me imagine things. Why was I even making a big deal out of it? I relaxed and took in deep breathes to calm down.

He continued angrily, “when I came back, you were gone and so was every drop of wine I had on the shelf.” “Thanks, man,” he added but I could tell he did not mean it.

I got out of the car with the phone in hand. I ran back to the beach; it was still there and so was everyone else. Unlike many other days, the beach was quiet and quite empty. I turned around to leave. Suddenly, the noise behind me grew louder. I turned to the beach again and with shock I realized that hundreds, in fact, thousands of people had gathered at the beach. Some in the water, others on the sand and many on the walkway where I stood. “Stanley? Are you still there?” I asked quite frightened as I kept staring at the large crowd of people.

“Yeah man, what’s up with you?”

What’s up with me? My lady had rejected me, the first time I tasted hard drink, I got myself drunk and now I was at a beach with numerous people which somehow appeared when I thought of it.

“Look man, if it’s about last night, I don’t know. The only words I allowed you to say were ‘I wish I could make things happen’. Yeah, I think that’s what you said before I locked you in,”

Stanley sounded less angry now and I was still shocked.

“And you left your coat,” he added before ending the call.

I stood, still staring at the beach. I hated to be there whenever there were a lot of people. Then, from a distance I could see a lifeguard tower. I thought of something, and it happened. From where I stood, I could see a young lady and her son ran towards the tower. They kept pointing at the water as the lifeguards ran after them into the large crowd of people that swam in the water. I watched as a guard went underneath the water and came out with a boy. For the first time ever, I had witnessed someone being rescued from drowning at the beach and I had made it happen. I ran away, into my car and off. What had I done? What was going on? I trembled as I drove onto the main road. The cars were many, the heavy traffic gave me a headache. My phone clinked.

The message read, ‘where on earth are you?’

Whoever sent that must be very angry or worried, I thought. I checked the time. 9:23?

“Damn! I’m going to be late!” I realized.

But no one could move; everyone on the road was stuck in the traffic. Then, what Stanley said about what I had said came to mind.

“I can make stuff happen?” I thought.

I looked out through the window and saw how far the traffic stretched. The numerous vehicles barely fit on the width of the road.

“Nope, only God can!”

But what if I could? All I had to do was to think it first, right? And that was what I did.

“You’re late!” I heard someone yell.

She was running towards me and when she got close, she held me by the hand and pulled me to the elevator. I was puzzled and frozen as to what I had made a reality. I couldn’t even speak but when I turned to her, she was watching me.

“Look, I’m sorry…” I tried to apologize but she cut in.

“You don’t need to say anything. Let’s get this deal and then we can all go home,” she said looking away. “And please, tuck in your shirt,” she added shyly.

“Why? Did you not like the ring I got?” I asked when I regained my composure.

She said nothing and as soon as the elevator’s door opened, she pushed me out.

“Finally,” Jeremy, who had been waiting said relieved. “Where on earth have you been?” he asked but I had no answer for him. Probably, he sent the text. He place his hand in my hair and fixed it up and then he took off his coat and helped me put it on. It had no match with my trouser but who cared. All that was needed was that deal. I was pushed inside the room where men and women with serious faces sat. Oh no, I had forgotten all my lines. At that moment I wished I was outside getting some fresh air and even before I could blink and open my eyes, I stood outside the tall building where I worked.

“I didn’t mean it that way,” I said silently as I rushed back inside, into the elevator and to what floor?

What was this? A curse or a gift? “But we need this deal,” I cried as I stood stranded in the building I had been working in for seven years. I came out of the elevator and began to use the stairs back down. I closed my eyes and found myself on the sofa in my house when I opened it. Well, I had sort of become used to it. Whatever I thought of, whether small or big would become a reality. I could create my own reality? I place my head down and closed my eyes to sleep waiting to wake up and realize it was all just a dream. Then, the door bell rung. Lazily, I got up to open it and there she stood. I thought I could never see her again.

“What happened back there?” she questioned softly.

So everything was real? From the beach to the office scene? That all I had to do was to think and it would simply come to exist. She stood there waiting for a response but I could not take my eyes of her beautiful face. Then, I remembered last night when I went on a knee to ask her to marry me. I had been planning that for years, to be precise, two years. I knew she would say yes; I was super confident and sure about that. I could not remember the rest of what happened at that restaurant, her favorite. But if I woke up blue, then it was certain what happened. There she stood, before me. I imagined a world filled with peace and laughter, with her by my side as my wife. A bright place and even when it was night, there was light. In a house we worked hard to build up from scratch and when one entered through the front door, he could see pictures of our happiest days and feel emotions of pure happiness. With our kids running around. Children we would name after her late parents. And a garden, a beautiful one filled with all the flowers she loved.

Then I closed and opened my eyes…