Water 1
Bubba Gadget who once was once peacefully asleep on the bed, now sat up, the hairs on the little kitty's back standing straight up. He twisted his ears so that they laid flat against the back of his head. The noise, was deafening to him. He had never heard his owner produce such a blood curdling sound from her small lungs. He let a small growl hiss from between his curled lips and then yawned. He was tired and did not like to be woken up by such a strange sound. Especially since he had been peacefully napping only seconds before.
He ran his tongue over the tips of his fangs and reached out as far as he could with his left paw. Feeling for the corner of the bed, Bubba Gadget slinked off the warm comfort of Autumn's bed and darted off for safer comforts in the living room. At least there, he figured he could get a few more hours of sleep in before he went to his bowl for morning munchies.
The room was dark still. Autumn stopped screaming and held her breath tightly. Everything in the room was still in it's place. All her books were on the shelf, where she had organized them; her clothes were in the closet and folded neatly in the dresser and on the floor; and the air was slightly warm. There was no bright yellow globe of doom anywhere and no daemons were chasing after her with the intent of ripping her flesh off her skin. She wiped some tears off her chin and took a deep breath.
"Oh my gawd," she lamented. "I cannot believe I just had that dream. And it was so real." Her voice sounded shakey and hollow in the room where no one was there. She looked around the comforter for Bubba Gadget but realized he must have taken off for the other room as soon as she started screaming.
"Sorry, Bubba. I did not mean to disturb you and wake you so rudely like that," she softly called out into the other room to him.
Autumn scooted around in her bed so that she could bend down and see the time showing on the alarm clock. It was five o'clock. Autumn was sort of surprised to see that she had almost slept the entire night away. She figured that the dream she had was short, if not really powerful in nature and very, very strong in visuals. She thought it rivaled any of the realer movies she had seen lately that centered around the destruction of the world and human race and part of her seemed to not let the imagery go. It had felt so very real to her, even if it had a skewed point of view.
She laid back down in her bed and pulled the covers tightly around her. The ceiling looked smooth despite the fact that it had been spackled with plaster and had lots of bumps and crevasses in it. Off towards the northern wall of the ceiling was a round glow in the dark sticker. It had been placed their by previous tenants, who must have covered the whole ceiling with the stars and the circular planet stickers; they must have missed that one when they moved out of the apartment, for it was the only one that Autumn could see on the ceiling. She laid in bed and stared at the glowing circle, amussed that after all the years of living in the apartment that it still shone in the dark.
It was raining outside. Now that Autumn was laying down and not screaming or moving, she could hear the distant but audible pounding of the drops hitting the outside wallls of the apartment. She tried to close her eyes, knowing that the disruption in her sleep cycle could throw her day off and cause her to wake up late again for the day. And this was something she did not want to deal with again. Plus, she did not want to give Andrews another excuse to tease her about opening the store late. That was something she did not want to deal with today.
She forced her eyes to stay closed but the images from the dream were firmly stamped on her brain. Autumn groaned as she realized that she probably got all the sleep she was going to receive that night. Her right hand reached down and fumbled for the alarm clock. After a few bumps and knocking her fingers around the wooden night stand, she finally found the cold, plastic edge of her FM radio alarm clock. She stretched her fingers carefully over the top of the clock and found the button that slide to turn the timer on and off and pushed it down into the off position. She left her hand dangling in the cold morning air for a split second before moving it again. Swiftly and unceremoniously she shoved the covers off her night shirt and sat up.
"Guess this is that early start I wanted for the day," she said. A few minutes later, the soft sound of furry, padded feel entered the carpeted room. Bubba Gadget had heard Autumn wiggling around in the bedroom and decided that he needed to investigate. In a soft but fast-paced move, he lept back onto the bed and searched for the one spot that could get him to stay on the bed all comfortable like. As soon as he found it, he laid down and kneeded the comforter. Autumn watched her little kitty perform his ritual and scratched him between the ears as soon as he laid down to sleep again.
"Sure, Bubba, just as I decide it is time to wake up and start the day REALLLY early, you decide that it is time to come back in here and get all cute and snuggly," she spoke softly. And as if on cue, Bubba Gadget curled up into a tight little ball of purring fur and placed one paw over his eye, looking at Autumn. The gesture made Autumn smile and she continued to sit in bed a bit, still wary and groggy from the sleep and dream. She had no idea what she wanted to wear but judging from the rain dumping down on Portland, she knew it was going to be warm clothes again today.
Settling on a favorite green hoodie sweater and jeans, Autumn slid out of her bed and retrieved the items from her closet. She grabbed some underwear and moved those, along with the sweater and jeans, back into the bathroom. She turned on the faucet and made sure the running water was nice and hot. Only two things could wake her up at this point, a hot shower and a large glass of chai. Both of which she would need today.
The bathroom grew steamy and foggy as Autumn took a long shower. She had to wipe down the mirror with her towel after she dried the hot drops of water that beaded on her skin. She brushed her long curly hair and towel dried it once more before putting on deorderant and getting dressed. The steam rushed out into the cold bedroom when Autumn was done, reminding her of the smoke that rose from burning buildings and smoldering streams in her dream. She shivered as the mental image passed through her brain. She hoped that her mind would forget the dream ever happened and vowed silently to hurt herself if she ever, ever had another dream like that again.
She grabbed a pair of mismatched socks from her dresser and slipped them over her toes. Thenm she gave Bubba Gadget one more scratch and headed out into the kitchen to make sure she had chai and soy milk. The floor felt cold but solid under her feet and everything was silent and quiet. While the windows did not show the sun coming out, Autumn knew it was there and morning was fast approaching. The light from the refridgerator lit a small sphere of light into the room and Autumn glanced over her shoulder making sure nothing was there.
A large pile of book magazines and catalogs sat on the glass tabletop kitchen table set she bought up in Seattle last year from Ikea. A friend of hers, Dana, owned a car and offered to drive her up to the fabled and cheep home decorating center. It had been a fun day, just the two of them, driving three hours from Portland, into the Ikea superstore. They chatted about art and books and photography on the way and Autumn offered to give a discount on some photography books that Dana had wanted to get from her store. Autumn wondreed what Dana was up to now these days. They did not talk to one another much anymore. Not after Dana got her job with the Portland Police Department taking photgraphs on crime scenes. Autumn always thought that Dana's dream job was a bit weird but she never made any move to put a damper on her friendship.
"To each their own," she always thought as she flipped the light switch on the wall to turn the cheep chandelier lights on. She hated the plain white chandelier but could not really do anything about it since she did not own the apartment. If she had enough money saved up in her savings account, she would offer to purchase a loft near the Pearl district in downtown, right off the lightrail line. It was a goal of hers to be that successful one day. If she had her own place to decorate, she would put in a lot of nicely designed track lighting that would illuminate the books on her bookshelves and the art and photgraphs she had hung on the walls.
Autumn grabbed her favorite black and white spidered mug from her the glass cupboard. It was a purchase on the whim from the last time she visited a Borders, two years ago. She had never seen a mug quite like it since. And it was the perfect size to hold her chai, not too small like a normal coffee mug but not too tall and slim to slip from her clumsy grasp in the early morning hours. Autumn poured some Oregon Caffeniated Chai halfway into the mug. She then topped it off to the rim with soy milk and then placed a plastic stirring straw into the mix. Satisfied that the chai was perfect, she raised the mug to her mouth and tentatively took a sip from it. The sweet taste of honey touched her tongue followed by the cold wet spicey taste of the chai.
"Ah, the elixir of the gods," she said moving over to the kitchen table. Setting the mug down on the glass made a small kachink sound. She pulled one of the book catalogs closer and grabbed a yellow highlighter sitting next to the pile. Starting from the back of the catalog, she read the discriptions of books that were coming out of the publishing industry three to six months down the road. Soon, her attention turned away from the dream and the tiredness of not getting much sleep and focused on ordering new books and journals for the Page Turner.
Two hours passed by and the light outside turned from a dark black to a light grey color. The rain continued to hammer down on the city and Autumn barely noticed that the rain and wind had picked up a bit. She had turned all her attention onto the book catalogs and ordering forms for them. She scribbled down notes and filled out the individual booksellers order forms that were contained in each catalog. Soon had placed orders for books from three different companies and had weaned the stack of catalogs down a bit. As she never threw away catalogs for three years, knowing that many of her patrons preferred to ask for backstock orders, she had set up a second pile on the table. Absently, she reached out for her mug of chai and was mildly surprised when she noticed that it was empty.
Just at that moment, Bubba Gadget had returned from his nap in the bedroom and purred a greeting as he hopped onto Autumn's table. The siamese meowed a hungry whine at his owner.
Autumn reached out and pet the cat, trying to scoop him off the magazine he sat firmly on, "What time is it Bubba? Is it time to get you some more wet food?" she asked.
The cat yawned, proudly displaying all his teeth. "Okay, okay, I guess it is time to feed you." Autumn stood up and looked at the stove clock sitting behind her. The green LED lights read seven thirty. "Oh wow, I had no idea how late it was getting," she muttered, quickly opening the cabinent and selecting a can of wet cat food to give Bubba Gadget, who was now on the floor, rubbing in and out of her legs.
She fed the cat and then collected the sealed envelopes that contained her orders for the next few months. "I guess it is time for me to get ready and head out to the store," she said aloud. Autumn put the envelopes into her small black messenger bag and carefully placed her mug in the sink. Then she rushed to the sofa and slipped on her shoes. "I will be back later Bubba," she called as she headed out the door and hurried down to her stop.
Autumn made it to her store uneventfully and dropped off the book orders in the blue mailbox sitting directly in front of her store. Andrews was not anywhere near her store today and while it sort of bummed her out to not see him, she knew that the old vagabond was probably trying to forage for food while trying to stay out of the wet. She was sure he would stop by later on, when he was ready to bother Autumn with all sorts of weird and philosophical questions. Instead, she focused on opening the store and straightening out the current stacks once more.
The day moved slowly for Autumn. Not many people entered the Page Turner that day. Autumn was almost positive that the rain had kept them from entering the store. "I do not blame them," she thought. "If I did not have to work today I would be home sleeping myself as well. Or reading, cos it is just the perfect day for it."
Lunchtime came and went and there was still no sign of Andrews. Autumn had sold a few books but something felt a bit odd about this day. She tried to focus on the store and books, not allowing her mind to think back about the dream she had earlier that morning. And for the most part she succeeded.
She wandered into the back room to check on the backstock of books when the front door chimed. Autumn smiled to herself, figuring that it was Andrews who had come into the bookstore and was ready to bombard her with his nonsense. However, when she emerged from the backroom and saw who was standing in the middle of the floor, shivering and soaking wet and holding a old ratty bound book, she gasped.
It was the boy from the other day, the boy in her dreams. And he was looking even more haggered and cold and desperate.