Civil Twilight

Elle’s eyes sprang open as the buzz from her alarm continued to squawk. She looked at the clock on her nightstand, reading 6:30 A.M., and pressed the button to turn it off. She sat up in bed, gazed around her small bedroom that seemed to get smaller with every breath she took, and her gaze finally landed on her husband lying next to her. It didn’t seem like anything was going to wake him up anytime soon, so Elle got out of bed and went to start her day.

After getting herself ready, Elle woke up her two young sons. She got them to brush their teeth, dressed them, and made them breakfast. Once the boys sat down at the table, Elle went to her room and caressed her husband’s head to wake him.

“I had the oddest dream,” said Elle as she sat down at the table with her husband, who was still in his pajamas. Their boys had already started eating and were too fixated on the television to notice their parents had even entered the room.

Elle’s husband, Jake, yawned as he picked up his coffee mug, “A dream, huh. What was it about? You weren’t falling, were you? I hear that’s supposed to mean something.”

“No,” replied Elle. “Nothing like that. No, I dreamt… I dreamt I had just woken up. I had just woken up, and I lived in a big, beautiful home with a breathtaking garden. Then I went to work as the CEO of a software company. At night, I went out to dinner at this luxurious restaurant, and after that, I had a few cocktails with friends. It was all so lovely.” Elle’s eyes stared off into space, full of longing.

A loud clap startled Elle, and she looked at Jake, who was smiling with his hands together. “Okay, miss bigshot,” said Jake. “Back to reality, I need some more coffee.”

Elle walked her sons to the bus stop, and after they were picked up for school, she drove her 20-year-old Honda to work. It was another monotonous day for her as a ValueWay cashier, but she figured an exciting day when a customer would scream at her would come around soon enough. On her lunch break, Elle followed her habit of taking a novel from the book section of the store and reading it in the break room as if she were in the library. If she ever dared purchase one of those books and brought it home, she would spend the next month hearing Jake complain about how she was wasting money. Once her shift was over, Elle went home and made her family dinner. The dinner flowed seamlessly into the family watching show after show on television while sunken into the living room couch. Finally, it was time for bed, the time of day Elle was most looking forward to. A time when she could have a break from life, and if she was lucky, a time she would spend living in a dream.

Elle’s eyes sprang open as the buzz from her alarm continued to squawk. She looked at the clock on her nightstand, reading 4:30 A.M., and pressed the button to turn it off. She sat up in bed, gazed around her large bedroom, which seemed to expand with every breath she took, and her gaze finally landed on the floor-to-ceiling windows, presenting the civil twilight over a luscious garden. Elle took a moment to soak it in, then got out of bed and went to start her day.

After exercising, decompressing in her sauna with a book, and completing her professional-grade hair and makeup, Elle headed out the door of her house in her business suit, her Sasquatch tumbler filled with her breakfast smoothie in one hand and her bag in the other. She drove her 9-month-old Porsche to work and parked in a space at the front of the building, where a sign read: Elle Walker, CEO.

As Elle walked through the office halls, employees quickly ended conversations and searched for some work to show that they were doing. Elle approached her corner office, and her secretary, April, stood up at the sight of her. “Good morning, Elle,” said the secretary.

“What do we have today, April?” replied Elle as she walked into her office, and April followed. Elle plopped her bag down on the couch in her office, sat down at her desk, and started going through the emails on her computer as April recited the notes she had for her. “Is that it?” said Elle once April was done.

“Yes,” said April. “I’ll go prepare the Mercia conference room for our next meeting.”

April turned and started to walk away, but before she was out of the door, Elle murmured, “Uh, April…”

April did an about-face and said, “Yes?”

“Do you mind if I tell you something personal?” said Elle. “It’s perfectly all right if you say no. As a matter of fact, forget it. Forget I said anything.”

April’s head tilted slightly as she stared at Elle. She closed the door to Elle’s office, sat down in the chair in front of Elle’s desk, and said, “What’s wrong? I’m a really good listener when people give me the chance. People have been telling me that my whole life. Tell me what’s going on.”

“Well,” said Elle, fidgeting in her chair and staring at empty spaces on her desk, “I had an odd nightmare.”

“A nightmare?” said April, leaning forward in her chair and grasping her necklace. “What kind of nightmare? They usually mean something. Not that they can show you the future or anything, although my sister did have this one friend… Anyway, tell me more.”

Elle sighed and said, “I dreamt… I dreamt I had just woken up. I had just woken up, and I lived in a horrible little apartment. I had a worthless husband with a set of shithead kids. Then I went to work as a cashier at a grocery store. At night, I went home and cooked my ungrateful family dinner, and after that, we all burned off a few brain cells in front of the television. It was all just awful.” Elle’s eyes were fixed on a spot on her desk, and she was breathing heavily.

“Um… Elle?” said April, nervously. Elle looked up at her, and April said, “Maybe that’s just a dream of a type of life you would like to have. Like, the road not traveled sort of thing, ya know. What do you think?”

Elle stood up and said, “We have a meeting to get to,” and walked out of the room. At the meeting, Elle’s management team informed her that they were on track for the November 30th release date for their new version of virtual reality game software. After work, Elle had a date at the luxurious La Poule d’Or restaurant. She wasn’t very impressed with her date, so after that, she met up with some friends at the Two Olives cocktail bar for drinks. It was getting late, so Elle went home and went to bed, eager to start the next day and tackle all the work going through her head as she lay there.

Elle’s eyes sprang open as the buzz from her alarm continued to squawk. She looked at the clock on her nightstand, reading 6:30 A.M., and pressed the button to turn it off. She sat up in bed, gazed around her small bedroom, and her gaze finally landed on her husband lying next to her. Elle got out of bed and started her day.

At breakfast, one of Elle’s sons stared at her scribbling frantically in a notebook and asked, “Mom, what are you doing?”

Elle flipped a page in the notebook, did some more scribbling, and stopped. Her eyes left her notebook and went to her son. “I’m writing my dreams,” said Elle. “Maybe I can turn them into a book or something.”

“Why waste your time?” said Jake, as he plopped a piece of bacon into his mouth. “Do you know the chances of people actually paying to read a bunch of crap you’ve written down just because it passed through your head? Come on, girl.”

“That doesn’t matter,” snapped Elle. “I’m not doing it for the money. I’m doing it because if I have all these dreams down on paper, I’ll know that they’re real.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” said Jake.

“It doesn’t have to,” replied Elle, and she began writing in her notebook again.

Later on that day, Elle was at work, and it was time for her break. Instead of reading in the ValueWay break room, she decided to go to her car and take a nap.

“Elle… Elle?” Elle heard a distant voice say. “Elle, wake up.” Elle opened her eyes and saw April’s big blue eyes staring back at her. “It’s getting late, and I wanted to know if you needed anything before I went home.”

Elle sat up on the couch in her office and said, “No, you can go home.”

“Have a good evening, Elle,” said April, and she made her way towards the door.

April opened the door, but before she made it through, Elle said, “Wait… I...” April stepped back and stared at Elle, who continued with, “She’s writing about her dreams.”

“Who is?” replied April.

“The woman in my dreams,” said Elle.

“Aren’t you the woman in your dreams?” said April.

“In a way, yes,” said Elle, “but at the same time, no. The woman in my dreams dreamt she was me.”

“So that’s a good thing, isn’t it?” replied April.

“How is that a good thing?” asked Elle.

“Well…” said April, sheepishly. “It means you’re living your own dream.”

Elle sighed and said, “You can go now.”

“Thank you,” said April. “Have a good evening. See you tomorrow.”

Elle decided to go home, too. She took a long, hot bath with a glass of wine, and when she got out, she grabbed a notepad and a pen. Elle filled up page after page with every detail she could remember from her dreams. When she noticed herself starting to doze off, she got into bed and fell asleep. Then Elle woke up.