Dee watch out! yelled Marc, while frantically pressing his foot deep into the floorboard below him in a desperate attempt to stop the car with a brake pedal that just wasn’t there!

“That was seriously close Dee! Could you not tell that you were veering off the side of the road?!” shouted Marc, with both of his hands still planted firmly on the dash.

“My response was utter silence. To say that I went completely numb while Marc was yelling in fear would be an understatement. Shaken up and a tad confused I struggled hard to regain my bearings. With my eyes now wide open and beaming straight ahead. And my hands firmly fixed on the steering wheel gripped at ten of two. I could do nothing but gaze and pant. We drove for the next five miles or so without saying a single word to each other. To be honest, after about the third mile or so. I felt I could talk again but I just didn’t know what to say. Sorry just didn’t seem sufficient enough to cover the cost of almost taking a man’s life a day before hisbirthday. With my nerves finally settling down and my composure slowly but surely returning. The reality of what had just happened started coming back home to roost. Finally, Marc broke through the brutal silence and asked,

“Are you okay?”

With my head and eyes still fixed straight ahead. And my hands still locked at ten of two on the steering wheel. I answered, “not really.” I knew as soon as those words rolled off of my tongue that there was no turning back. It was the third time in less than two weeks that I had nodded behind the wheel and nearly crashed. In my heart, I was done with guarding my secret. But in my head, I had an ego to protect. Confession was now asking for its time at center stage. And I knew that it was about time for me to grant it its request.

“Marc, I haven’t slept for more than two to three hours a night since a little before Thanksgiving.”

“Did you just say Thanksgiving?”

“Yes, I haven’t gotten a good six to eight hours of solid sleep since before Thanksgiving,” I repeated, as I was rolling up the window that I had cracked to help me stay awake.

“So why only two to three hours per night?”

“Well, before I answer that, how about we finish this conversation over at Big Joe’s. I was too tired to eat during the break today, so I just did what I usually do.”

“And what is that?”

“Well, for the past few weeks or so, I have been wolfing down a small salad or a couple pieces of fruit for lunch and catching a nod or two on the lounger in my office.”

“Say what?! Are you serious?! Is that why I wasn’t seeing you go out for lunch anymore when I was on the morning shift?” asked Marc, as we were pulling into the parking lot of Big Joe’s.

“Well, yeah. For the most part it was,” I replied, with my mind now distracted by the tantalizing thought of indulging in my weekly reward for healthy eating. “Well look out Hippo Hoagie because here we come!” I said excitedly.

“Yeah, let’s make this happen cap’n!” said Marc.

“Big Joe’s makes the absolute best Hippos in all of Bokenston! Then again, I take that back. Big Joe’s makes the best Hippos in all of Georgia!” I stated while undoing my seat belt. “Dinner is on me tonight Marc! How many Hippos are you in the mood for guy? Hey, let’s hurry up and grab a table! It’s a quarter after seven and you know that bingo bus gets hereearlyon Fridays,” I stated as we were heading through the entry doors of Big Joe’s.

Big Joe’s specialty is pit-smoked bar-b-que! And the tantalizing aroma of their briskets stretches clear across the four lane highway that runs straight past its front door.

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“A table for two please?” I said to the hostess at the door. Once we were seated, I looked around and couldn’t help but notice just how empty Big Joe’s was, especially for a Saturday evening. However, it was just perfect for Marc and I. Because now we could chat without having to yell. Well, as you may have already guessed, before we could even place our order, Marc was back on the case!

“Alright, how about you make it happen cap’n? How come you’re only sleeping a few measly hours a night?”

“Marc, the reason is… the reason I’m not sleeping well…

“Come on, spit it out! The reason is what?”

“The reason is… The reason is fear!” I blurted out embarrassingly.

“Fear?!” repeated Marc, with that same look on his face that he had back in the car.

“Donny, Marc, how are you boys doing this evening?!” exclaimed our waitress Naomi, who had arrived at our table to take our order.

“Great Naomi, and you?!” I answered hurriedly, purposely trying to keep Marc from mentioning what I had just shared with him.

“Absolutely wonderful now that my two favorite men in all of Bokenston are here!

What’ll it be guys, your usual? asked Naomi just before firing off our entire order back to us without missing a beat. “Two Hippos with everything, one with hots, one without, two double fries and two extra large sweet teas?”

“Yes mam you got it! Oh, and the biggest pot of hot coffee that you guys have for Dee please?”

“No problem. Will that be it?”

“That’ll be it!” I replied.

Now wouldn’t you know it, before Naomi could even take up our menus, Marc was back on it!

“Okay, spit it out! What’s going on with you and this lack of sleep stuff?!”

“Well, let me see, where shall I start?” I replied, as I was handing Naomi our menus.

“Well, it’s like I said, the issue seemed to have started about a couple of weeks after Thanksgiving.”

“This past Thanksgiving?” asked Marc, while turning his cell phone completely off and nudging it over to the side of him.

“Yeah, that’s right. As you may well remember, me, Bella and Grace spent last Thanksgiving in Texas with my dad and Ebony.”

“Yeah, I remember that. You guys stayed for about a week or so didn’t you?”

“Yeah, that’s right. A week and two days to be exact. However, to be completely honest, I’m not exactly sure of the exact date that they started,” I stated, while looking down at the table in an effort to minimize the shame.

“They started?” asked Marc, with enough intrigue in his voice that you would have thought I was trying to explain Einstein’s theory of relativity to him.

“Yeah, the dreams. Well, a recurring dream that is.”

“OK, so it’s one dream that you have been having over and over again?” asked Marc, in a low but slightly above a whisper tone as a waitress was passing by.

“Yeah, that’s correct,” I replied, greatly appreciating the fact that he didn’t blurt it out loud.

“Dee, before we go any further, how is Bella dealing with this?”

“Well, great I guess? However, that may be due to the fact that I haven’t mentioned any of this to her yet.” I kind of muttered under my breath.

“What do you mean you haven’t told her yet?!”

“Dang it Marc! Could you say that just a little bit louder please?! Look, if it makes you feel any better, I did tell my dad.”

“So you told your dad before you told Bella? Are we seriously about to sit here and discuss something that you haven’t even discussed with your wife yet?”

“Well yeah, I guess?!”

“So why haven’t you told her yet?”

“I don’t know, it’s a man thing I guess.”

“A man thing, how so?”

“Well, how about you try to look Rhonda in the eyes and commence to tell her that you are afraid of a dream. Look, a man being afraid to admit a loss of income or something of that caliber makes sense. But a two hundred and eighty nine pound fitness coach, confessing to his wife that he is afraid to go to sleep for fear of a dream, could cost me some man points.”

“That is utterly ridiculous!” said Marc, with his chin resting in the palm of his hand and his elbow propped up on the edge of the table. “So what did your dad have to say about the dreams and you’re not sleeping?”

“He thinks I’m nuts.”

“Mr. Monroe thinks your nuts? What makes you think that?” asked Marc, with his eyes locked on mine with a piercing stare.

“He mentioned something about mental illness running in our family and suggested that I seek professional help.”

“You mean a shrink?”

“Yeah, a good friend of his to be exact,”

“Ok, so why all of the secrecy with everybody else?”

“Well, it’s the same thing. I find my issue to be quite embarrassing. A twenty nine year old man trying to avoid sleep for fear of a recurring dream? Admit it Marc, that sounds wimpy and you know it.”

“No, I can’t say that I agree with you there,” said Marc, while signaling me with his eyes that our waitress Naomi was approaching me from behind with our meals.

“Dinner time gents!” announced Naomi, as she was placing our food on the table.

Noticing that Naomi was curiously looking at us in an unusual back and forth manner, I tried my best to avoid full eye contact with her. I could tell that Marc had picked up on it too. Since when I looked across the table at him, he was eagerly scrolling through a cellphone that I knew was turned off. Then it happened! The words that I was dreading to hear the most came straight out of her mouth. With one foot crossed over the other and her hand on her hip. Naomi shifted her weight to the hand that she had resting on our table and said, “I ain’t leaving this table until somebody tells me what’s going on over here!”

Fearing that if I gave Marc an opportunity to respond, that he could unintentionally make things worse. I headed him off at the pass.

“Tomorrow is Marc’s birthday!”

“Oh Really?” said Naomi, while looking over at Marc.

“Oh yeah! And he’ll be the big three one!” I whispered loudly, with one hand cupped at the side of my mouth as if I was trying to keep what I was saying a secret.

“Is that what all of the whispering and eye shifting over here was all about? Well happy early birthday to you Marco!”

“Thank you Naomi,” replied Marc. But then, after taking one more look over at me, followed by another glance over at Marc, Naomi burst out in uncontrollable laughter.

“Dude, you won’t have a legal reason to be concerned about getting old for another fifty or sixty years!” said Naomi, while leaning over the table practically in tears. Finally, she wiped her eyes, straightened up her apron, and proceeded to leave our table. “You boys enjoy your meals alright,” stated Naomi, as she walked away from our table with laughter still spewing out of her like candy from a pinata.

“What? Did I say something wrong?” I asked Marc, who was now bearing down on me with the evil eye.

“Okay that crap was embarrassing to the tenth power!” said Marc.

Unfortunately though, Marc’s reaction caused me to start laughing as well.

“I guess you see what I mean now?” I said to Marc, with tears in my own eyes now.

“No I do not! How about we just pay for this food and get out of here before you fall asleep at this table and force me to have to explain to everybody why you fell asleep!” stated Marc rather loudly.

“Ouch guy! Look, I’m sorry alright. She kind of caught me off guard and I didn’t know what else to say.”

“Forget about it Dee. Let’s just get a couple of to-go boxes and get out of here.”

“Yeah okay, I feel more comfortable finishing our conversation in the car anyways.”

Once we got our boxes, we packed up our food, left Naomi a tip on the table and headed for the exit.

“Have a good night guys,” said the hostess as we were leaving.

“Thank you, and you do the same,” we replied.