I Dream in Color

I Dream in Color

Shelby Bayer

I stood in a desolate field as tall shards of dehydrated grass scraped my legs. A wooden clock tower stood about twenty feet before me. The run-down structure lurched hauntingly in the remote cornfield, its wood warped, the clock hands at an eternal standstill. The embers of the sunset sky hugged the decrepit tower, eliminating the ominous sensation the tower alone evoked.

I felt a comforting presence to my left.

Our eyes met simultaneously as we turned our heads to see who we were.

It was him.

It was Matt.

I hadn’t seen him in years.

What were we doing here?

“Are you ready?” he asked me, as if he knew what had brought us here.

“Yes,” I replied with no hesitation.

He took the lead and guided me toward the entrance of the run-down building. I wasn’t scared. I wasn’t anything. I just was.

***

As we stepped inside the first floor of the clock tower, I saw things. Old things. I saw remnants of lives that used to be here. Dust and cobwebs encased every crevasse. Victorian style chairs unevenly balanced on broken legs. Centuries of dust hid the luxury upholstery on a couch in a room off of the hallway. The hallway was long—too long for what the perimeter of the exterior of this clock tower represented. A jagged, lonely wooden staircase caught my eye. It hugged the interior walls in a square shaped spiral ascension to the roof of the building. My neck craned back, nearly touching my spine as I tried to find where the staircase ended.

Matt was already making his way up the first step.

“Come, we don’t have much time.” He patiently demanded.

He gestured me up the stairs.

I followed.

Every step was scattered with colonial trinkets — random pieces of the past distracting my every move. Old cards, silver cutlery and children’s shoes obstructed my path. My foot landed on something and a sudden crunch emitted from beneath me. A photo in a glass frame that I had stepped on and shattered laid beneath my feet.

I picked up the broken frame, swiping away the jagged glass remains.

It was a black-and-white photo of a family appearing to be from the 1800s. None of them were smiling, but they seemed content.

I kept staring at the picture — a mother in a dress with a ruffled collar, a young boy wearing a newsboy cap, and a much older man with a handlebar mustache.

My observations were interrupted by Matt.

He was quickly making his way to the top of the staircase. He was on a mission and I didn’t know why, but he was persistent that I joined him. Whatever he needed to do, he made sure I wouldn’t miss it. He knew what was in store for us.

I gingerly set the photo back down on the stairs and followed him, not letting anything else distract me. It was then I realized this time was made for him and I.

***

We finally made it to the top of the tower.

A gust of wind hurled into our bodies as we stepped onto the roof. Matt stood in front of the massive clock and sat down, his feet dangling off the ledge. The clock was white with worn black hands—it appeared much more modern than anything else I had seen.

I sat beside him, slowly retracting my knees over the ledge. The wood was uneven and buckling. I wondered how this place was still intact.

We were so high up.

Strangely, my fear of heights didn’t exist here. None of my fears did.

I peered out ahead of me. Miles of farmland welcomed our gaze as the sunset continued settling into the earth, casting shades of pink, orange, and yellow across the sky.

We sat for I don’t know how long, watching Mother Nature put on her recital.

The world revolved around only us for once. Time didn’t feel relevant here, although we were somehow running out of it.

“Isn’t it beautiful?” he asked, not breaking eye contact with the sky.

He must have felt me looking him over. Observing him observe true beauty. His hazel eyes danced back and forth as he flitted from one perspective to the next. He was in such a state of certainty and peace—just as I remembered him. I was looking at him the way he admired the sunset.

“Keep watching, our time is almost up.”

He held out his hand for mine, his eyes still fixed beyond the horizon.

I clasped his open palm and we watched.

We watched for what seemed like forever inside of moments with an unknown expiration date.

The sun was on its final set, the atmosphere shedding its warm hues, unveiling brushes of violet, cyan blues, and deep pinks.

He looked at me as the world began to fade into grey, the colors sinking to the other side.

“There’s no more time.”

He squeezed my hand, and our world turned black.

And just like a pop-up book, every element that made up the place we were in caved in on us. The sky folded in first, and before I could panic, the clock tower collapsed with the world. We calmly watched each other as the universe swallowed us. Our eyes were the last bit of color we saw here.

“Goodbye” Matt whispered.

There was nothing after that.

Until I woke up.

***

I rubbed my eyes, tears emerging from the vividness of my dream and from seeing the person I had missed for so many years. The way our palms fit into one another’s was exactly how they had perfectly fit before he moved across the country. The way he walked. Swift yet humble. His patient urgency. The way he adapted to any environment and found beauty in the most unexpected places. I yearned for that reality again with him.

I hugged my pillow, reliving my dream over and over again.

I forcefully shut my eyes, hoping I would fall back into that same dream. I just wanted to pick up where we left off.

I couldn’t stop focusing on getting back to sleep, frustrating myself.

I scolded myself in my head.

It’s just a dream. It means nothing. Go back to bed.

The chaos of my thoughts was interrupted by a ding, redirecting my attention to my phone.

I angrily grabbed it and had to look twice at my notification, the blue light blinding me.

I squinted.

Text message from Matt.

I squinted harder.

I wasn’t seeing things.

I held my breath as I opened the text.

My mouth parted in awe as I read what he had sent me.

“I just watched the most beautiful sunset with you in my dream.”