WEIGHTED DREAMS

 WEIGHTED DREAMS.

Harry was 28yr old paralegal at mid-tier law firm whose days and nights revolved around his work. His parents died in a car accident while on their way to his high school graduation. He blamed himself ever since. That morning of the graduation, he had left home earlier because he was school president and therefore needed to go over some last minute preparations before the ceremony. When the ceremony started and his parents were not there yet he called them several times but they didn’t pick up. At first he was worried then his worry soon turned into deep panic. His mind zoned out as he tried to figure out why they weren’t there yet. When his name was called, he didn’t hear it. His classmate who was sitting next to him, tapped him. He was startled back to reality. He heard his name and confusedly stood up and headed towards the stage. He took his diploma and went right back to his seat. After the ceremony, he was called to the principal’s office. He was so defeated. He had really hoped his parents would see him graduate. Walking into the principal’s office is the 1st thing he remembered when he woke up in hospital. The school principal was there, again. When Harry was stable enough, Mr. Julius broke the news to him again. His parents had died in a car accident while on their way to his graduation. Harry remained quiet for days. He wouldn’t eat. They had to forcefully feed him. He left the hospital on the day of the burial. He couldn’t bring himself to write a tribute. He was still heavily in denial.

As a top performing student, he had several scholarships waiting for him. He joined university to study law a year after that. He studied hard, managed to graduate and get a job. He thought having a job was going to be fulfilling but it was the most draining thing ever. He had never fully recovered from losing his parents. He never talked about them and every day it slowly ate away at him. This affected his relationships. He fell into depression without realizing it. One evening after work, he decided to go to the cinema to break his monotonous lifestyle. He got some popcorn and sat in his seat on the last row. It wasn’t a popular movie so the cinema was only 1/3 full. Most of the people sat in the middle rows. Harry quietly fell asleep and fell off his chair. Nobody had him fall because of the high volume in there. He was too sleepy to pull himself up so he decided to just sleep there, telling himself that he would wake up after the boring movie was over. The janitor came in to check the room after the movie but she had had a long day hence did not check the last five rows. She decided to clean the place the next morning.

When Harry woke up, he was all alone in there. He pulled his phone from his pocket. It was at 3% and had no reception. He hurriedly got up, trying to leave. He bumped into seats and walls until he finally came to the door. The hallway was dimly lit. He saw the fridge at the receptionist desk and went to get something to eat. The fridge was locked. He was so confused but managed to remember where the entrance door was. He went there and it was locked. There was no guard around. The guards were having a chat just outside the main gate as they always do every night. He tried screaming but his voice just wouldn’t come out. He took out his phone again, it went off immediately.

He heard a child crying. He slowly followed the sound. The lights started flickering. The sound was coming from inside the cinema hall. He slowly went in. His parents were on the screen holding a new born baby, him. He proceeded to watch all his favorite childhood memories, all the nights he had cried himself to sleep without his parents knowing. The 1st time he was bullied, his 1st steps, all of it. It was all on the big screen. How you may ask? Had the big screen tapped into his mind? He didn’t know. His eyes were glued to the screen like a bee to honey. Tears started rolling down his cheek when he watched the 1st time he had ever had an argument with his parents. He was 14 at the time. His parents had refused to let him go to a party. He yelled at them. He was grounded for a week following that incident.

Then came the morning of the graduation when his parents died. He saw his parents for the last time that morning. He watched how he went to the principal’s office to receive the news and how he woke in hospital. He watched how every other day after that had played out. When it got to where he was seated in the cinema, the screen went off for about 30seconds then it lit up again. This time, it started from the morning of the graduation. It showed his parents on their way to the ceremony. They arrived and watched him graduate. They took pictures, went for dinner together that night then went home. It showed him how his life would have played out if his parents had not died. In this story, he went on to work for his parents in their laundromat which he eventually inherited and expanded. Then the screen went off again.

It came back on and it started again on the morning of his graduation. This time, during dinner, he told his parents that he had decided to study medicine abroad. His parents were happy for him. He went on to become the best neurosurgeon in his country, having done multiple successful lifesaving surgeries. In this story, he got married and had four children with his wife. He also had constant migraines and thus developed and addiction for painkillers. He had the perfect job, the perfect house, the perfect family and the perfect social life. Then the screen went off again.

This kept happening over and over again. All the versions of his life that he had dreamt of along with all his worst case scenarios kept playing on the screen. The one where he was a successful musician, the one where he worked an underpaid job at the city council, the one where he became a racecar driver, the one where he travelled the world, the one where he married the wrong woman. All of it. All of the organized and disorganized chaos in head was showing on the screen. At the end of the last one, he saw his parents. They spoke directly to him. They told him to go live his life. They told him to wake up from his thought patterns. They told him that life had a few good things lined up for him in the future but he needed to wake up from zombie mode and live his life.

When morning came, the janitor found him asleep on the floor just near the door. She woke him up and asked how he had gotten into the cinema. He explained that he had been locked up in there the whole night. The management paid him a settlement so that he didn’t tell anyone but he really couldn’t tell anyone what had happened. He actually had no idea if he had dreamt the whole experience. Two days after that, he went to his parents’ gravesite to lay flowers.

**** the end****