Chimera

I was sitting at a simply furnished dining room table. I was no longer wearing the black tunic and white hosen I wore for Nivandor. Instead, I wore a green cotton t-shirt and a pair of dark jeans.

An orchid plant, lavender in color, sat centerpiece on the dining table. Beside it was a lead crystal basin filled to the brim with ripe oranges. On the wall to my left hung a rectangular digital clock-7 AM. Beside it was a joke calendar depicting a pair of mongooses posing on a tree trunk for the photographer. It was the month of April in the year 2338. The 16th was circled with a red marker. I stared at the date, trying to remember if anything significant happened on that day.

This looks familiar, I thought.

My rumination was interrupted by the sound of a woman nearby humming a soothing melody. I looked over to the kitchen and saw a woman standing beside a gas stove cooking breakfast, bacon, eggs, and hash browns from the smell of it. She wore a black apron over her beautiful emerald summer dress. Her long brown hair was tied back into a neat bun. When I recognized the woman, I nearly fell out of my chair.

“Mom,” I said.

Mother raised a hand but did not turn around.

“Almost ready!” she replied.

Not believing my eyes, I stood up from the table to greet my mother, but someone grabbed my left hand.

“Titus, where are you going?”

I turned my head in disbelief. A woman about my age was sitting at the table next to me. She had Eleanor’s voice. She had her long blonde hair tied back into a rope braid. Her vibrant smile, which could cheer you up even on your worst day, was set on her lips. She was dressed in an orange blouse and a pair of faded jeans. Her bracelet made of twelve jade beads rested on her left arm, gleaming in the low light of the ceiling lights.

“Nowhere,” I said quickly. I plopped back down on my chair.

Eleanor raised her eyebrows, released my hand, and handed me a plate of warm hotcakes topped with butter and raw maple syrup.

“It’s gonna get cold,” she chuckled. “Eat up.”

I took the plate and dug in.

The hotcakes were as warm and delicious as I remembered them to be, the melted butter and the heavy maple syrup mingled together in perfect harmony. By now, I knew I was in a dream of sorts. It was odd that I was aware of this since I was likely still in the thick of the dream. It reminded me of the Watcher Trials, a magically-induced nightmare I had to overcome in order to earn the right to become Priscilla’s cheon-sa. Yet unlike the trial, this dream wasn't trying to kill me, not yet, at least. Through tears, I wolfed down the rest of the pancakes as quickly as I could. This dream would probably end sooner than I wanted it to, and I wanted to spend as much of it speaking with her.

I set my fork and knife down to drink from my glass of orange juice when I noticed a simple golden band resting on the ring finger where my quasar ring used to be. I chanced a look at Eleanor’s left hand.

Sure enough, there was a golden ring on her finger matching my own save for a small square emerald set on top, the very gemstone she wanted on her wedding band.

I bit my tongue so hard I tasted blood.

"Are you okay?" she asked, noticing my pain.

"Oh, yah, the food's so good I bit myself, as usual! Not that I bite my tongue as usual, I meant that the food you made is amazing-how have you two been? How has everyone been?”

Eleanor giggled, her voice as bright as a wind chime.

“I got the part!” she said proudly. “There were so many people! We were standing in the waiting room for five hours since there were no chairs! Like, come on, people!”

"Sounds awful."

"But it was well worth it! By the way, you'll have to drop me off at the concert hall tomorrow."

"Right."

You loved theatre, I recalled.

Mother walked over to the table with a pan of sizzling bacon, eggs, and hash browns. When she looked at me, she smiled warmly. She looked ten years older than she should have been, but I didn’t point it out. She divided some of the food between Eleanor’s plate and mine before walking over to the other side of the table. I noticed that there were four more plates at the table.

"Do we have guests over?" I asked Eleanor.

She stared at me, clearly baffled by the question. A moment later, I heard the sound of children laughing in the other room. There were three of them playing together on a large playmat, two boys and a girl. The girl looked just like Eleanor. One of the boys looked just like me.

“Sophie, Andres, David!” Eleanor said. “Come eat breakfast!”

Sophie and Andres ran over to Eleanor as she ushered them to their seats.

"Your father forgot he had children," she said, raising her eyebrows.

"Dad's getting old," Sophie said.

Before I could respond, David waddled up to me. He hugged my leg but did not say a word. He looked into my eyes and smiled. I picked him up from the ground with trembling arms. When I made a silly face for him, he laughed, full of joy, his voice chiming in with the others like the bells of a choir.

Eleanor eventually stood up from her chair and gently took David from my arms, but not before she kissed me on the cheek.

"You've got a long day ahead of you, sweetheart," she said. "I'll finish up here."

I dug my nails into my palms as she ushered David to his seat.

Eleanor took her seat again and helped them eat their meal, doting over them as their proud mother.

I smiled. I smiled as proudly as any father would at his children.

Then I stood up from my chair and walked over to the front door of the apartment.

Of course, I didn't want to leave. But if I was indeed in a nightmare, it wouldn't be long before the dream found a way to destroy itself. Artificially induced nightmares like these had a tendency to do these sorts of things. The last thing I wanted to see was this nightmare take a chimera of mine and twist it into something cruel and vicious.

When I opened the door, I heard a chair grate against the wooden floor and someone jump to their feet.

The entire room fell silent as if someone had pressed pause on a video. I looked back and noticed that everyone was frozen in time.

Everyone but Eleanor.

Her smile had vanished.

Her fists were slightly clenched.

And she was looking at me as if I was about to push over a giant house of cards.

“Titus,” she said quietly. “Where are you going?”