Dream On

I had another dream about Mom.

This time, she came to my house in her old lime-green Impala that she used to drive when I was a little kid. In the real world, this car had rusted in our driveway for over five years after it broke down, before they finally hauled it away. But now here it was, working again. The back was full of boxes. Her parakeets were there too, making the usual racket from their cage.

I was pissed because she was wearing herself out coming up to see me like this. Mom said she'd had it with the Midwest and was on her way to the East Coast. I panicked and told her I would get her a plane ticket right away so she wouldn't have to drive. She laughed and said she was doing just fine.

"But you don't even have a license!" I said.

"I just got one yesterday." she replied, and smiled. And then I noticed that she looked younger than I remembered. She wasn't even wearing her oxygen cannula anymore.

Right around then I started to figure out it was a dream, but I deliberately ignored the idea because I wanted it to go on for as long as possible.

I ran to the car as she was making her way out of the parking lot and gave her a huge hug and said embarrassing stupid emotional things.

Then she drove away, heading on down the road to the East Coast, and I stood in the parking lot crying harder than I've cried in years because Mom was actually dead, and this was only a dream.