A Road Less Travelled

Here is the first series of vignettes based on Adiel’s suggested phrase “It was almost like a dream,” If you have no idea what I’m talking about just read the comments here. If you would like to suggest a phrase to help kickstart my creativity just leave a comment there.

It was almost like a dream. She had been focusing so hard on her hands in the rich garden dirt she hadn’t heard him bark until he was almost upon her. She turned at the last moment and threw her arms out wide as he tumbled into them. A laugh burst from her throat for the first time since he’d vanished last week. They wrestled in the sun, laughter mixing with joyous barking.

It was almost like a dream. The sun shone off of her golden hair as he walked through the meadow towards her. She was bent over a notebook, no doubt writing a letter to him. He tried to be quiet, but the clink of his medals betrayed him. Her head snapped up at the noise and then she was buried in his arms, the letter forgotten. He held her close, never noticing that they were ruining the perfect creases in his uniform. He didn’t plan on needing that uniform anymore.

It was almost like a dream. I came to the window when he yelled “Look at me, Mommy!” I saw him poised at the top of the slide, I saw the tricycle, I saw the rock at the bottom. A shout formed in my mouth, but time stopped as he pushed off. The pedals whirled as he and the tricycle plummeted down the slide. I shouted, “No!”, but it was far too late. He hit the rock at the bottom and the great trick ended in a tangle of metal frame and little boy. Time started again and I rushed to him. I unearthed my little boy and found him smiling at me. “Cool, huh?”

It was almost like a dream. I was driving down a lonely road when I saw the first one. I slammed my foot on the brakes when he stepped into the light of my headlights. We stared at each other, his brown, soulful eyes staring into my brown, startled eyes. He looked away first, glancing over his shoulder to summon the rest of his herd. They crossed the road behind him, calmly, orderly, silent in the night. When the last speckled body was across and had vanished into the trees he bowed his antlered head to me and rejoined his herd. I didn’t move for a long time.