A Fairvale TaleHarry’s Dream
Setting: The downtown diner. Harry is leaning on the counter-top with Charlotte languorously draped on his shoulder. Harry is speaking to Dolly and Mona, who are seated at counter stools directly opposite Harry. All are drinking their morning coffees.
Outside of the diner, a thunderstorm is in progress.
Harry: Charlotte, Suzie and I were alone in the diner. It seemed like we were all wondering why no one else was around. I looked out the window and all of a sudden there was this total downpour. The rain just kept coming and coming and coming down, harder and harder.
Charlotte: Oh God! Now I have to go to the bathroom. Hold on a sec', I want to hear the rest. I'll be right back.
Smiles and chuckles from Harry, Dolly and Mona.
Charlotte is returning from the bathroom while Harry is refilling everyone’s cups with fresh, steaming coffee.
Harry: So, anyway, the rain was intense. And it was like, in the dream, I did a double take and the road--
A loud crash of thunder reverberates through the diner.
Harry (continues): --had become a river, slow and steady at first, but soon it was rushing along.
Next thing I know the diner’s lifted off its base and is carried downstream. At first I could see the other buildings and some trees sticking up out of the water, and I was afraid we might crash.
I looked over to see Charlotte and Suzy and they were sitting calmly at a booth building a puzzle, listening to the news on the radio-- and they were wearing life-jackets! I wondered why I didn’t have a life jacket, and try as I might, I couldn’t make out what the news was saying on the radio.
When I turned back to the window, there was nothing but water as far as the eye could see.
It was like the diner was just floating along in the middle of the ocean.
Outside, it is clear that the storm is starting to let up.
Harry (continues): We were just floating...floating... I mean, there was no possible way of knowing where we would end up.
Next thing I know we’re on land again, only the road is still a river and people are going by in boats-- canoes, rowboats, tugboats, sailboats-- all kind of boats.
All of a sudden I realize the diner is full of people, and I scramble to start taking their orders. It’s no one I know or have ever even seen. It’s weird. How do you dream of people you’ve never seen?
Anyway, worst of all, they’re ordering food I’ve never even heard of, and I’m, like, omigod! What am I going to do?
Dolly and Mona are now both smoking. Charlotte is standing beside Harry, smiling knowingly.
Harry (continues): So I look over for Charlotte and Suzy, and Suzy’s gone and I realize that, oh, she’s in school. Which seems perfectly natural even though, in the dream, we’re in some strange, unknown place. And Charlotte’s busy working away like everything’s hunky dory.
And I’m thinking, why can’t I figure out what’s going on? Why can’t I get with the program? And, of course, that’s when I wake up.
Charlotte: Well, Harry, if you can remember what any of that food was that the people in your dream were ordering maybe we can pack this place with real people we’ve never seen before. And then maybe we can afford to take a vacation, which, from the sound of that dream, is what I think you need.
All laugh. Outside, the sun is starting to poke through the clouds.