Green Blue Grey

Alot can happen while you're asleep.

Last night under my covers, I went back to store 96, in Peabody. I buttoned my denim shirt to the second button from the top and straightened my name tag as I walked out to the floor. Dana Snyder was there with a binder: "Can you please take this party?"

There was 15 guests in the party, nothing I couldn't handle. But there was Dana, reproachful, watching me become tongue tied, as I tried to explain the party process. The parents looked wary, the kids distracted. I kept smiling and tried to pull myself together while all the party guests used the bathroom.

But Dana was grabbing her purse, she was leaving the store, and there was only one other bear-builder on the floor. We made eye contact, and I ran out of the store after Dana.

My heart was pounding as I searched, trying to find her in the streets. I passed through a park laid with bricks. Where was I? She was not in the park, on the bricks, in a store. Where was she?

Then, on a busy sidewalk, I saw her walking towards me, and my heart filled with fear. I should have never left the floor, left the store, left my party. I swung around to beat her back, and bumped head-on into a stranger in a striped red shirt.

But he put his hands on my shoulders, and it wasn't it a stranger, and he told me he loved me.

I'm awake, and still confused.