I’m dreaming. I am having dinner in this very plush restaurant and the walls are covered with velvet black and I keep brushing my cheek against the wall because it feels so good. The seat is firm, covered in white leather and despite brushing my cheeks against the wall, I am sitting upright, as if this dinner is an important meeting with some exec. Everyone else around me are wearing expensive suits, the men all dressed up like some corporate lawyers and the women are tango dancers, with huge blood red rose pinned to their hair, styled in a bun. The ceiling is decorated with pink shade lamps that really look like humongous wings. They might belong to angels; they’re that beautiful. There is music playing softly in the background, it sounds like classic blues, the expert plucking of the guitar accompanied faithfully by the haunting melodies of the sax. I look around, searching for the musicians but can’t find one. Perhaps it’s a record?
“Have you decide what you want for dinner yet Nick?”
I look up and see Bobby Jean, in her chef outfit, with that tall chef hat, smiling down at me. She is glowing, a radiant that I often associate with happiness. My heart feels like it’s about to explode, I am beaming with pride. She is the owner of this restaurant.
“What do you think I should have?” I ask. She peers over my shoulder and starts reading off the menu. The sleeve of her uniform brushes against my arm and it feels soft to the touch.
“Well, for starters you can have our main dish. It’s full of Trust, with a side of Dedication and a rich sprinkle of Integrity. There’s free flow of Empathy to add to the taste and the crunchiest of Respect, I know you like that very much.”
She is mocking me but I didn’t mind at all because it looks good and my tummy is growling and needs to be feed. I look at her and grin. “I’ll take that.”
“Great! And just for you, I’ll make my famous cocktail! It has a whole lot of Learning mixed with Knowledge and the best part is, I’ll stick Independence on top.”
I love surprises, and free food. “Thanks Beej, I really appreciate that.”
“Good, because you’re not leaving until I serve you your dessert.”
“Is it a house special too?”
“Yes, it’s very special Nick. Your favourite kind, I won’t have anything less. A plate of the most mouth watering dessert full of Love, ever.”
I pat her arm and she smiles at me. “You know me so well.”
She said nothing and walks away. I tie the napkin around my neck because I am wearing my faded yellow shirt and my favourite cut off camo pants and I hate to have to wash them after only one wear. I have my new Adidas shoes on and I wriggle my toes, warm and comfortable inside, and grin. I’ve been wanting to get my hands on a pair of this shoes for a while.
BJ returns with only my dessert but I am hungry and didn’t complain. I eat slowly, because Love is such an aphrodisiac of mine, I hate to finish it up quickly. I feel full after that, I guess I don’t need much to eat, besides, doesn’t Love conquer everything?
I thank BJ for lunch, wave at her and start walking out of the restaurant. The blues music has stop, replaced by the blaring horns of the tango and I see, through the window, everyone getting up and abandoning their food to dance along. The men have a stalk of rose each in between their teeth as they tango along with their partners. I did a little waltz of my own on the street until Angel comes along with a trishaw and ask me to hop in.
“What are you doing with a trishaw?” I ask.
“I own this thing!” Angel says as she fastens her helmet and tells me to hang on. She starts pulling on the trishaw and I am worried. Surely Angel can’t pull the trishaw and me!
“Where are we going?” I ask but Angel doesn’t seem to hear me. She is running, she seems light and her dark hair flies behind her and I grab on the sides of my seat because I don’t want to fall off.
Then the ground bids us goodbye and the sky greets us like a giant piece of canvas that Pablo Picasso has painted with baby blue and wisps of white. It is peaceful, all we need is flutters of heaven’s angels flying along side us.
“Comfortable back there?” Angel asks. I smile and nod my head. Angel smiles and winks at me before turning back around.
“Where are we going again Angel?” I ask.
“Don’t you know?” I jump but am quick enough to stop myself from falling out of this trishaw. Aaron is riding on a Llama, next to the trishaw.
“Dude, is that a Llama?”
“Damn straight.” Aaron says, beaming.
“How come I get a trishaw and you get the cool Llama?”
Aaron shrugs. “It’s your dream Nick, you tell me.”
“So, I can make it spit if I want to?”
Aaron’s eyes widen. “You dare not.”
“I think I do.” I smirk; and immediately the Llama starts to spit on everything around it but none of the nasties land on me.
“We’re going to Shanghai, China, Nick.”
“Really? Why?”
“Because Kevin asks you to call him while he’s there and you did but he never answer any of your calls and it’s getting late and you’re worried.”
“So the most logical thing to do is ride a flying trishaw there?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay.”
We’re back on the ground, but this is no Shanghai. In fact, I am nowhere near China. I am in a tent; we’re out camping. I love camping and I’m glad Kevin decides to have one with me. I miss Kevin. I walk out of the camp but there is no Kevin in sight. Everything smells so sweet.
The trees smell like never ending bars of creamy dark chocolate and the leaves smells mint. The flowers are sugar icing and they glistens against the caramel droplets that stick to them. I pick on a mushroom that is really vanilla ice cream and starts licking them as I make my way deeper into the woods.
There’s a group of really skinny people talking to each other and comparing their skeletal looking bodies. One of them actually begins counting her ribs. I find Leslie in the crowd and she has lost a lot of weight. She is slimmer than Angel, in fact, she’s too skinny, I almost didn’t recognise her. Her dim blue eyes glimmer a little when she sees me and beckons me over.
“Leslie, what is this? Why are you like this?” I ask.
“Do you like it Nick? Don’t you think I’m beautiful now?”
“You were never not beautiful, Leslie.”
“You say that because you’re my brother.”
“No, I’m being honest.”
She smiles and start munching on a blade of leave and then push her index finger in and starts throwing up all over the place. I drop my ice cream to the ground and stops Leslie from killing herself.
“Why are you doing this Les? You’re killing yourself!”
“I just want to be beautiful Nick, so everyone will love me.”
“You can’t have everyone love you Les. Some will hate you, but that’s okay, because the ones who matter love you.”
“I don’t think mom and dad love me.”
“You have me, I love you.”
“You do?”
“Always.”
Leslie is eating a bark of chocolate when I wave her goodbye. I make my way out of the woods to find Kevin. There is a golden duck waddling and he offers to bring me to Kevin. I thank him and touch his beak to see if it’s really gold and then marvel at the fact that it is, indeed, gold, and we walk out of there and into the studio.
AJ was playing with the mixing board and the whole place is blaring with some Euro dance song and then it loops into some guitar riffs and heavy drums and someone sounding like he’s roaring into the mic and then it loops back to some Euro beats and I have a headache. I want AJ to stop playing with the mixer but my jaw is hurting and doesn’t want to talk to anyone, not even my buddy AJ.
“Here, take three of this and you’ll be fine,” AJ says as he drops something on my open palm. I look at it and find 3 M&M’s (with nuts in the middle!) coloured Purple, Blue and Orange. I put them all in my mouth and start chewing. Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!
The headache is gone!
“Thanks AJ.”
“Sure Nicky. Now go in and record this song.”
“Are you going to sing it with me?”
“Of course. We’ll do this together.”
But AJ isn’t in the dark booth with me and I am all alone. I clasp my hand together like I’m about to pray and hang my head down, staring at the silhouette of my own shoes, I say, “Forgive me father for I have messed up.”
“Are you even Catholic Nick?”
I turn to my side and try to peer into the small holes to see the person on the other side even though I don’t need to do that to know who it is. “Brian, what the fuck are you doing pretending to be a priest?”
“Nick, you’re not supposed to swear in here!”
“And you’re not supposed to be going around posing as a priest! That’s sinful!”
“You know, I could just end up being one if Kevin hadn’t made that call and I become a Backstreet Boy.”
“But you’re not a priest, Brian.”
“I could have.”
“But you’re not.”
“And I could have.”
“But, you’re not.”
“Nick.”
“Brian.”
“Wanna go ride on the chicken with me?”
“You have those?”
“Sure!”
“Okay, but, can we eat them after that?”
“Of course! Just don’t tell them, they’ll get really pissed and then we won’t get to ride on them.”
“Okay!”
There are two chickens waiting for us and once we hop on them, they flap their wings and say, “Up, up, and away!” but we didn’t fly, like the trishaw or the flying Llama, instead, the chickens start running and clucking and I hold on tight and look over at Brian.
He is grinning at me and waving his hands and I brave myself and wave back. Brian is now standing up, like a surfer on his board. He is yelling at the top of his voice and pretending to duck the imaginary waves coming our way. I laugh because he makes me laugh and then my phone rings.
“Kevin?”
“Hey Nicky, it’s Howie.”
“Howard! How are you bud?”
“Good, good. Look Nick, I just want to say not to worry about Kevin okay? He’s here with me in China, we’re doing good.”
I let out a huge sigh of relief. Thank God. “So you’re both okay?”
“Yes, we’re doing great Nick. Look, the reason why Kevin wants you to call is to ask if you want to be his partner is the three-legged marathon race next week.”
“Wow, do I get to wear a ski mask?”
“Sure, Kevin said he’s thinking of wearing matching goggles too.”
“That’s awesome. Tell Kevin I say okay!”
“Great, I’m sure he’ll be thrilled about that. Oh, and he’s not really leaving the group, he’s coming back to the studio next week.”
“That is awesome Howie! Maybe this is exactly what he needs, a change of air to think things through.”
“Yeah, if we know it’s gonna take the air in China to do that, I’d take him sooner.”
“Me too!” I say excitedly. Kevin’s not leaving the group, how awesome is that?
“Ni ming pai mah?”
“Howie?”
“Ni yau pu yau?”
“Dude you’re talking nonsense man.”
“Nick, ni pen tan!”
I hang up the phone because Howie is talking Chinese and I understand only one thing that is said, and that is my name. Unless ‘Nick’ means something else in Chinese.
I lay back down on my bed and close my eyes. I feel so tired all of a sudden. I fall back into sleep, the hands of dreams bidding me goodbye.
I wake up to the phone ringing. I am disoriented for a few seconds, figuring out where I am right now. I’m in my bed, with a magazine, facedown, on my chest. I push it away and the page I had been reading before I dozed off stares back at me. It’s a picture of a delicious chocolate sponge cake with melted chocolate inside it. The headline said, ‘This, is Love.’ I also remember wondering if BJ could figure out the recipe and make one for me.
I grabbed my cell phone on the side table, it was sitting on a cellphone stand shaped like a trishaw – a gift from a fan in China.
My room smell of fried chicken but I dismiss the thought as I answered the phone. “Lo?”
“Nick.”
“Kevin?”
“You’re supposed to call me hours ago.”
I yawned and the room still smell like chicken. “I did but all I get is some dude speaking Chinese man.”
“Did you try again?”
“I was going to…”
“But?”
“I kind of, sort of, fell asleep.”
He chuckled. I smiled. “So, how’s China?”
“She’s great.”
“Howie?”
“Good.”
“You?”
“Good. Everyone’s good in China, Nick.”
“That’s good.”
I remembered! I ate fried chicken for dinner and was reading a magazine in bed while chewing on minty candy cane that Leslie bought for me and humming to one of the tracks that AJ and I recorded earlier before falling asleep.
“Hey, you think you can spare this old man some time next week for lunch?”
Kevin got my attention. “When?”
“Wednesday.”
“I can do Wednesday.”
“I don’t think the Adams will be pleased to hear that Nicky.” Ha, Kevin made a joke! Ha! “Do you think you can stop giggling for a second and remember to jot this down somewhere?”
“I’m storing it in my sidekick this very moment Kev. Who jots down stuff anymore anyway? Update yourself old man.”
Now it’s his time to laugh. I smile. “So…this is just a normal lunch date right? You’re not going to throw some huge news at me right?”
“You have lunch dates with guys?”
“Shut up.”
“Just a normal…date…no big news.”
We said our goodbyes with promises to meet next week on Wednesday and then I was back on my own, in this room, in this very comfortable bed and decided I was too tired to do anything else but sleep. Maybe dream will come find me again.
Author's Chapter Notes:
It's been a while huh? I decided I should slowly start writing again and the outcome is this short fic for now. Hope you like it :)
