Dreams, A Nightly Journey
Time Traveling with Maxwell
He always wondered about the possibilities time travel having read enough science fiction stories and novels over his many decades on planet earth. He also was fascinated by science fact as it was taught in the schools he attended over the years. Black holes, and worm holes the curvature of space and the space-time continuum were real things. Einstein’s theory of relativity was more than a simple formula that was derived from years of study and blackboards filled with complex equations no, it was the key to the means by which time can be slowed down or sped up, and if it (time) could be controlled with some kind of celestial accelerator, than maybe, just maybe one could insert himself into the mix and hitch a ride on the continuum.
Max lived a long and productive life, one filled with many joys and the usual mix of anxieties and sorrows. He took a while to wake up his sexual self, but once it did snap to attention he was able to enjoy the many pleasures of many attractive and exciting young women. He seemed to have knack of appealing to many, and with a few exceptions could have any woman he fixed his desires on. He would spot a young woman, lock eyes, start a conversation and inevitably it proceeded along the usual paths of seduction and pleasure. Happily there were few complications and with his hand firmly on the controls his alpha male charms left them wanting more as he left them behind.
The years they roll by, and after schooling was completed and a career is underway, people tend to settle down, to find a routine that is both comforting and familiar. Friends drop out, or are “pulled out” by their girlfriends, and the most eligible young women start to have expectations and demands and even…ultimatums. Most men find themselves alone, or isolated, or in a committed relationship. Marriage followed by children and grandchildren comes along at a pace so rapid one starts to look back in terms of decades, and a shrinking future as the days behind long outweigh the days ahead. And so it was with Max, he looked at himself in the mirror and at his mate, his wife of forty years- yup Max too fell prey to a cagey female-he looked in the mirror, into his eyes and into his life and wondered what had happened. He still felt the same as he did forty years ago, still had the same desires, wants and needs, but somehow they were all out of reach. He was, for all intents and purposes invisible to all those beautiful young women who lined up at one time begging for his attention a moment of his time. That’s when something wonderful started happening.
His weight gain and the maturation of his soft palate had made sleeping in the same room with his wife next to impossible. Too many nights he would reach over to find the space next to him empty as she retreated to the couch. He offered to take his turn on the leather sofa, but she was comfortable with the current arrangement. They eventually arranged for what was now referred to as a sleeping divorce; separate bedrooms with their own sleep schedule. Any possibilities of intimacy (aka sex) a thing of the distant past. He kept himself clean, well washed, deodorized, shaved and trim and fit, and as far as that ED thing…no problem in that department, old “Willy” was in perfect working order, the problem was finding a place to put it.
Every night he would crawl into bed, close his eyes, shift his weight, move his legs about, and then start to have visions that were not conscious thoughts so much as a picture show, a movie projected on the backs of his eyelids and then deeper into his brain. He would lose consciousness and fall into a deep sleep. That is when he began to travel back in time.
His trips were short, and characterized by being dropped into the middle of a scene. He didn’t know how he got there, more importantly he didn’t care, he was there and it was as real as any waking experience. Sometimes he was at work, or driving along a country road, or walking through backyards of familiar homes or the many rooms of a large house. And while there was always a familiarity of the surroundings, a comfort, they were never repeats of prior experiences, they were new and unique.
The reason he considered them “time travel” was based on the simple fact that in these dreams he was a young man again…unmarried and unattached with no memory of having ever been married, much less still being married, more like being dropped into his life forty years ago. And the best dreams involved all those beautiful young women. He was once again desired and desirable and the women, all those drop dead gorgeous women were there ready and waiting.
He had many of these dreams and they were best remembered when he first woke by keying in on a word to trigger the memory in his waking hours. Waking up in the morning and trying to remember a dream without that key was like trying to remember someone’s name you once knew or what you were just talking about a few minutes earlier, you knew something was there, but not quite sure what. By recalling that key word and remembering the dream, the whole dream brought the joy to life again in the sunlight of the following day. It was a beautiful experience, to be young and free again.
On a recent night he came into the scene sitting at a picnic table with a beautiful young woman with a bush of brown hair. Her olive complexion and brown eyes suggested she might be of mixed race. She leaned on the table with both elbows but her gaze was fixed on him. There were feelings, strong feelings, mutual feelings, ones he had not forgotten over time, that feeling of strong desire for someone, that feeling one has when they first fall in love. He loved this woman, and she was smiling at him. In the back of his head, where memories hide, he knew he had been intimate with this beautiful vision, he had made love to her. And probably more than once.
His attention was then drawn to another woman who had walked up with a mutual friend. She stopped about fifteen feet away and turned to the side. He could only see her in profile, her right profile and he immediately recognized her. Her blond hair was pulled up around her head, and her smooth white skin was highlighted with a ruby blush. She wore a flowered dress that fluttered around her calves, and she was barefoot. She was looking at him with an expression that was mixed, innocence, and hurt. She was looking at the woman seated beside him. “Run…run away now,” the mutual acquaintance advised her, and with that he jumped up to stop her. In his mind and heart he knew he cared for her, loved her deeply. He closed the gap before she could react and wrapped both his arms around her waist and drew her close. She leaned back a bit, but did not resist, and she drew the lower part of her body close to his. “You know I love you,” he said, and he meant it, and she put her head on his shoulder. He looked back at the young woman still seated at the picnic table with a look of betrayal on her face. Her hands were in her lap and she looked like she was ready to burst into tears. Still holding his blond he looked back at her at the table and honestly, with genuine heartfelt emotion told her he loved her too. “What we need to do,” he said to both of them, “Is set some ground rules.” And he was awake and back in his bed.
“Ground rules” he thought as he threw back the covers, staggered out of bed to release his bladder. “Ground rules” he thought and might even have said out loud. Finished he returned to his bedroom, closing the door behind him, crawled back into bed with a hope, a wish, a prayer to find his way back to that dream. And there he was. The brunette from the picnic table (he didn’t even know her name) was there in an alley standing next to a door. The mutual friend was there standing next to her as though to protect her this time. She was leaning against the door frame, her head down ,but her eyes up looking at him when she said, “I’m pregnant.” His first thought…how am I going to work this out with that beautiful blonde and stay with the mother of my child? Such problems to have as a young man, but what wonderful problems they were.