Life is but a Dream

I lived a good life and a long one. I was born in Tampa, Florida. I was the oldest of four children. I had two sister, who were twins, and one brother. My family moved around a few times during my childhood, because my father was in the Air Force.

My life was not overly exciting. I won’t go into too much detail because I have no desire to bore you. I am well aware that I have a tendency to bore people. I think it has to do with my monotone voice.

As many people do, I went to high school and then college. After that I got a job selling building supplies. I worked my way up in the company until my retirement. The good lord blessed me with a wife and two wonderful children.

When I died I was 96 years young. I had been diagnosed with cancer. I wasn’t too surprised to find out I was going to die. I was an old man, and that’s just what happens. It’s an inevitable part of life. I was prepared to meet my maker. I had lived a long fulfilling life, and there was not much left for me to do in the world. I quickly deteriorated and passed away soon after.

People say that when you die you see a bright light at the end of a tunnel. Well I’m not saying they’re wrong, but that’s just not they way it happened with me. For me it was like waking up from a dream. Well, maybe it was a dream. I guess you could say I had a 60 year long vivid dream. I don’t think it was a dream though. I’ve never heard of anyone living an entire lifetime in a dream before. I believe that for some reason, I was given another chance. I don’t know why. Perhaps there was something I was supposed to go back and change, although I still don’t know what.

After I died, I woke up in my bed in Charleston, South Carolina. My wife was lying next me, looking 30 years old again. The last time I remembered seeing my wife, she was an old woman lying in her casket. I thought I had died and gone to heaven.

The blaring of my alarm clock in my ear told me otherwise. I turned it off. I felt like I was still dreaming. I turned towards my wife and just stared at her in awe. I couldn’t believe she was alive, and how much younger she looked. Then she opened her eyes and smiled at me. “Good morning,” she said, and kissed me. “I’m gonna sleep a little bit longer. You should go to work. You’re gonna be late.”

“I just had the strangest dream, baby,” I said to her. She closed her eyes and said, “You can tell me about it later. I’m really tired. Just let me sleep for a little bit.”

It was unclear to me whether I was in a dream or reality. The last thing I remembered was dying in a hospital bed, and now I was lying in my old bedroom. I went to the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror. Sure enough, I looked to be about thirty years old too, just like my wife.

I had worked at that building supply company for forty-five years. Every day for forty-five years I had the same routine. I would wake up at 6:00, get dressed, eat breakfast, and drive to work. I guess even death can’t break people of their habits because that morning, despite everything that had happened, I carried out my daily ritual and was at work by 6:30.

One strange trait that many people have is that no matter how disturbed they are feeling in their minds, they will still try to display an outward appearance of normalcy to the people around them in public. Perhaps it is because we are worried about how people will think of us. Or maybe we feel that if we pretend everything is okay long enough, eventually everything will be. I suppose I am one of those people because I was talking to my coworkers when I got to work like it was just another day at the office.

My investigation of the calendar on the wall in my office revealed that the date was October 12, 1960. There was something familiar about that day. Little details that had stuck in my mind such as a song on the radio, or a picture on a billboard. I had already lived through that day sixty years ago. I felt like I was losing my mind. The only way to keep from falling apart was to just keep on going through the motions like it was just any other day.

Of course, I did not remember every single detail of that day. It had been a long time since 1960. Luckily for me, my day was full of work to keep me busy. I was grateful I had so much to do to keep my mind from going crazy.

I used what details I could remember from the life I had already lived to my advantage. I was not surprised when I heard my boss, Bob Brown, cursing out one of the delivery drivers, because the customer was complaining his shingles were late. I told him not to bother delivering it today because a big hurricane was coming anyway.

That caught old Bob off guard. He just stared at me for a second then said, “A hurricane? I don’t remember hearing anything about that. Well, Tony, you’re lucky Jeff’s here to have your back. Don’t worry about delivering those shingles until after the hurricane.” Bob walked back to his office.

Tony turned to me and said, “Thanks, Jeff. I didn’t know there was a hurricane coming either. Where did you hear that?” I told him I heard it on the radio that morning. The truth no one knew that hurricane was coming. It caught the whole state by surprise. I just happened to remember from my previous dream life (or whatever you want to call it).

Well, it’s been about sixty years since I woke up from that strange dream. I suppose the call from the doctor is due any day now. I try not to use my superpowers too much. I don’t want people to catch on. Of course, I think I’ve convinced a handful of people that I’m some kind of psychic.

I’m not sure what’s in store for me after I die. I enjoyed my second go around at life, but I think this time I’m ready to move on to bigger and better things. Maybe I can ask the big man upstairs why he gave me that second chance at life. Sometimes I think it happened by accident, like there was a glitch in their computer system or something.

You know how people always say, “If only I could back and do it all over again.” Well I was the lucky bastard that actually got that chance. The problem is now that I’m on my second go around, there’s not a whole lot I want to change. I wouldn’t trade my life or anything in the world.