Purple Dream, Black Book

Purple Dream, Black Book

Chapter One: Creatures

Strumming the guitar my father began to sing in his ancient tongue. Although I was only two years old at the time, I still to this day can recall the melody. First in native tongue then in English, he would play until my eyes were heavy enough to say shut.

“Though we may go through many trials, we have angels and warriors by our side, let the light in you shine as your ride the waves of this magical tide”

“Is she asleep yet? We have business to attend to.” Uncle Ron stumbled into the room smelling of cigarettes, whiskey, and peppermint. Most of my dreams began that way, the rhythm of my father’s guitar and the scent of my uncle. It took me to caves in the deepest forests, there is where I made friends with creatures. As soon as I entered the dream state the creatures would grab my hand and say:

“Come along my friend, let us travel across the bend, where no man goes, but those that know their spirit can play to and fro”

“Here abundance reigns, there is no pain, and gold rivers will always flow.”

The spirits would sing and dance with drums and drinks, thanking the great creator for their beating hearts. I was always in awe by the amount of gold in their village, it seemed to reign down from the heavens. They shared their riches without bounds. I never asked them for anything, but once one of the gnomes handed me a glistening coin “Here sweetheart take this, they wither on earth but never here.”

These creatures told me they lived beyond the veil. These dreams were so vivid at first, better than 4k, I could see, hear, and feel my reality. Everything adults later told me was fantasy existed in that space, fairies, dragons, gnomes all had many stories to tell and adventures to transpose.

Those who told me these friends didn't exist, I used to call them ‘dream-robbers’. You could see it in their eyes when they no longer believed there was more. A lot of adults had this glossy haze in their eyes, barricading them from awe and wonder. Other adults still had the spirit of these secret dreamlands. Those that did, when we faced one another I could hear the strumming of my fathers' guitar reminding me of my cave dreams.

When father passed just after my third birthday I remember him coming into my dreams and singing through them, but only the melody, no words, no language just pure vibration that I could feel through my bones.

Although I was asleep, somehow I was humming along, dancing, swaying, harmonizing.

"Nevada, what are you doing!? If you don't stop this sleepwalking shit.. we’re gonna have to transfer you to another foster."

Fiona placed her hand on my shoulder her acrylic nail gripping into my skin.

"You damn near give Walt a heart attack when he hears footsteps in the middle of the night. You’re lucky he's slow to grab his gun."

Chapter Two: School Dreams

As I reached for my handy mont blanc pen, I realized it was nowhere to be found. I took a deep breath.. that was my dad's... damn. Of course, my backpack had a hole in it. My pencil case must have fallen out; this is the stuff that doesn't happen to most juniors. Everyone else in my grade seemed to have it all together, setting themselves up with the perfect formulas to get into Ivy leagues and soon after transforming into senior executives.

The only thing in sight was my leaky capless dry-erase. I grabbed the purple marker just as the 'notecard of the day’ came around.

"Hello class, today we’re going to be working on goal setting. The importance of goal setting has set the outliers aside from the average as they set out to accomplish dreams they had in the past. Today we will be setting the goals for five years from now."

Mrs. Dwyer began to scribble illegibly on the board

"What career path would you like to have? What position would you like to hold? What soft and hard skills do you need to attain those goals? You have ten minutes to write down your goals and then we will share them aloud with the class."

I sat there with my mind landing on the idea of $20,000, and the creatures of my dreams. You could call it daydreaming, I was somewhere in clouds. I wondered if I was having the same dreams outliers had. Which one was more real?

Mrs. Dwyer looked up from her timer, "3 minutes left".

I looked down at my paper laying there blank then glanced around at everyone zoned in on writing their bullet points. I felt my hands begin to doodle out “$20,000.”

“Times up.” Mrs. Dwyer exclaimed. “Dana, we’ll start with you clockwise and we’ll end up with Nevada.”

Dana flipped her ombre french braid over her shoulder and happily read out “I want to be a lead anchor for news and the weather. Through my current internship I have built up a certain rapport with my seniors, and I'm hoping they’ll promote me to an anchor in five years’ time.”

As the class went on to speak about their goals from NBA players to Doctors I was entranced by their stories. I could see how each one of them already embodied the characteristics of what they wanted to accomplish.

“Nevada? Could you share with the class?” I flipped over my notecard.

Mrs. Dwyer read out “$20,000?” She squinted in confusion. “Would you explain further in detail for us?”

I cleared my throat. “Sure.. by the time I graduate from this school I'll be making $20,000 a month.” I said off the top of my head. I didn't really know why I wrote 20,000 but that was the first thing that came to me when 10 minutes felt like 10 seconds.

“Aren’t you the foster girl?” one of the guys began to giggle.

“Is that all you wrote? $20,000 isn't under the SMART goals framework."

Mrs. Dwyer shook her head demeaningly “honey, I was looking for something more tangible than that, I want you to go home, think about your goals, and share again tomorrow.”

Chapter Three: Dreams of Home

On the way home I went to the bus grabbing my wallet from the small zipper of my backpack. My hand went right through the whole "Shit" I said in disbelief. I looked up at the bus driver ashamed,

"Sir I'm sorry I don’t have it today, I'll give double tomorrow." As I slowly raised my eyes I saw nothing but smiles,

"It's okay sweetheart, don’t you worry about it, there’s more where that came from, go ahead and take a seat.”

As I looked into his green eyes, I began to hear my father’s song with birds and creatures of the forest chiming in, ringing in my ears it played all the way home. That night I had my first nightmare, as I made my way to the forest was unseen.

The fairies, the gnomes they all carry on with their dance and play but they could not see me. Suddenly I saw them halt dancing around the forest and began darting towards the darkened woods, that was the first time I had ever seen them worried and without hope, what were they chasing? Then I saw her, battered and beaten by the spiky bushes and trees and demons she was running from.

It was me, she looked up and looked right at me. “You can see me?” With a blink she was in front of me, don’t run, you’ll never be able to stop, she reached into her charcoal pouch and handed me a little black book,

“Never run from what you know, you have the chance to grow”, with sunken eyes and blood dripping from her wounds she was gone in a flash… The creatures of the forest could suddenly see me. They began to hold hands and form a circle around me, light rose up from around them as they began to sing an ancient song similar to my father’s, white light began to levitate from above me suddenly I could hear what sounded like crystalline charms and wind chimes.

“That’s it Nevada! You broke my crystal vase! I didn’t sign up to deal with no weird shit like sleepwalking and dancing.” Alarmed, I looked at my hand numb just before I began bleeding

“You’re either going to have to pack up and go to another foster, or go back to your home country with your grandmother.”

I looked up in disbelief “grandmother?” I was never given that option before, after my uncle moved it had always been foster after foster. I didn’t even know my grandmother was alive.

“Yes, you have a grandmother, she wrote to us last week when we tried to contact your uncle who doesn’t want to deal with you. The letter is mostly in another language, but she signed it “Grandmother of Nevada” and it carries her address. In the envelope there is just enough for a one-way flight, she lives Flores, some island off of Portugal.

“Damn do you go through all of my mail?” I protested. This felt so private, I couldn't believe she knew more about my family than me.

Fiona looked at me with rage and dropped the torn envelope on the floor, “Clean it up and be out by tomorrow.” I grabbed the broom and began to sweep, “do not run” the voice from my dream echoed in my mind. I can’t run to another foster. I need to know more about the truth, who I am, why I am.

Chapter Four: Book of Truth

Honestly, as soon as I got off the plane it felt like home. The land was barren and dry but the people were full of joy and song.

My family began to give me a tour of the lands but everything looked all so familiar. As I observed the island surrounding my grandmother’s village I stood there in awe. I’ve seen this all before. “Abuelita, can you please explain? This is the place from my dreams of creatures! The caves the trees the moss its all the same? Do fairies live here?”

Abuelita stated in her native tongue “We are the weavers of dreams. Our ancient knowledge was stolen, but you have brought it back we want to share with the world that abundance is a fact.” Even before my cousin translated her words, I felt the truth ringing in every tone she spoke.

The only one in the village that spoke fluent English was my cousin, Geo. Geo was the leader of the earth school tribe which looked after neighboring villages to make sure they never experienced the same drought. Every day the people of the village went out planting seeds among fertile ground praying their lands would one day heal and grow sprouts.

My grandmother told me stories about how our restoration and planting as a village has heavily improved the environment, yet the forest fires and drought have plagued us ever since our holy book was stolen.

The family informed me that each village has a holy book of truth, the prayers and words of the book keep the elements in balance, can restore lands, and manifest dreams.

as they explained the history of the village i had to ask who stole the book!? It just slipped out.

"We believe your uncle stole it when he left the island many years ago. Visitors always enquired about the book because of its preservation and stories written about its power and spells but your uncle always saw it just as something he could make money with.

The book of truth powers all the kingdoms in all of the different lands. It holds spells that break the wells of abundance so that it only flows in one direction. It can also restore so that all citizens have equal amounts of wealth. Your father used to study the holy book diligently before moving north to pursue music, he wanted to spread the message that abundance was real through his music.

I began breakdown crying at this thought. No one had told me about the intentions of my father and the way he lived but through his lullaby that was engrained in my soul, I know his heart had to be good and pure.

“Thank you for telling me these things Abuelita.”

She held me as I cried "let it out dear, you’ve been through a lot but this is your home now." I wiped away my tears as i softly stated "If it's okay I’d like to get some rest now."

“Of course my love” she instructed my cousins to help me get set up in my new home. Geo led me to a cow hid ten in the middle of the forest. I could smell the scent of fresh air, so different from the clustered city atmosphere.

Chapter Six: The Gift

And the lullaby began. It felt like I was floating toward the cave. I was dancing and humming the tunes I had heard my cousins singing during the day. I sang from my soul "let it be told, the truth will now unfold.” I didn’t realize it at the time but my tribe, as well as the creatures of my dreams, were dancing singing along with me.

I was so deep in song all I saw were swirling lights. I stopped in front of the cave raising both of my hands. The book from my dream came full force from the depth of the cave. The book was levitating and pulled me to where the tide once met the sand.

In the midst of the tide, an angel rose, the back of her figure was filled with soft luminous wings. She turned to face me. She held the moon in one palm and the book in the other. It was me, the version of me I saw in my dream, only this time my wounds were encrusted with shimmering gold. “Sing into the book, go ahead and sing.”

I opened my lips and for the first time, the words of my fathers’ song flowed out from my mouth. “Though we may go through many trials, we have angels and warriors by our side, let the light in you shine as your ride the waves of this magical tide”

The page began to fill in and rain began to pour down around the village.

It rained for five days straight, on the seventh day all that had turned tan and brown during the drought transformed back into luscious emerald greens. I awake on the third day thinking it was all still a dream but my cousins were there to remind me of everything that occurred “You are a blessing, a dancing angel, rain from the heavens has restored our lands.” They told me they couldn’t see the angel but felt the presence of her as rain poured down. Abuela came up to me, lovingly tilting up my chin “You are truly special my dear”

As the years went on I became a teacher at the village earth school. Along with Geo, each morning, we would pick gather the harvest with the students. On this particular day along the horizon, we could see figures that looked like the outline of a news crew.

“Hello, we’ve gotten word from neighboring villages about a phenomenon that has occurred here. Scientists have been observing this region for decades and after what seemed like an unending drought the land is revived and now holds a plethora of diversity. We would like to document the changes that have taken place here as it has been remarkable for the air quality of these lands."

A tribesman from a neighboring village stepped up and stated. "I’ve seen what you all have done over the years your planting of forests has saved many species and we want to thank you for that.” the news reported cut in; We would actually like to speak to the girl we have heard stories about from the community.

“We’re looking for the one who found the answers in a dream. Is Nevada here? We’re willing to pay $20,000 per month for her to star in a film about the connection between dreams and our environment.”

I looked up at the reporter, it was Dana from class. I knew it had all worked out because I didn’t run from my dream. Suddenly, the melody in my heart began to sing:

“Though we may go through many trials, we have angels and warriors by our side, let the light in you shine as your ride the waves of this magical tide”

The end