Blue Tiled Roof House

I turned around in my bed trying to find a comfortable position to fall sleep. I rested my back against the soft mattress and the linen sheets and I felt my head sink in the feathered pillow. All was perfect inside my room. I could smell lavender from my recently washed pajama set and the nightlight beside my bed reflected a dimmed light that allowed me to see only the silhouettes of the things that took up space in my bedroom. I closed my eyes and sighed pleased at the silence and allowed the weariness of the day to lull me into a deep sleep.

All was dark for a short while until the sound of an owl awoke me in my dreams. It was white and had brown eyes. He didn’t stay long, he stared at me for a couple of seconds and shook his wings letting me know it was his time to go. And he flew away. I watched him disappear at the distance only to realize where I was. I saw the ocean and I felt the breeze and I felt the grainy sand around my naked feet. A sense of familiarity and comfort immediately filled my body. If this was the place that I thought it was I knew exactly what to look for. I rapidly turned away from the ocean with clenched fists of excitement and I saw it, right behind me, my house.

It looked exactly as I remembered, four wooden pillars, white paint, blue roof and a wide balcony with a big green hammock that had been there since I could remember. I smiled with relief. Relief of finding my favorite place on earth unchanged. Like an old friend, we could start right where we left of. I walked towards the house through a narrow path of sand between the shrubbery that covered the front of all houses at the beach, carved by the footsteps of people going and coming back from the ocean. I arrived to the wooden door that separated the beach from the porch of the house, I reached the handle resting my hand on it and I wavered at the thought that everything seemed to good to be truth.

I opened the door and set foot on the cold brown tiles that decorated the porch. Everything really was the same. Seats made of cane and wood with blue and green sofa cushions on top of them, one single hammock next to the main door, where my father would sit and rest. In the center overlooking the ocean a big brown wooden dining table that could fit at least 12 people. I walked toward the dining table and sat on one of the chairs, I looked towards the ocean and wished for a meal, and I got one. In front of me resting on the top of the table a plate served with food I hadn’t had in years. Fresh fish and rice, and pickled tomatoes and onions. A glass of tangerine juice made from a juice powder packet. I smiled a close-lip smile and reached for my fork and grabbed a piece of fish and rice and pickled tomatoes and onions and brought it to my mouth and closed my eyes.

I finished my meal and went inside the house, left my dishes in the kitchen sink and walked up the stairs listening to the squeaking noise of the wood under my feet. In the second floor there were five doors, behind those doors: three bedrooms, a bathroom and the balcony with the green hammock. One of the bedrooms was my parents’, and my grandparents’ before them. I walked inside and as everything else in the house it looked just as I remembered. A queen bed in the middle of the room that barely fit, a small closet next to it, two night-tables and a large window overlooking the ocean. The window was wide open, I walked towards it and sat at the edge of the bed just taking the view in. I could see the ocean and the sand, all the shrubbery in front of the house, and I could see the blue tiled roof that covered the porch. I cannot quite describe what I felt right there and then, but I knew I didn’t want to leave. At the distance in the sky I saw a pair of white wings and before the white owl landed in the blue tiled roof in front of me I knew what it meant, it was time to go. I took the view in for the last time and I closed my eyes once again.

I woke up to the lavender smell and my linen sheets and my feathered pillow. This time I could see everything in the room, the sun rays entered from my window. I laid in my bed without moving trying to hold on to what I just had lived. The alarm from my phone started ringing I stopped it and stood from the bed. I walked to the bathroom and washed my face, I brought a small yellow towel to my face and hold it there for a few seconds, as if that would bring me back just for a moment, but nothing happened. I walked back to my room and sat on my bed giving myself a little time before I started the work day. Through the window right outside my room, resting on an old tree was a white owl with brown eyes. He stared and I did the same and then he shook his wings and flew away. I watched as he disappeared at the distance and I wondered if I would wake up anytime soon.