Living in a Fantasy

One day, not too long ago, I awoke early in the morning. I found myself in a life I no longer wanted. It was a life of boredom and misery. I was trapped in a nightmare, in a place I did not want to be, with a person (a beast) I did not love. But there was no physical escape to be had.

The prison was inescapable. From the outside there may not have been visible bars, chains and shackles may not have been present. But the ring on my finger was all that was needed to keep me locked up, keep me trapped.

Escape was needed. But fleeing was impossible. So, I dreamed. I dreamed a never-ending dream. I dreamed a fantasy life that would keep me alive. I dreamed of cities created by a beautiful people: beautiful cities, built by beautiful people.

I dreamed that I was free to walk out the front door and jump in my car and drive. I drove past city after city, area after area, and experience after experience.

The people in my dreams lived in a world completely different than mine. They were the First People. They traveled all the lands; established many different kinds of cities as they encountered many different kinds of circumstances, areas, and geographies.

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The First People traveled the blue, brown, green, and gray earth.

They traveled flatlands, deserts, river lands, and mountains.

When the First People came across the soil of the blue region

They knew that they could use it to make beautifully colored glass.

They understood that they could melt it down for many things.

They could blow it into glass,

And could grind it into dust,

And could put it into bricks and build roads.

And they would have a stunning, shining city.

So they founded the First City in the area,

Around the blue earth made with the blue glass.

That was long, long ago.

Today, in my dream world, 

I drive down the road from one city to the next,

The scenery changes as the miles fly by

Flatland changes from rolling hills to mountains,

Desert changes to plains covered with grass to forests,

Miles roll along.

Countryside rolls along,

Time rolls along,

Ages pass along with the roadside,

Snow falls on the countryside.

Snow falls on the windshield.

Windshield wipers keep time with the music on the radio.

Snow squalls turn to fogs in the valleys.

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There is an exit on the highway up ahead. The road splits and leads to three cities. These three cities are intricately connected. There once was only First City filled with the beautiful blue glass. Inside every building lived beautiful people. However, the blue glass buildings were fragile and were constantly breaking. They had to continually remake the buildings. Every day they remade the sapphire glass buildings. The city re-created itself along the cracks daily. The people reframed their view every time they rebuilt. Wherever the cracks formed it became stronger, the scars became tougher. But there were always more and more cracks. There was constant cracking; the cracks never stopped. The cracking could be heard from far away and people were always getting injured on the broken glass.

A second city not far away was made of gray stone. The stone was strong but not beautiful. In it lived a people who were constantly trying to catch an elusive creature. The creature could not be caught; she was too fast. They thought that she was an exotically lovely being. They had forgotten their history, forgotten where this living creature came from. The elusive being was actually a person from the First City who only wanted to go back home to her beautiful blue glass city. An evil, greedy person from Stone City had kidnapped her and locked her away. She had escaped her cell but could not escape the gray stone metropolis.

But one day, she did finally escape Stone City and made her way toward the beautiful, shining, blue glass First City. Many from Stone City still chased her. The people from the glass First City saw her coming. They met halfway between the two cities. After the beautiful creature who had escaped went to be with her people and all the people from Stone City saw that she belonged with First City, they decided to let her go and let her be happy. The people from the two cities saw how they could come together and build something better, a city of both stone and glass and they did this between the two old cities. Now there are three cities on this exit of the highway: the old blue glass First City, the old gray Stone City, and the wonderful Blended City between. I drive past and do not visit any of these cities.

Snow falls on the cities as I drive on.

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Originally published on Medium, 1/2022