Dream's World - 2. Dream Visits Death

Dream knew he was overdue for a visit. It was usually Death who showed up unannounced into his world but the time had come for him to return the favor. He looked over the richness of his dream world and sighed.

“I’ll be back. I mean it isn’t like I am really leaving you anyway.”

Dream prepared to take his walk when the puppy came romping across the plush grass and sat at his feet. He looked down at the little bundle of fur and reached down to pet him.

“Go play boy. Your squirrels and toys are waiting for you.” Dream stated with a smile as he pointed back at the rich tree lined forest. The golden retriever pup took off at a mad dash as a small gray squirrel took that moment to appear. Animals of all sorts found their way to his world.

Animal dreams are so easy and it never takes much to make them happy.

“I wonder if you think I would go play with a mouse and lap up a bowl of milk,” came the mocking comment from behind him. “Or would you toss a ball of string at me hoping it would keep me occupied like some dumb animal.” Dream turned to find a white cat with dark orange lines.

Now that is a cat of different color.

“Don’t look at me like that, Dream; I haven’t stolen your tongue.” The cat sat looking at Dream delicately sticking his tongue out.

“I never said you did, Cat.” Dream smiled at the attitude the cat displayed.

The cat cocked his head and then promptly ignored Dream. Dream shook his head and began to make a final tour of his realm. Down by the sea he found a walrus tap dancing before a young child. A bit further on a well defined merman was in the process of seducing a nubile young woman. As he crossed the edge of the forest he caught sight of a brilliant white unicorn as it pranced in majestic beauty past a young man in white. Dream laughed as he realized this dreamer was hoping he was innocent enough that the unicorn would come to him. He crossed through part of the haphazard city watching people fly with wings of their own; other creating unbelievably complex machines that did everything from fabricate any outfit you wanted to teleportation across worlds. While usually there were so many more enjoying the good dreams, he was finding more and more that were simply lusting for more and not taking the pleasure in the things that the dream world truly offered them.

Once the dreamscape had been rich with magical creatures and new inventions but this was no longer true. Where once the dreamscape had offered dreamers the chance to build flying machines or create art of incredible beauty, these creative impulses were fading to be replaced with copies of things that had come before. No longer did the artist dream of a beautiful woman with a shy smile who would sit for him while he dreamed and became the inspiration for a painting or statue. Here incredible cities rose up from the dreamscape and shone in beauty full of knowledge and passion. Now they were just copies of what existed although they had been altered slightly. No longer did the artist see the beauty here and go back to the real world where they attempted to recreate it. Dream was saddened as he pondered all the changes in his realm during the past millennia, while the world outside of his dreamscape had altered the dreamers.

The nightmare land once had been so much smaller. Now it thrived more and more. Dream was sad to see how the creatures grew more destructive, evil became more seductive, and the darkness so much more all encompassing. These were things he would have to find a way to alter.

Dream paused once more before he walked off toward Death’s realm. Death is going to have to lend me a hand for a change.

Dream laughed as he came upon Death’s home. People were always envisioning Death in places filled with tombstones, bleached skulls, darkness surrounding it, and a coldness saturating the whole place. Death’s home was far more interesting than that.

As Dream entered the yard he noticed that the roses were coming into full bloom. The colors and smells from them were as varied and rich as the jewels of the earth. Deep red roses, exotic blue ones, various shades of yellow, orange, pink, and royal purple bloomed in what appeared to be a never ending bouquet.

The other side of his yard was rich with every type of fruit tree imaginable. Dream laughed as he considered what green a thumb Death had. The apples, pears, peaches, nectarine, and fruits he didn’t even recognize were growing so abundantly on the trees that the branches nearly touched the ground. Dream could hear bees buzzing around the yard. He knew Death kept a hive in the back corner of his yard.

Climbing up the wraparound porch Dream knocked on Death’s door.

“I'm coming,” announced Death as he hurried from the kitchen with a towel in his hand.

“Oh, Dream, glad you stopped by.”

“Well, I figured I was overdue to visit you for a change.”

“Yeah, and I’m sure you won’t be asking me for a favor either. I am sorry for all that.” Was Death’s simple reply.

“We are just doing our jobs. Have you heard from the rest of the family lately?”

“No. None have stopped by to see me in ages. By the way, you do know you have someone following you,” stated Death as he pointed out the white cat by the door.

Death turned and seen the same white cat sitting there, listening in.

“Not a normal animal is it?”

“Death and Dream are standing around talking to each other, and you say I’m not normal. Funny, I would think that is like the pot calling the kettle black!”

Dream laughed out loud. The cat in the meantime decided to investigate Death’s home. He walked around Dream and Death and entered into the living room. There was a deep couch with lots of comfortable pillows and a throw blanket that had a teddy bear on it. The cat strolled past the carved wooden table covered with newspapers, telling the latest from the world, but the cat only really paused when it saw the wall of books that stood alongside a comfortable looking chair with a reading lamp beside it.

“I could never understand why you granted a cat nine lives, brother.”

“Well after that one started in on me, I sort of gave them nine lives so they could satisfy their curiosity. Let me tell you, they can be rather sweet.”

“And you say I am too soft on children. What is this soft spot you have for cats?”

“Not so much a soft spot as that first one was damn curious and argumentative. Besides it was early in my career,” Death tried to explain to his brother.

“You read?” The cat questioned rather loudly, interrupting the brothers’ conversation.

“Yes, I do read. Why are you so surprised?”

“Well, we have always been told we have nine lives because we were just smarter than you.”

Death laughed. His voice was rich and deep, there was something so very comforting in the sound of his laughter. The brothers moved into the living room. The cat leaped up onto the chair by the lamp while Dream sat on the couch.

“Let me go get some tea for us. Be right back, Dream.”

“Don’t forget milk for me,” the cat casually commented as he sat licking his paws. “I mean any host worth his home wouldn’t forget to bring his guest something to drink. A few sardines might make a nice snack as well.”

Death shook his head laughing as he headed off to the kitchen.

Dream sat looking over the papers. Some were from years ago and others were from months from now. He could never understand what attracted Death to certain stories. Who cares if some princess got a matching necklace for her engagement ring? Did it really matter if some guy on television show decided to get a sex change after telling everyone he was truly in love with his male costar? Dream couldn’t understand his brother’s obsession with the everyday nitty-gritty of human life. He could simply witness that in dreams if he wanted to. Besides, most of the time in dreams, humans were who they really were, not the masks they slipped on to interact with each other.

Still Dream couldn’t help but stop to clean up the papers and put them neatly on a pile Death had by his fireplace. He looked at the pictures of the family that were placed carefully in a row. The family never seemed to get together any more. Some of his cousins he hadn’t seen in nearly millennia. Death got to see them more often it seemed.

“I brought cookies as well. I was making them when you knocked. I know you like Oatmeal Raisin ones.” Death said as he strode back into the room carrying a tray with tea cups, cookies, a low bowl filled with milk, and dish of sardines.

“Humph,” the cat snidely commented as Death set the bowl before him. The dish of sardines he slid neatly alongside the bowl.

“So what brings you here, Brother?”

“Well while I can’t say I have a favor to ask I was wondering if in your travels you have run across our sister, Pleasure.”

“Why?”

“Mainly because instead of finding true pleasure in the dreams, all I see in the dreamers is desire, lust, and even envy showing up from time to time. But pleasure in living, in new ideas, and even life itself seems to be fading lately.”

“Well as far as I know Pleasure has hidden herself away; Depression just lounges around getting more and more attention,” Death said shaking his head.

“Do either of you ever do anything or do you just sit and complain to each other,” began the cat between licks of milk, “like two old ladies. It can’t be too hard for Dream or Death to find Pleasure! But I suppose sitting and acting grumpy is about all you two are truly capable of anymore.”

Dream looked at the cat in surprise. I’ve often wondered why cats get around so much. Now I wonder why more of them aren’t locked out of their homes or drowned as kittens.

Death shot the cat a look.

“Sorry, was rude of me? What I mean is, if you are looking for Pleasure shouldn’t she be easy to discover. I mean,” he paused cocking his head to the side to better glare at the brothers, “between you two there isn’t a soul you don’t encounter.”

Death sighed.

“True, Cat, but as one of the embodiments we also can hide from one another. Pleasure and Depression can both be with a person at the same time and not know the presence of the other. It all depends on what is happening with the person involved.” Dream explained to the cat.

“And while my brother and I work hand in hand most of the time we are about the only ones that do.” Dream sat looking at the cat as well now.

The cat cocked his ears forward but otherwise seemed bored.

“For the most part, my work allows me to see everyone at their best and their worst. I see their hopes, desires, and fears. I watch as they work out problems in their dreams, or punish themselves for wrongdoings: real or imagined. Occasionally they spot something that they just cannot understand and it either works out or might just become something they will dream of over and over till it does.”

“I am with a person from the moment they are born till they leave that reality. I try to comfort them and make the transition as smooth as possible. Some however race ahead of their allotted time and others try to extend it far beyond when they should,” Death said sadly.

The cat straightened up and gazed at the two of them for a moment.

“It seems all of you need to get your acts together and learn to work side by side, then. Not just the two of you.”

Dream and Death nodded in agreement.

“So will you see if you can find our sister, Death?”

“Yes, I will go in search of her. It is time she returned to us and began doing her work again.”

“Good,” acknowledged Death as he reached for another cookie. “By the way, these are delicious.”

“Thank you. Something I learned from a very sweet lady.”

Dream finished up his tea and the cookie.

“I keep forgetting how comfortable you keep your place, Brother.”

“Well, remember I don’t have the dreams to keep everything going. I just like a place where people can feel at home and relax.”

“At least you finally gave up your collection of postcards. They really were all over the place.”

Death blushed.

“Not really.”

“Oh? Then where did you put them all?”

Death stood up and walked to his closet. He looked over his shoulder once, reminding Dream of a little boy who was caught with his hand in the cookie jar, as he opened the door. Inside were hundreds of thousands of postcards in plastic boxes, shoe boxes, and bundled with string. Dream laughed and shook his head.

“I should have known. You are worse than Luck. I thought he was superstitious keeping all those things.”

“Well, to be fair, I am sort of to blame for that too. I did show him my collection, brother.”

Dream laughed and shook his head. Death carefully closed his closet door and followed his brother to the front door.

“I promise I will look for Pleasure. Don’t be a stranger. We shouldn’t have to meet only when we need a favor from each other.”

“Deal.”

Dream took a look back over his shoulder to see if the cat was following him again; what he saw instead was that it had made itself comfortable on chair and gone to sleep.

“I think you have a new pet, Brother.”

Death looked back at the oddly colored cat and smiled.

“So it would it seem.”

“Good luck with that,” Dream called as he headed back to his own realm.

Death smiled as he closed his front door.