A Dream

You know the feeling of waking up after a particularly vivid dream where you try to re-orient yourself with discerning between two almost valid realties? Well, the following dream almost seemed like a sci-fi movie in the making…

This dream didn't have a beginning, and what story really has an end… but I do want to see a resolution.

You see, my new friend, Xander, has started to get some odd contacts from some weird guy who called himself, Mollar. These "contacts" were never direct, but always came through Xander's new girlfriend. It started coming out that Xander has some sort of power, and we actually witnessed this once or twice. His skin would turn a dark purple and then he could do some super-human feats.

My best friend, Ian, always seemed to be cool about these events, and actually had some good suggestions for Xander. He then took us to the library to do some research on this. We poked around until we found this oddly-placed comic book about these "purple people" (as we called them) and how they could do just about anything… even fly.

We began teasing Xander until he started getting bothered and took a swipe at me. We wrestled for a bit until I had the best of him. I said, "Well, if he really is one of these super purple people, he should be able to float in the air." And with that, I threw him into the air and we gasped as he floated across the library.

Xander had as much of an astonished look as the rest of us, and left us there in the library with his new girlfriend. We didn't hang out much after that, and I was afraid he was mad that I exposed him or something, but I was pretty distracted, as I got a new girlfriend myself.

But my new girlfriend was kind of strange… sort of like she didn't want to talk about her past or even if she had one. She also would disappear on me.

One time after she disappeared on me, I thought maybe it was a game, and I thought I would run out to her car, so I ran down the stairwell from the library where we were studying. This strange guy was hurrying down the stairwell behind me, tapping a little rhythm on the railing as he went.

I didn't think much of it until it happened again… she disappeared and I decided this time I was going to catch her and really hurried down the stairwell. This time a different person followed me, but he was tapping the same rhythm!

I stopped and confronted the stranger, who seemed quite surprised. I at first said, go ahead, but he said no, you first.

Then it dawned on me where I had heard that rhythm before, for I remember that sometimes my friend, Ian would absent-mindedly tap out that rhythm. I said to the stranger, "Ian … you know you're my best friend, and I will always love you. And its ok if you're purple."

The stranger then turned a purplish shade and morphed into my friend, Ian. "Have you been tricking me," I said, "by pretending to be my girlfriend?"

When he acknowledge that he had, I jokingly said, "Well that does explain why you wouldn't kiss me." I made another obvious joke about being a purple people eater, which he dead-panned that he had never heard before.

I asked him how long he knew that he was a purple person, and he said that his parents noticed the color change whenever he was angry and thought it was a medical problem, and by reporting it, the local "Tribe" contacted his parents to arrange training for him to learn to control his powers.

"So, that's why you wanted me to befriend, Xander?" I asked.

He replied, "Yeah, I had suspected that he was a purple who was ignorant of who he really was. That's why I did the things that I did."

"So why did you pretend to be my girlfriend?"

"You were pretty shaken by the whole ordeal and I felt bad, so I thought I would just help you find a girlfriend as a distraction from the pain, but then… Tell you what, wanna go see Xander? You can then meet Mollar and all the other purple people that are part of the local Tribe."

I was pretty nervous, but figured I should probably meet these overlords as I was sure they would be taking over the world as I knew it. I just hope that they would be moral dictators and maybe by being nice they might not make me their slave.

He took my arm and suddenly we were in another building in a meeting room of some sort. Xander was in the room on a sofa, so after hooking up, the three of us were talking like old times. Soon more and more people started to show up. Ian would introduce me to them, but it seemed like these people were staring at me as if they were as curious about me as I was them.

I would have assumed that they had seen a mere mortal before, but maybe I was the first one to ever find out the full truth about their world or something. Then Mollar came, and he fulfilled my expectations by being quite guru-ish and all.

He said, "While getting acquainted was our primary reason for having you meet with us, we do have another agenda in mind as well."

"Great," I thought, "now they will brainwash me into becoming their slave," and decided that since they could easily snuff me out, I might as well voice my concerns, so that is what I said. They all laughed to ease the tension.

"Why would you say that," Mollar said.

"Well, with infinite powers and no one to stop you, I just hope that when you guys take over the world, you're moral and kind to us mortals."

Mollar said, "Well, actually world domination isn't part of our plans, but there are people who we consider our enemies. While they have their own name for themselves, we call them the 'Sikes,' and when they use their powers, unlike us,their appearance doesn't change."

"Really?" I said, " Are they as powerful as you?"

He replied, "Well, they are powerful, and in some ways more powerful and in other ways not so much … I guess we have different powers, and perhaps that is why are at war."

He continued, "And I'm not sure how to say this, but we have reason to believe that you might be one of them… a Sike who doesn't know who he is."

I was too shock to even speak, and figured that I would be executed or something.

"Don't worry," he said, "while they are our enemy, neither side is so stupid as to assume that this struggle is biologically built into our systems. Nor are we so bruttish as to kill one of their own just to spite them."

"Good," I said, "as you probably know, I'm sort of a pacifist when it comes to things like this."

"Yes, this is another reason why were are so interested. This struggle has been going on for hundreds of years, without a clear winner, and we want this conflict resolved… or at least a truce, and we think that perhaps by giving the Sikes one of their own infants, that perhaps you can be a mediator for both sides."

He continued, "You will obviously find out more about yourself and be drawn into the conflict, so in this case, before you find out too much about either side, you might be in a good position to objectively look at both sides…"

This is when I woke up.

Tell others about this article: