A Promotion and a Dream
Christopher perused the morning paper absent mindedly, reading the words but not fully processing them. It was the usual; a local police officer was in trouble for repeatedly using excessive force, but would probably get a slap on the wrist, astronomers had been tracking a new object in space, the person responsible for a string of car thefts had been caught, something trendy and cringeworthy was happening downtown this weekend, and he couldn’t care less about any of it. Not today especially, today was his first day as partner at the firm. It had taken a long time, but he was glad he held out. Christopher was nearing forty, short, stocky, with a round face and glasses. His black hair was cut relatively short and had started to recede a little more each day. He was a nervous, sweaty, anxious man, and he was a good attorney who could have been great if it weren’t for his major lack of confidence. At the office he was well liked but usually overlooked. The same could be said about his love life as well, he had been married once to a man named Jasper who was looking for far more adventure than Christopher could give him. It had been a long time since he started working at Mitchell & Perez, but now, he was a partner, and he couldn’t be bothered with anything else.
As he walked through the doors at the firm he wasn’t greeted in any type of celebratory manner. In fact, he was largely overlooked, with the exception of the few people who greeted him daily, the people in which, if he paused to look at his life, were his closest friends. They knew almost nothing about him, or simply did not care for an update. His marriage had ended several years ago, and he would regularly be asked “how’s Jasper?” or more commonly “how’s the husband?” as few cared to learn his spouse’s name. You shouldn’t take an ill heart towards these people, however; it is not entirely their fault. In fact, the blame lies almost squarely on Christopher himself. It wasn’t that he liked the isolationism, or that he had any bad feelings toward his coworkers; it was quite the opposite, he actually found them all to be very tolerable and at times pleasant. He just couldn’t be bothered to go out of his way to form true friendships with them, it was partly anxiety and partly an unwillingness for change.
Kelly, the receptionist, was probably the person he was closest with. They even spoke outside of work on several occasions and had once agreed to get lunch together, but they never set plans. As he walked past the desk, they smiled at each other as she was speaking to someone else about the news. They were discussing the object in space and how tonight it would be observable from Earth with the naked eye as it passed by us. Today they would be excited for this and tomorrow it would be about the event downtown, Christopher wouldn’t have cared about any of this even if he hadn’t just made partner. Of course, when someone asked him if he was going to watch the sky tonight, he smiled politely and said “of course”, though he thought his nose would be better off buried in a book than pointed up towards the stars. If anyone asked him about going downtown this weekend, he would probably tell them he was considering it, but he would never intentionally go to an event downtown. All the hipsters with their coffee and average music that they insist upon, he just couldn’t stomach it. Jasper would have loved it.
While leaving for the day Christopher couldn’t help but to feel a little bit sad. He was very proud of himself and he had not been celebrated in any way. He went to his favorite deli and ordered a roast beef on rye with mustard, pickle on the side. A thought popped into his head; “if anyone would be genuinely happy for me it would be Jasper. Perhaps I’ll invite him over for a celebratory drink.”. He picked up his phone and sent him a text. Christopher and Jasper had always remained civil. The divorce wasn’t messy, and they still spoke somewhat regularly. This wouldn’t be the first time they had gotten together for drinks since the split. If Christopher were being honest with himself, he still loved Jasper, and Jasper still loved him, but Jasper loved many people. He knew that Jasper truly felt that way about all of them. There were never any hard feelings about the divorce, and a big reason for that is that Christopher had seen it coming since before they were married. He knew that while Jasper loved him, he only loved the idea of what life with him would be. Jasper loved the aesthetic of a warm, cozy, home where they read books by the fire and had a singular drink at night in their robes, where they watched the same old movies over and over while sipping tea under a heavy quilt, but he didn’t love it in practice. That was the life Christopher wanted, but only the life Jasper thought he wanted, and Christopher knew. He married him anyway. Then after two short years, they were divorced. Christopher picked up his phone, Jasper had replied that he would love to get a drink, if only he were in town, but that he would be available some time next week. He put his phone back in his pocket and walked home.
Cozy, warm, familiar, pleasant. Christopher loved nothing more than to feel comfortable, and his home was a clear representation of that. As he hung his key by the door, he wasn’t too disappointed about Jasper being unavailable. Now that he was home, a hot peppermint tea and watching something familiar seemed a more pleasant alternative, and entertaining was always so much pressure anyway. By eight o clock he was snuggled into a heated blanket with a hot cup of tea and watching early episodes of The Twilight Zone. The show could be considered unsettling for some, but the fact that Christopher had watched the entire original run several times, coupled with Rod Serling’s narration, made him feel very much at ease, and before long he was dozing off.
Christopher was in that strange area between asleep and awake when he heard it. A huge, booming voice, speaking in a language he could not understand, but he didn’t need to. He understood the gist of it, and that was everyone was about to die. Then he saw it, a massive thing, and it was moving closer to Earth. It looked like a planet covered in magnificent blue lightning storms, except he had an eerie impression that it was intelligent. It was alive. It was going to devour the Earth. The dark voice reverberated inside his brain, it was coming, we were doomed. This thing had roamed the universe since the beginning of time, feeding on life. It pushed its way towards the planet hungrily, it would be any moment now he could feel it.
Christopher sat up quickly, sweat pouring off of him, his heart beating faster than it ever had before. Had it all been a dream? It couldn’t have been a dream, it all felt so real. No, of course it was dream, what else could it have been? He almost laughed to himself and decided it was a combination of The Twilight Zone, the tea, and the emotional day he had.
As he sat there trying to calm down and get back into a state of relaxation, he heard the sound of people outside. A lot of them. Murmuring in what sounded like panicked voices. He thought he heard someone sobbing. Could it be? He slowly moved towards his door. Surely, he was imagining this. Then he remembered the space object from the news, this would explain the people outside and likely was fuel for his nightmare. But they sounded scared. Inching his way closer to the answer, he thought to himself that he had probably never missed Jasper more than he did right now.
This was ridiculous. There was no way a planet sized being was coming to devour the Earth. It was a bad dream. Sometimes dreams feel very real. He felt the urge to just turn around and go to bed, but some force within him kept him moving to the door. It was going to be nothing, he told himself, but nonetheless, he had to face it. He could feel it in his gut; he was never going to sleep until he opened that door and found out what was going on. At the door he paused; “for once in your life just do the damned thing” he thought. He wrapped his hand around the doorknob, and slowly unlocked the deadbolt with the other, and as it turned over with a thud, he heard the unmistakable sound of screaming. He was shaking violently now, his sweat was now accompanied by tears and he deeply regretted coming to the door, but there he was. “Be brave. Be brave.’’, he repeated inside of his head. His hands were so sweaty he could barely grip the doorknob. It was now or never. He was either being ridiculous or it was the end of the world. He steadied himself, he had been a shadow his entire life and if this was the end of everything, he was going to face it head on. With one last deep breath Christopher twisted the knob and swung the door open.
