Life Is but a Dream by Brian James

he says. — He was the one who pushed for me to get sent to the hospital even though he knows I don’t belong here. He used his connections and convinced them that I just needed a little therapy. He’s so full of it though. He used to be some kind of activist for the environment before he sold out with the rest of his generation. —
    A flash of faraway anger colors his eyes for a split second like an electrical storm way out over the ocean that I watch safely from the sand. It’s nothing like the static though. It’s something real that has always been inside of him and there’s something protective about it—something that makes me feel safe.
    Alec picks another dandelion from the lawn to murder beautifully in his hands. He twists the stem violently in his fingers until it snaps like frayed rope. — Sometimes when I meet people, I tell them my parents died in a plane crash, just because it sort of feels that way. It’s a more interesting story than the truth, which is that I’m invisible to my parents — he says. — Or at least the reality of my life is invisible. Sometimes I wonder why they can’t see things that are so obvious to me. —
    — That’s the noise — I say, and Alec tilts his head. I’ve never told him about the noise before and he’s curious. — Once it gets inside people, it makes it so they can’t see the way things really are. —
    — Noise? — Alec mumbles, considering the sound of the word as he twists another stem so tightly around his finger that the tip under his nail turns white. Then he finally looks up at me and our eyes meet. — That’s a good way of putting it. —
    — Yeah? Nobody else thinks so — I say, looking down into my lap.
    The flower end of the dandelion disappears in Alec’s fist.
    It bleeds yellow and turns his palm the color of his hair.
    — Doesn’t it ever make you angry? — he asks. — Everybody always telling you that you’re wrong about everything? Sometimes it makes me so mad that I just want to blow my brains out, you know? —
    I blink and see a gun flash beside his head like a lightbulb exploding.
    — No. I don’t ever think that way — I tell him, holding his hand so tight that he’ll have to agree with me.
    — How can you not? —
    — Because , I know they’re wrong. I’ve seen what’s going to happen … I know I’m going someplace that’s worth waiting for. —
    — Like one of your dreams, you mean? —
    — Yep — I say as a gust of wind blows by us. My whole body glows when it touches me. I can’t quite see it the way I used to, but I sense it all around me—a world different from this world. I reach up and push aside the hair hanging in my eyes. The sky doesn’t change color when I look up at it, but it wants to. — It’s close too. It’s not too far away. Then it’ll be perfect. —
    — Is that really what you see when you think about the future? — he asks.
    — Sure — I say. — I see it for both of us. —
    Alec lies back again and closes his eyes. He holds out his arm as an invitation for me to use it as a pillow. I lean back, lie flat on the grass, and close my eyes too. The sky is so bright on my eyelids, it’s easy to imagine the world has been erased.
    — Tell me about it? — he asks. I can feel him roll onto his side. He rests his head in his palm, brushes my hair with his other hand. — Everything about it. —
    I lay perfectly still with my arms folded across my chest the way I used to when I was little and Kayliegh and I would lie in front of gravestones and pretend we were angels. Alec pets me like a lullaby. The wind coming over the mountains is warm. My dreams return to me then. I can see it all so clearly. — It’s beautiful. —
    — Am I there? —
    — Of course you’re there — I say. — We’ve known each other forever there. Sometimes I think it’s where we came from. Like maybe you and I got lost and now we’re just trying to find our way back. —
    — Yeah? How do