Falling in Dreams (English Fiction)

ลำดับตอนที่ #1 : Chapter I

I.

Rosainta, a young woman in a pink sleepwear, was walking through the diffuse mist and looking for someone a stranger but actually she knew him well.

At least she could remember his face and his name.  

The mist diffused around, and there were also the rows of white roses on the right side and the pink ones on another side along the little path as she was.

Rosainta heard nothing, was so dread, but she still barefoot walked through the mist.  

            Her brown eyes still glanced at around, and she was assured of the stranger’s coming because this was not the first time.

            Passing of the mist, Rosainta until reached at the center of this place, clearly vision, she saw a few swings, playground and there was also a black wide lake on another side.

            But a thing that was absolutely outstanding in the middle of the park, it was a clock.

            A big flat-sphere clock set on a tall-steeled pillar. Its cogs were working, Rosainta heard something was like tik-tok as lightly sound which was gone in the softly wind.    

            And then, Rosainta saw someone who was sitting on a green-wooded bench. He was a stranger as she had been looking for, and she did not need to wait for anything anymore, moving quickly to him.

“Hi, Dennis,” She greeted, and there was a sweet smile on her face.

“Hi, please sit down,” a good-looking young man responded her greeting, gentlemanly, and he also shifted for her sitting.

It was so thrilled, Rosainta felt his fascination.

“I’m glad to see you again,” Dennis always politely said.

He smiled and then he was back to an activity as he did recently. It was called the drawing; the realistic pictures were drawn by the monotone color, it was also an activity for students who studied in the Faculty of Decorative Arts.  

            He was drawing a picture by a black pencil on a paper board, actually, he drew but at the same time he was back to the conversations with Rosainta, talking about the beautiful art shapes, the shade of colors or anything about the world of arts as if these all stories were just only the best of his favorite.

            In fact, it was not just Dennis, Rosainta also tried to talk to him as much as she could, to make a friendship familiarly. If the conversations were quiet, Dennis will be back to attend on his paper board again and Rosainta will take her eyes on his hands to sneak, from the athletic hands and arms, the healthy chest was in the white polo shirt, and finally she glanced at his face.    

A couple of dark eyebrows looked like black-inked painting. His sharp eyes were not just earnest, but also was tender and sparkling eyes. His black thick hair was so disheveled a bit, looked like an elf boy in the fantasy fiction. Dennis was a tall man, and also a cool erudite guy.

However, Rosainta sensed about another characteristic of him, he was also a man who hid the secrets in his heart.    

Who was he?

Just the one question seemed like an echo sound in Rosainta’s mind.

She had dreamed for a week. Her bed time was usually before midnight and then her dreams took her soul to this place that seemed like the small Public Park was in the dark atmosphere and the diffuse mist, she had never known about this place and him.

Rosainta thought that Dennis also dreamed too. He always came to this place for drawing as if he killed the time by drawing to waiting for her coming, and the most pictures were the roses and many views.   

She did not know why and how, there were no any reasons of the dreams.

“Thinking about?” A question from the man took her out of the complicated thinking.

“Nothing.”

“Are you okay?”

“Sure, well, what a picture are you drawing?” Rosainta tried to change the subjects of the conversations.

“Flowers, over there,” He said and also pointed to those flowers. “So beautiful, isn’t it?”

Rosainta looked at the picture then looked at those flowers.

Immediately, she was appreciated, the miracle drawing picture was awesome as if taking those real flowers and putting it on his paper board. Rosainta was thinking that he was absolutely born to be a drawing artist.

“I love this place, so mysterious but wonderful, I feel happy. Rosainta, could I draw your picture at the next time?” Dennis politely requested

Rosainta lowered her eyes from his lovely smile, turning away a shy face to another side, and her heart was enlarged.

“Dennis”

“Yes?”

Rosainta breathed deeply, she wanted to ask him about the most important question.

“This is a dream, I know but I don’t know who you are.”  

                The silence was around them, no answers, maybe they were trying to find.

                At that moment, the big clock had alarmed, twelve of alarm sound indicated that the midnight had arrived.

                Rosainta looked at the clock and got back to Dennis, the loneliness had long stayed in his eyes.

                For a week, they had met each other in the dreams, there were many questions that never been found the answers but the time in this place had gone suddenly, and both of them had to back to the reality.

                “Midnight,” The man said, his voice seemed like a whispering. “I don’t know why we had met each other here but I’ll try to find the answers of many questions.”

                Rosainta sensed of his regret, she lively said. “We’re going to meet each other tomorrow, yes, in our dreams.”

                “Praying to the God, please take me here again, I would see you.”

                “God will and we will.”

                “Rosainta, I…”

                Dennis tried to tell something but he was not assured to say, he stopped the words and smiled lovely instead.

                Eventually, everything around them was going to be disappeared, starting from the blurred condition in just a few seconds and then it was gone immediately. Moreover, both of them also were faded away from each other too.  

Rosainta woke up in the fresh morning as if the beautiful Princess had awoken from the sweet dream. Surely, she was not the Princess in the fairy tales. Rosainta was a student who studied in the Faculty of Painting Arts, and she stayed with her parents at the small Tudor house where was near a Public Park. 

                Likely, a young woman, Rosainta was full of dreams, sometimes she dreamed to the royal dance with a perfect Prince in the Throne Hall, and sometimes she saw a lot of cute wild animals were able to talk to her.

                At least, there was an ideal gentleman in her mind.

                It was not difficult to remember Dennis, an ideal man who appeared in Rosainta’s dreams, he was a kind of good-looking guy, and polite saying and the drawing was the best of his favorite.

                In her dreams, she was also able to remember that the restful Public Park, the rows of the white roses and the pink ones, the small playground, the black wide lake, there were also the diffuse mist around the place and the big clock stood at the center.

                However, Rosainta did not get any answers about the dreams, she had really never known that gentleman yet but she was happy once she dreamed to him.

                Rosainta perhaps thought that her mind was full of Dennis, thinking of him all of time. Dennis had been appeared in her dreams for a week, and tonight he might be going to come again.

                It was really some mysterious of the dreams because she had met a stranger who had never been known in the reality.

Everything in her dreams seemed like the movies which were replayed repeatedly.

                Rosainta loved her dreams but the mystery made her heart was so scared, and even though she was an adolescent girl, she had never given her heart a chance to love any boy.

It was impossible, if she was falling in love with an ideal man in the dreams, and that meant she was falling in love with the man who was just an imagination.  

                Even would meet him again, she had some of reasons to try to forget the mysterious dreams and Dennis.     

                At the mirror, Rosainta was looking at herself, a couple big tender brown eyes, the long blonde wavy hair and the fair skin which was like the color of snowflake.

                “Okay, nothing in the dreams and I’m alive in the reality,” She told her shadow in the mirror.

Rosainta very loved everything of painting arts, and that was also the best talent of her. The most people, her friends and teachers, they always admired her realistic paintings, and that caused Rosainta’s paintings were exhibited for several times.

                Nobody could know that the best talent of her was going to change her life soon.

                “You dreamed like that again?” Jenny asked, a chubby young woman who was one of Rosainta’s close friends.

“How accidental,” Patty said, her characteristics were like a boy, and she was also another close friend of Rosainta.

“I don’t know why, the dreams were so strange and I was so scared a bit, you know, it was too mysterious,” Rosainta answered and also sighed.

“Have you ever met that man at anywhere? I think that you have seen him for a long time ago.”

“Never, Jenny, I’m sure.”

“Maybe he is a man who’s been in our university, and you’ve seen him and fallen in love.”

“Ridiculous! Patty, I never think like that.”

“Okay I see, just kidding,” Patty just teased and laughed then she said. “I just have an idea!”

“An idea?”

“Listen, the exhibition of our Major is going to be arrived in the next few days, you see, using this chance to draw a painting to be exhibited. Maybe it’s too late but there’s an exception for the students who have the wonderful painting talent just like you, Rosainta.”

“Patty, I wonder, what’s a painting about?”

“Your dream,” as earnestly, Patty said and she also iterated “Maybe including the gentleman in your dream.”   

“I don’t think so,” Rosainta tried to disagree.

“Rosie, Patty said right, your mysterious dreams were really unusual but the exhibition is a good chance to prove that was a really guy or imagination?”

“Okay, if I draw him a picture, what will I do the next step?”

“Just showing and waiting, there will be a lot of people who’d like to come to the exhibition and if God bless you, that gentleman will come to exhibition to see your painting.”

“I still believe that he is not the reality,” as uncertainly said, Rosainta’s voice was coated with the sadness.

The imagination was a good inspiration but in this case, it seemed like the nightmare that was taking someone or something away from her real life. Even though she tried to forget the dreams and Dennis, at the depth of her heart believe that he existed.

And even though the light of hope was a glimmer, her mind was still full of his images clearly.

“Rosainta, you have to find the answer or else you will be so sad forever.”

“Jenny…”

“Yes, I agree with Jenny, there’s nothing to lose. Just draw a painting.”

“Okay, thanks both of you, I’ll try.”

An easel was set at Rosainta’s bedroom along with the art mediums such as the water colors, the several sizes of paintbrushes, a big palette, a decorative book and a few of 2B graphite pencils.

Then a canvas set on the easel, Rosainta used a moment of time to concentrate. She closed her eyes, and thought of everything about her mysterious dreams.

There were a full of memories and she was so confident to draw a picture from her dreams.

Actually, there was no one could memorize anything from the dreams though their dreams were very obvious, but Rosainta could.

She began to think of Dennis obviously as if he was not the dreams. Once she could see him in her memories, she smiled and her heart softly whispered.

“I really would see you again.”

Besides, there was a wonderful inspiration occurred in her mind, that one was Dennis’s appearance, especially, his lovely smile and the gentle voice and the stories about the arts that he said.

Rosainta exactly memorized a lot of things about Dennis even he was appeared just only in her dreams.   

During her recollection, she opened her eyes to portray him a picture on the decorative book. Once she finished, she tried it on the canvas and started painting by her water colors. 

Eventually, a few hours had passed away, and the spectacular realistic painting had been done.

Rosainta was happily smiling and gazing on the picture, a small Public Park, the white roses and the pink ones along a little path and the big clock that was set on a tall-steeled pillar at the middle of the park. Absolutely, the man in the picture, Dennis, who wore a white polo shirt and black jeans and he was sitting on a green-wooded bench to draw a picture.  

At the last step of painting, Rosainta named the picture An Ideal Man then she covered the picture by a thin fabric.

Rosainta prepared to go bed with her happy smile. A clock at the wall was working, there were the Tik-Tok sound to lull her softly, and then she began to dream as she had ever for a week ago.

Rosainta was conscious in the dream immediately once her barefoot walking had touched the cold ground. She walked through the mist as she knew where had to go, and very certainly, she headed to the center of this place.

The flat-sphere clock still was on a tall-steeled pillar at the middle of the park. Rosainta glanced at the clock, an hour hand was almost twelve and a minute hand pointed to the number nine, it was just fifteen minutes to midnight that meant short period to meet Dennis in the dreams.

Rosainta sighed and turned to glance at the green-wooded bench, Dennis was over there and drawing a picture. She went toward him.

“Hi,” Rosainta greeted him first and then lovely smiled.

“Hi, please sit down,” Dennis politely said, and while Rosainta sat on the bench, he also showed her a picture. “I’m drawing a new one.”

Rosainta felt impressive immediately once she saw a picture, because the one on the paper board was her portrait. It was very wonderful, and she thought that her portrait was more beautiful than her real looks. 

Besides, she also felt that it was a picture of Dennis’s ideal woman, once she thought like that, her face was warm and it indicated that she was shying.

“Thank you. I’ve never seen a portrait of mine just like this.”

“You like it?”

“Absolutely,” Rosainta said and still looked at her portrait fascinatingly.

At the same time, Dennis looked at her real face with the same feelings. His sharp eyes told everything from his heart.

Until their eyes met, she could simply know what the meaning in his tender eyes.

“What’s wrong?” She was shying with his eyes, that caused she had to ask something to conceal her true feelings. 

“Nothing,” He softly replied and had an amused look.

Rosainta sensed his word nothing had something. She pleasantly smiled back then she said, “Well, I’ve just painted your picture tonight”

“Really? Why do you take it here?

“How? This is a dream.”

She laughed and Dennis laughed too, and then he said. “At the first time I dreamed to this place, I found a black pencil and a paper board on this bench, after that, I thought that they came to wait for me every night.”  

“Then, you had also used them to draw the picture to wait for me.”

“Yes, I don’t know why, I sense that I’m not alone in my dream, I sense about your coming. Rosainta, even if it’s the dreams, I would tell you that I’m so happy and it’s never done in my life.”

“You exist, don’t you?” Finally, she asked.

“What a strange question, I’m true,” Dennis immediately answered. “I have my life in the reality even it’s never been like this.”

“What does it mean?”

“I’m--,” as seriously faltered, his eyes looked like a man who was hopeless.

Even Rosainta was so glad after she got the true answer that he was in the reality, his speechless now indicated that some of troubles were hidden in his mind, and she also wondered.

What happen in his life?

She thought that it was difficult to get the answers soon.

“Dennis, if you don’t mind, can we meet each other in--,”

“The reality?”

“Yes, in the reality, can’t you?”

“That’s the best wishes of mine. Even would see you in this place, I would see you in the reality,” Dennis replied and broadly smiled.

Because of his response, Rosainta was glad as if her paintings had been chosen to exhibit at the World’s Arts Expo. She intended to talk about a meeting point in the reality, and it was very strange because she was making an appointment with another one in her dreams, there was no one could do like this.

“I don’t believe that we’re going to meet each other in the reality,” Rosainta said.

“Me too,” Dennis also had the same feelings.

Their eyes met for a moment and then they lowered eyes and smiled, looking pleased. At last, the big clock at the center was ringing, it indicated that the midnight had already arrived and they had to get out of their dream.

The farewell may be the cause of sadness but it was not for this time because they were going to meet each other in the reality soon.

“Dennis, don’t forget our appointment.”

“Yes, I promise,” He said and let three fingers touched his head, acting like the oath sign of Boy Scout.  

Rosainta pleasantly smiled and laughed and also looked at his eyes until he was faded out of her vision.

No the alarm clock sound in Rosainta’s room but her waking up was bright because of the appointment. Having a cup of milk with cereals for breakfast and then she hurriedly left home to bring the painting to the University.

The teacher and the exhibition board answered immediately that her painting could be certainly designed at the exhibition tomorrow.

Recently, Rosainta drew this painting to look for Dennis or anybody who exactly knew him but now there was no matter what a purpose should be anymore, because Dennis provided her a promise and he was willing to across the dreams to be in the reality.

A new Public Park was very clean but rarely calm, and many cars ran on the floating road near this place and also many people, because this Public Park had just been created lately, people were interested in.

                At ten in the lately morning, Rosainta was still waiting for him in the Park. When thirty minutes had passed, she thought that Dennis might forget an appointment time. She hoped that he was on his way. Unfortunately in the next hour, she started feeling restless and thought that she had not told him where to wait, beside the fountain, above the statue or under the trees. Then she walked to find out him around the Park.

                At noon, starting to be anxious, and she walked around the park for several cycles but she still did not see him even his shadow. Inside her mind was full of the negative thoughts and questions. Something was wrong with him? A big suspicion, she thought that some of obstacles that might encroach him, being beyond capability or he may be in some of troubles.

                Rosainta walked back home with sorrow at the next hour. In this way, she was willing to dream tonight and if she got to him, she will ask for the reasons of his game.

A long waiting was a tough deed as if it was a kind of huge torture and Rosainta felt it through the slow time. After she waited for him more two hours at day, she also had to wait for the time to sleep at night. A lot of things in her mind made her to be sleepless.

                Then midnight had passed but she was unable to pass a sleepless night, her tears began to leak her eyes socket. However, no sleep, no dream and that caused no Dennis. His painting and his smiling face was in Rosainta’s head as the loop, she was still nervous. Being sleepless caused her to cry all night.