The Dreamer

The Dreamer

Scurrying through the morning traffic Daniel Stevens had never felt so enthusiastic about Mondays than the nerds who even hated the leaves on Sundays. He wasn’t a work addict and how could someone expect a psychiatrist as him to be when meeting psychos all day long was a certainty. He looked at the people around him but then, brushed away the waves of thoughts out of his mind. He smiled at a little girl passing by with her mother slowing down a little, reminding himself there was ample time as his office was at the end of the next block.

“Good morning Doc!” His secretary Martha, greeted him with a smile. He liked teasing her of her inefficiency but he couldn’t even remember the last time when she was at fault.

“Hello Martha. Any news?” He asked expectantly.

“OH… Yes, Ian, no.” she said after a pause. There would have been hundreds even thousands of patients but she could not remember seeing him more impatient than this boy whom she had seen but just twice and failed to grasp any psychological disorder. “Well I had a small chat with Dr. Isaac a while ago and he said not to expect anything as the boy rarely shows on his appointments.”

Sitting on his cozy chair Daniel felt impatient. “Well send in the new patient after fifteen minutes.” He spoke glancing at the unread mails in his mailbox. “And please send Mrs. Chandra home and remind her that her appointed time is every Friday not Monday.” He said glancing at an aged woman who had just walked in.

“Very well, Sir.” Martha acknowledged closing the door behind her.

Daniel would not have gone through his first mail when his mind drifted towards his first meeting with Ian around a year ago. He had hoped for a patient with some serious disorders, when he had received a call from Dr. Isaac, his friend in the city hospital. Dr. Isaac had introduced him to Ian Collins, who was just like any ordinary boy, doing engineering. The boy wasn’t strange or peculiar like his other patients in any way except for the fact that he dreamed a lot. Dr. Isaac had briefed him in short and then gone out leaving him alone with the boy.

“So you dream a lot?” he had asked.

“Yes.” the boy had replied.

“Well, what’s the harm in dreaming? Everyone dreams. I too dream a lot!” he put in looking expectantly at the boy.

The boy was silent. He had been staring out but then he turned and eyed the doctor vacantly. “I know; everyone dreams but with me it’s different. I can’t sleep. I hardly sleep at night; I guess it’s the case with all the engineering students but even when I sleep in the morning I can’t sleep. What I mean is though I remain in bed for around ten to twelve hours, the time I really sleep is around one to two hours and the rest of the time I just dream. As you said everyone dreams but everyone remembers only some part of their dreams but with me it’s different, I remember each and every dream vividly as if it had actually happened. I have always dreamt too much since I was a kid but since the past few years it has become an obsession. The dreams I see now are realistic and unusually long. Most of the dreams repeat again and again and haunt me all day. I can’t concentrate on my studies or anything and don’t know what to do.”

Daniel Stevens had been speechless. It was certainly very unusual and he had hoped the boy was lying, making things up but the more he had talked with the boy the more peculiar everything had become. He had scheduled another meeting with the boy the next day but the boy had never shown up nor answered his or his secretary’s calls thereafter. Weeks had passed and he had consulted with other psychiatrist and renowned doctors in every field, combed the internet and old peculiar cases but there was no other case like this boy.

He had almost forgotten about the boy until two months earlier when Dr. Isaac had called and asked for his assistance. Daniel had gone through the transcripts of the two sessions send over by Dr. Isaac multiple times but nothing made sense. The boy had revealed the most unbelievable fact that his dreams were real and happened somewhere or the other in the world. He had checked the session timings even confirmed with Dr. Isaac and it was hard to believe but he had to when he found exact happenings and news in the internet as the boy had articulated about his dream the previous day. Yes, there was the internet but no one could possibly describe everything exactly as it was happening at any other part of the world while sitting in a closed room.

He had read about most of the unusual case and medical mysteries in the internet and it led him to the conclusion that Ian Collin’s was an astral traveler, a yet unproven thing. He had wanted to know more, help the boy but Ian had failed to show up in any of the appointments until last Monday when Ian had shown up and confessed that he liked dreaming, not because he foresaw the future events but because he had fallen in love with a girl, an astral traveler like himself.

Daniel was deep in his thoughts when he was disturbed by his secretary, who had brought in the new patient. Daniel had a hard time concentrating and by the time he was finished it was past twelve. He gazed earnestly at the clock itching towards one, yet there was no sign of Ian.

He had asked Martha to schedule all the appointments to the next day but was becoming more and more impatient as the time passed. This boy was certainly getting into his nerves. It was around two thirty, he had been standing by the window looking out, but when he turned, Ian was standing by the door. Daniel eyed Ian as the boy settled comfortably without even the faintest hint of facial apology for being late.

“So Ian, I guess it’s A Good Morning for you?” Daniel asked skeptically, lighting a cigarette from his pack. “Well, how do you feel?”

“Fine, never felt better in my life.” Ian answered with a smile. “Never wanted to stop dreaming but today I woke early, I don’t know how I managed it!”

“You wanted the dreams out of your head but now, not anymore. It’s because of the girl I presume! You haven’t told me everything about her. Why not begin with…. How is she, beautiful... pretty?” Daniel asked with a grin.

“Beautiful!” Ian exclaimed closing his eyes as if reminiscing her in his mind. “I wish she’d show herself.”

“Show herself!” Daniel inquired mystified.

“Never mind….” Ian murmured slowly. “But you’ll know. What I can do tell is that she never leaves the dream world.”

Though Daniel had heard lots of peculiar things from Ian but Ian’s last sentence was the weirdest thing he had heard. “What do you mean she never leaves the astral world?” he asked.

“She never leaves the astral world. Whenever I get into my dreams she’s always there.” Ian explained.

“How can you say for sure, you yourself are never there all the time?”

“I am not there all the time but believe me she’s always there. In the past I have managed to be with her for straight three days while taking sleeping pills.”

Daniel seemed to be busy thinking, considering thoughts after thoughts in his mind. Something about Ian didn’t felt right, not that he hadn’t taken a mental note of his acceptance of taking hypnotics but something completely different which irked him.

“Are you hundred percent sure she’s always there?” Daniel asked again looking very serious.

“Yes.” Ian replied positively. “But what’s the great deal in it?”

“Huh…!” Daniel let out a troubled sigh. “If she’s always there it only means she never awake. But everybody needs to wake up sometime or the other and if she doesn’t awake it only means… she could be in a comma or dead already, trapped…”

“Yes she’s trapped in a way but she’s dead by no means.” Ian clarified.

“Anyway are there more persons like her or have you come across dead persons in the astral world.”

Ian was thoughtful, possibly discerning what to tell and what to leave out. “Well I have met a lot of people. It’s just like the real world expect… well, there are fewer people. Until now I haven’t met any dead person but I have heard rumors that persons who die being in the astral world are trapped in there forever. They tell it as if it’s a curse but I don’t think so. How can it be a trap? I think it’s kind of wonderful, a shadow world where everything’s possible and there are things I haven’t even found out yet. Well, there are talks of possibilities of certain things… events… but you can’t be certain. There are rumors that a major turn-around is going to happen in the world….”

“What turn-around?” Daniel asked.

“Well… History repeats itself. That sort of things…” Ian put in. “There is rumor going around lately about two people who have never united for centuries, and are finally going to reunite in this century. And if they happen to reunite there are a series of events about to unfold, like people coming from other places… aliens…”

Ian stopped abruptly as Daniel was looking dubiously at him.

“Don’t look at me like that.” Ian snapped. “I may sound insane but I am not. And if you want, I could edit these thing out but that wouldn’t be candid, would it? However, there is one thing in particular I may add… about a boy with something…. I don’t quite remember, who’s going to play a very crucial role in all this.”

“Yes, you are lucky, about what you can do!” Daniel remarked. Daniel had talked with Ian earlier but now there was something awfully wrong with the boy. “Science still does not acknowledge astral travel any better than I acknowledge the existence of god but we should not talk about these things.” He remarked.

“Like I care!” Ian blurted brusquely. “Look I have other things to worry about right now, I care about her and love her. It’s all that matters and please don’t think that everything I have said is bullshit or about me or I made it up because I have come to be with her… and she isn’t talking to me anymore.”

“Come to be with her… what are you talking about?” Daniel asked perplexed as everything coming out of the boy’s mouth was not making sense anymore.

“Because I wouldn’t do what she wants me to. I could never do that even if I wanted to.” Ian answered with a serious face. “She wants me to kill her, kill her mortal physical body.”

This thing was certainly getting too far, off track than what Daniel Steven’s had even anticipated. “Why does she want to kill herself?” He asked blankly.

“It doesn’t matter anymore as I’m with her now.” Ian said solemnly. “You were the nearest help I could reach out to and I just want you to take care of me no matter what happens. Can I trust you doctor?”

“Yes certainly but….”

Daniel was interrupted with his phone ringing. Daniel picked up the phone and a troubled Dr. Isaac informed him that Ian was brought in by his roommates in an unconsciousness state. By the time Daniel looked up at Ian he was staring at an empty chair.

“Martha…. Martha…” Daniel called out.

“Yes….” Martha stood at the door. The doctor had never looked so troubled and puzzled in his life.

“Have you seen Ian go out?” He asked.

“What! No… He has not even come yet.” Martha replied confused.

The doctor put down the phone which was still in his hand and rushed out of the door.

“Where are you going?” She asked.

“To see Ian.”

Came the Reply.

The Journey Has Begun……

You can also grab a free copy online from amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Dreamer-Gautam-Prakash-ebook/dp/B07RQH76FP/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_1?keywords=the+dreamer+gautam+prakash&qid=1558169370&s=gateway&sr=8-1-fkmrnull