Chapter 427.


    <strong>Chapter 427. A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words, but a Picture Does Not Do You Justice. (2/3)</strong>


    <span style="font-weight:400">Dawn’s head turned my way as she followed up with another question, “This isn’t a dream?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“A dream?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I fell asleep. Isn’t this just inside a dream?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Is that why she didn’t freak out just now? Because she assumed it was a dream and she was still asleep?


    <span style="font-weight:400">If I say it is a dream would she really believe it though? Would someone inside a dream really tell you it’s a dream? There was only one way to find out.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah, this is a dream.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I knew it. There’s no way he’d kiss me unless it’s inside a dream.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“... what if he did?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“He wouldn’t. He’s already got a really pretty girlfriend from the city.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I wouldn’t say that. You’re quite attractive yourself. If he isn’t careful he might go and try doing something to you while you’re still asleep.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Oh I just realized, since I’ve be conscious that this is a dream, I should be able to make anything I want happen.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Huh? Uh… not necessarily.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“What? Why not? I should be able to fly or something if this is a dream.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Fly? No, no, no. Please don’t jump off the top of the pickup truck headfirst expecting to soar through the air.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You can’t fly.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Why not?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Because I said so.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You’re not even real.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I don’t want you to fly away from me.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“There''s no way he’d ever say that to me unless it’s a dream.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Maybe he will one day, you never know.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I should probably wake up now. I wouldn’t want to keep him waiting forever. I already caused him a lot of problems today because of my daydreaming.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah, you really did.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“How do I wake up though? I’m trying to but it’s not working.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Uh… you should close your eyes. The next time you open them you’ll be awake.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I see. That’s pretty easy.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">She shut her eyes halfway but stopped before she closed them fully.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“What’s wrong?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Uh… I was just thinking it might be a waste to not do anything at all. Who knows if I’ll have a nice dream of him again in the future.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“... hey, before I wake up… can I… uh… have another kiss? No, it’s my dream, what am I thinking? If I want that to happen I just need to think it.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">She peeked at me from the corner of her half-closed eyes.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“What?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Huh? I’m thinking you’ll kiss me… why isn’t it working?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I’m not going to kiss you.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“What? Why not? Isn’t this a dream? Unless…”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Damn it! Why couldn’t she just close her eyes all the way!


    <span style="font-weight:400">“... this really isn’t a-”


    <span style="font-weight:400">I bent forward over her, ced my right hand on her cheek, and kissed her.


    <span style="font-weight:400">She stared deep into my eyes with hers half-closed.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Five seconds.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Her lips applied a bit of pressure back.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Ten seconds.


    <span style="font-weight:400">She curiously poked my lower lip with her tongue.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Thirty seconds


    <span style="font-weight:400">She peacefully exhaled out through her nose.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Forty-five seconds.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Her serene eyes grew hazy.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Atst, at the one-minute mark, her eyes finally closed shut.


    <span style="font-weight:400">The second her eyes closed, I pulled my face back away from hers. I moved my hand from her cheek to her shoulder and shook her.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Dawn, wake up.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">When her eyes reopened, she was in a bit of a daze.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Dawn.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Hmm?” She tilted her head to the left and looked me directly in the eyes. Her hair and left cheek brushed against the back of my right hand on her shoulder.


    <span style="font-weight:400">The subtle affectionate gesture of her unconsciously seeking out close contact was by no means good for my heart in any way.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“...” Stunned, I forgot my next words.


    <span style="font-weight:400">When I failed to say anything to her, she asked, “What is it?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Uh… your phone…”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“What about my phone?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“It was… uh… ringing just now. It was probably your father calling you. He’ll probably be worried if you don’t call him back right away.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Oh. He called? I didn’t feel it at all. I should… call him back right away.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">I removed my hand from her shoulder. In doing so I once again felt the distinct feeling of the supple skin on her cheek and her light silky blond hair as the back of my hand slid against it.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Rather than reach into her pocket to pull out her phone, she raised her right hand and lightly felt her lips with the tips of her fingers while silently staring at me. Well, more specifically, my lips. She seemed to be thinking about something. If what happened just now was really just a dream she had, I might have beenpletely oblivious and thought I had something in my teeth or some grease from inside the engine had rubbed off on my lips.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“What are you staring at me for? Did I get some grease on my face or something?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Huh?” She snapped out of her daze and shook her head.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Sorry, I was just spacing out a bit. I had… a weird dream just now. It felt… unusually realistic… almost like… it wasn’t a dream at all.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I see. Well, you should really call your father back right now. I’m almost done installing the new battery so you should be good to hit the road soon.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Right… thank you.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">I hopped over the side of the trunk andnded on my feet on the ground. I hid under the raised hood and tightened thest two bolts and nuts. With that, the instation wasplete.


    <span style="font-weight:400">When I dropped the hood and looked up, Dawn was seated upright with her phone held up against her ear. Over three-quarters of the moon peeked out from directly behind her head. With the way the rays shone down, her sun hat tilted my way, exuded a strange white glow in stark contrast to the darkened starry sky behind her. A few of the moon’s rays shone through the small holes in her sun hat toward me.


    <span style="font-weight:400">I couldn’t stop myself from staring and unconsciously retrieving my phone to snap a picture of her side profile in secret. It was no doubt good reference material for me to draw some inspiration from for a scene in a story I might write outter on. The fairy hidden away in the countryside.


    <span style="font-weight:400">It’s a shame that my limited vocabry wouldn’t do the scene justice. I cursed myself for being born artistically challenged. The level of my artistic ability was limited to stickmen. Maybe I could find an artist one day who’d be able to bring life to the scene using this picture as a reference.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Should I try to practice drawing again? I couldn’t stop that idea from sprouting in my mind. Anytime I tried to, I always failed miserably. I’d never seen any improvements no matter how old I got or how much time passed.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Maybe if I had a teacher or mentor I would see some sess. I’d always just gone at it alone blindly without any real guidance. Having the right tools might also help. A stylus. I’ve never actually used one before. Would it even help though?


    <span style="font-weight:400">“What are yuh spacing out for?” Dawn interrupted my train of thought when she abruptly spoke up and asked me that. Before I realized it, Dawn’s conversation with her father was over and she was presently staring at me curiously.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I’m not spacing out. I was just contemting practicing how to draw.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Why?” She seemed puzzled when I suddenly told her that.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I just thought you looked like one of those jade beauties under the moonlight that you hear so much about in fairytales and I wasmenting over my inability to capture that scene through a hand-drawn portrait.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Liar, yuh didn’t really think that at all.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Hahaha…” I suppose only I knew whether or not I really meant that.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Yuh think it’s funny to make fun of me because I’m a little farm girl?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Not at all. I wasn’t making fun of you.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Hurry up and go meet up with your girlfriend already. Haven’t yuh kept her waitin long enough?” Dawn’s eyes lowered away from me down to her left.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“It is prettyte already, isn’t it?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“... yeah.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You’re right, I really should get going.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“... yeah... yuh should…”


    <span style="font-weight:400">I hopped on my motorcycle and turned the key in the ignition.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You’re… really leaving?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“What are you talking about? You just told me to.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Right…”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Don’t forget, you’ve got Rosa’s number. If you want to get in touch you can do so at any time.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Oh yeah, I forgot.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Well then, you should be on your way too.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Dawn hopped off the roof of her pickup truck andnded on her feet.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Uh… bye then.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">She looked like she wanted to say something else.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Then see you around.”