Walking for Dummies

Nina lay her head on her desk. It was finally the lunch break. Her head pounded with the remnants of a hangover mixed with a sleep debt several nights in the making. The cool wood of the desk felt nice against her forehead, and she breathed deeply, the cheap smell of plywood and the sticky sweetness of lemon candy filling her senses. She needed to stop letting the students sit at her desk, or she needed to clean more thoroughly. She knew the candy smell was probably from Sebastian. He liked to sit at her desk when he finished his work, and the candy was her fault as well. She often let her students have candy and the recent request had been sour lemon drops. She also knew that she should probably lift her head from the desk, but instead only shifted her head to a new spot that was cooler and didn’t smell as strongly. 

She lifted her head slightly to tap her phone to check the time. Twenty more minutes. Laying her head back down, Nina closed her eyes. She didn’t want to sleep, but felt the heaviness of it encroaching on her consciousness. 

“Maybe it’ll be alright.” She mumbled into the desk not thinking about how her lips were brushing against a dozen dirty handprints. 

The dream began quickly, the same as every time before. She was sitting at a bar in the corner, her legs crossed sipping a martini with several olives. The lights were low, and looking around the faces of the other bar patrons were blurry, as if she were looking through someone else’s glasses. She squinted, wrinkling her brow to try and focus on any of the faces nearby, but when she started to focus on one spot or face, it  would grow darker until it was faded and grey, utterly indistinguishable from the background. The music pounded against her senses, a song she didn’t recognize, the genre completely eluding her. Was it rock? Was it English? Was it even music? She tilted her head and tried to focus on the words, but as she did the sound diminished until she could barely hear it at all. 

“I wouldn’t try that hard if I were you.” 

She flinched, turning her head toward the voice. “You’re new.”

“Ach. No. I’ve been here each time, but this is the first time you’ve been aware. I’m the bartender. I have to be here.”

Nina snorted, “what the fuck does that mean?”

“Bartender? I feel like the word is pretty self-explanatory.”

“No,” Nina waved the hand not holding her martini, at the bartender’s face, and barely stopped herself from rolling her eyes. “I mean what do you mean the first time I’ve been aware?”

She took a sip of her drink, before continuing, “or better yet, what do you mean don’t try so hard.”

“Well you’re still new at this, so if you focus too hard you could get lost or get found. Neither are very good options”

“I can focus on you.”

The bartender smirked, “I am hard to ignore.”

“MISS NINA!!!” 

Nina woke with a start, pulling her head up so sharply it caused her to gag a little as her head spun with the motion. 

“MISSS NINA! Andy was running in gym and and…”

“MISS NINA, I was not running! I was fast walking and…”

Nina held up her hand, and the boys stopped. 

“Ok, I will listen to William first, and then Andy you can say your side.”

As the boys explained one of what seemed to be several dozen running incidents from recess in the gym, the rest of the class began to file in. Taking a deep breath, and resolving the dispute, Nina braced herself for the rest of her day. The remnants of the dream haunting the recesses of her short term memory. 

The day passed in a wave of petty disputes, grammar lessons, and one very unlucky crafting incident with glitter. Nina was rather sure she would be sneezing glitter for a week. 

“Ready to go, babe?” Her friend Vanessa popped her head into the room. “Holy shit. Is there glitter on the ceiling?”

“Ughhh. Why did I let you convince me glitter would be fine for 6 year olds? I should make you clean this room.” 

“I saw the projects though! They look really great! Though I’m guessing the glitter explosion came from Annie G.?” 

“What gave it away? The fact she left with glitter in her hair or the fact her project has every single color of glitter that I bought?”

Vanessa laughed, “Sounds like someone needs a beer! And it’s Friday!”

“Thank god, I was dying today. I am so ready for the weekend.”

“Great! How long do you think this will take to clean up?”

“I need probably another hour, I have some grading as well. Do you want to meet at mine at 8 ish? Then we’ll head out?”

“Sounds good, I want to go to this new place that I heard about.”

Nina gave her friend a thumbs up and turned back to the books she was grading. 

“Don’t stay too late! I want to start the weekend vibes.” Vanessa shook her fingers at Nina before she shut the door behind her. 

“I should make you stay! I know you have grading to do, too!” Nina heard Vanessa snort even through the closed door and muttered to herself. “God damn it, I knew her grading wasn’t done.” 

Nina closed the last book and rubbed her eyes. Fucking finally. Her headache was finally gone, and her stomach had settled enough that she could imagine eating whatever bar food was at Vanessa’s new place. 

Her phone vibrated on her desk, and she saw a message flash on the screen. 

Vanessa Song

“Bitch what the fuck are you doing! It’s 9:00! Here’s the address to the place. I WILL see you there in 10. LEAVE NOW!”

A pin to the location showed up after the text. Nina didn’t bother texting back. She had brought her backpack today, but made the conscious decision to not bring any work home. Instead, she pulled out her lipstick and checked through the bag one last time to see if she needed anything, before leaving the backpack on her desk. Grabbing her phone, she opened the pin in maps before closing the door to her classroom. It was only a 15 minute walk. Vanessa couldn’t be too drunk in 15 minutes, right?

***

“I could not have been more wrong.” Nina laughed to herself and walked toward her friend who was commanding the attention of an impressively large amount of people through the beginnings of a terrible karaoke rendition of “Mr. Brightside.”

“NINA!” Vanessa sang into the mic lifting a drink that was clearly not beer, which explained a small part of her friend’s inebriation. She made a come hither motion, and nearly spilled her drink.

Nina made her way to the corner, she grinned at Vanessa before picking up the other microphone and waiting on the right jump in point. “Jealousy turning saints into the sea, swimming through sick lullabies, choking on your alibis, but it’s just the price I pay… destiny is calling me... Open up my eager eyes… Cause I’m Mr. Brightside.” They poorly sang their way through the remainder of the song, air guitaring all the instrumentals and shouting the remaining chorus. The crowd slowly dispersed, and Nina and Vanessa were replaced by a group of girls. Nina pushed her way through them toward the corner of the bar, dragging Vanessa behind her. 

“When did you get here?” Nina ran a hand through her hair, breathing heavily from the scream singing session, as she sank onto a bar stool. 

Vanessa slid onto the stool next to her and leaned against the wall. “Wellll, I really wanted to see if it was worth coming, so I stopped in after work and one thing led to another… and here we are!” She smiled brightly, if a bit drunk-dazed at Nina. 

“Water,” Nina said firmly, “and food.”

“But it’s happy hour!” 

“Two glasses of water,some food, and then we’ll continue happy hour.” She waved a hand to flag the bartender without looking away from her friend.

“What can I get you?”

Nina flinched and her head snapped toward the voice. It was difficult to hear clearly, the group of girls was singing their way through what was possibly an even worse karaoke edition of “Bad Blood”, with one of the girls really giving it her tone deaf all. But Nina was sure the bartender’s voice was the same one from her dream. 

A cursory examination of the bartender, confirmed her suspicions. Same wide set eyes set under heavy brows. Same strong jawline, lightly stubbled. She shook her head and stuttered out a very coherent, “heyyou’retheguyfrommydream!” 

“Excuse me?” 

Vanessa spoke up, before Nina could continue, “we’ll have the red sangria pitcher, an order of fries, and two shots of tequila.”

Nina lightly slapped Vanessa’s arm and glared at her.

Vanessa rolled her eyes and tsked, “and two glasses of water.” She crossed her arms, “happy?” She directed at Nina. 

“So happy.” Nina placed her elbow on the bar, put two fingers on her temple and her thumb under her chin and gave Vanessa a hard side eye, “so happy.”

A different bartender brought out their food and drinks, and Nina began to think she’d imagined the entire thing. She and Vanessa continued to drink well into the night, and Nina didn’t see the guy again. She shrugged it off, as they closed the bar down, and she and Vanessa stumbled out into the night. 

“Canna sleep at yours?” Vanessa mumbled with her arm wrapped around Nina’s waist. 

“Yeah, it’s closhur.” 

The girls managed to follow the map directions to Nina’s, with only one stop to dry heave into the bushes (Nina) and a few minutes later to pee in the bushes (Vanessa). Finally, they collapsed into the living room of Nina’s apartment. 

Vanessa quickly fell into a fitful sleep, and Nina covered her with a blanket and turned out the light. After her non-vomiting Nina felt grimy. So, she decided a quick shower would help before she went to bed. 

The shower relaxed the tension from Nina’s shoulders and the warmth heated her bones. She stood under the spray until she found her fingers were wrinkled. She gave her teeth a cursory brush, quickly dried off, braided her hair so it wasn’t in her face, and slipped into bed. 

Sleep came quickly. The dream resumed, as if she had never left. 

 Nina’s fingers were wrapped around the stem of her martini glass, and the music or non music was again pounding against her temple and coursing through the canals of her ears. She turned her head quickly to the left and right searching for the bartender. 

“I got in trouble.” 

Suddenly he was there in front of her again. His face mournfully resting in his hands. He stood up straight and stretched, and Nina caught a glimpse of the line of skin between his shirt and jeans. 

“Why did you get in trouble?” She took a measured sip of her drink, examining him once more over the rim of the glass. 

He scoffed, “well technically, we aren’t supposed to meet other walkers in person. But I was intrigued.” He shrugged and ran a hand through his hair ruffling the back of his head. “You’ve been avoiding dreaming. And I wanted to see that kind of power in person. It’s hard not to walk.”

“Do you understand how language works? Your sentences don’t make any sense.” She set her drink down a little too quickly, and gin and vermouth spilled over the edge. “I mean they make sense, but they aren’t answers. I still don’t understand why you were in trouble.”

The man blew out a breath and crossed his arms. “An easier answer is my boss said I couldn’t go to the place I went. But I walked into this dream to meet you.You built the dream, and I made it real.”

“The bar?”

The man quirked a half smile at her and nodded, “it’s easy to plant ideas in dreams if you know how.”

“But why?”

He shrugged, “I was bored, and like I said it’s intriguing.” 

“Like Inception?” 

“Eh… kind of?” He wrinkled his nose at her, “but not really. Dreamwalking is a skill that only some possess. It comes from inherent powers passed down by blood. Someone in your family must be a walker as well.”

“This is just a dream. You’re just a figment of my imagination.” 

“Admittedly you are coming a bit late into the power, and” he paused and cocked his head as if listening. “Fuck, you need to close the dream.” His voice carried an urgency and underlying panic.

“I don’t know how to do that.” Nina shook her head and raised an eyebrow. “I mean this is just a fucking dream. You’re not real.” 

“Nina, you need to close the dream now. Or leave this place, just walk out like you would in real life, but you need to do it now.” His gaze didn’t waver from her face until she nodded. 

“Whatever.” She picked up her drink and tossed the rest back, before standing up and heading toward the front door. “What a fucking weirdo, why can’t my dreams have normal men in them?” She glanced back at the bar, and the guy was gone. She heaved a sigh, studying the bar where she had been. She squinted, was it darker over there? There seemed to be a miasma hovering over the seat she had just vacated. She started back toward the bar, when a suddenly heavy presence seemed to invade her brain. A sharp pain shot through her head, and she stumbled back, bumping into the door handle and falling outside. 

As soon as she fell through the door the pain stopped, and a bright light forced her to squint and cover her eyes. “What the hell?”

Nina groaned as the sunlight crept through the blinds she had not closed the night before. She pulled her covers up over her head, but then felt like she couldn’t breathe. Huffing she let them fall back down, and she rolled herself slowly up and out of bed. Pulling some shorts and a tank on before she left her room, she trudged out into her kitchen and tried to quietly make some coffee. 

“Nina, what the fuuccck.” Groaned a voice from her living room, when Nina accidentally dropped the metal coffee tin on the counter.