The Man of My Dreams

She’s late. The alarm didn’t go off. She jumped up as she felt the warmth of the sun on her face through the sheer curtains. At first she swore and putting her arm up to shield her eyes said to no one “I need blinds on these windows, go away sunlight”…but as she went to turn over in her tangled old bed sheets, she remembered that it was usually dark when the alarm went. Falling out of bed in haste and rubbing her eyes she ran towards the bathroom and turned the shower on. The aging bathroom was mouldy under the shower taps and some broken tiles had blackened along the edges. It smelt quite dank first thing in the morning. “Oh it stinks in here” she said screwing up her face. She had been told that it was ‘just the drains’ and to pour some bleach down there! Some of the melamine on the cupboards had peeled off and it scratched her on the leg as she pulled off her PJ’s to get into the grimy shower. “Ahh,  the water is bloody freezing”. She banged on the board that surrounded the taps hoping this would help but it didn’t. ‘I really need to complain again about the hot water system’ she thought, teeth chattering and goose bumps on her skin.

The cold shower hadn’t helped her mood, so afterwards when the toast burnt, she grabbed it and threw it angrily into the sink, on top of last night’s dishes. The spaghetti was delicious last night, but seeing it the next morning, lying on the bottom of a chipped enamel sink, cold and coagulated was enough to put anyone off eating it. She ran the cold water tap onto the pasta and mince, and rubbed her finger around the drain hole to help it go down. ‘glug glug’ it sounded as it made its way down the drain hole. She was thinking how disgusting it felt, soft, lumpy and cold, and then looking at the greasy sink it reminded her once again that she must make an effort to do the dishes before she went to bed.

Grabbing her bag and house keys off the small table she let herself out of the front door, remembering to pull it shut really hard as the latch didn’t always work, and quickly walked towards the bus stop, knowing she was going to be late for work, but hoping she hadn’t missed the 9am bus –she didn’t want to be too late.

She had lived in this street for two years now and liked it. It was a scruffy area, but quiet. The bus seat, a blue wooden one had graffiti scrawled all over it, the usual stuff that bored and hormone riddled teenagers write. She looked at it every day and it hadn’t been added to or changed for quite a while. ‘I wonder if Angie still loves Jack, or if Cindy is still a fat, ugly cow?’…..

“Well here’s the bus” she said out loud. “And another riveting day coming up” she added, listening to her stomach growling loudly from hunger. She pictured an egg and bacon burger and could almost taste it – the thought of biting into it making her salivate. When usually woken up by the alarm clock it afforded her the time to make tea and toast, but not today. She was so busy thinking of her own stomach when she suddenly realised Tabatha hadn’t been fed. ‘Oh dear, she’ll be next door pinching their cat’s food’.

The bus was like the old school buses she used to catch. There wasn’t often a new bus on this route; they usually saved them for the ‘posher’ side of town. “Hi” she said to the driver showing him her card. She had gotten to know some of the drivers and she liked this one. Most of the seats were vacant so she walked down the aisle to the back of the bus and sat on the green, orange and brown material. Some of the windows at the back had been scratched by something sharp and underneath her feet and scattered about were a few discarded packets, chips and chocolate – the staple diet of a lot of school kids -  but apart from that the bus was clean enough.

The rhythm of the bus was making her feel sleepy and relaxed, but still starving! ‘I do feel tired this morning’ she thought to herself, rubbing her eyes, ‘with all that tossing and turning and dreaming, it’s so annoying’.

And then she remembered. She was suddenly wide awake and it all came back to her. The dream she had last night - again. This was the third time in about four weeks and it was beginning to intrigue her. ‘I know it’s just a dream but it’s so vivid’ she thought to herself.

“He has dark brown eyes and he’s gorgeous” she had told her friend at work after the second dream. “And I know this sounds ridiculous but it doesn’t seem like a dream. It’s more like seeing into the future”.

“What do you mean it doesn’t seem like a dream? That’s what it is, it’s not real you idiot”.

“I know it sounds odd but I somehow feel like I will actually meet this guy” she tried to explain to her friend who by this time was telling her that the only reason she wanted it to come true was because he was such a hunk!

“Hello love, is this your stop?” the bus driver yelled to the back of the bus.

“Oh yes” she said to him as she quickly made her way to the middle door, banging into the back of a seat with the very sudden braking. As it opened with a whining noise she called “Thank you” and stepped off onto the grey pavement rubbing her hip!

‘I need something to eat before I pass out!’ She made her way towards the cafe on the corner of the street she worked in. She had to wait a few minutes for her toasted sandwich but as soon as she got it, off came the wrapper and she took a massive bite, trying to shut her mouth while chewing as she rushed into her building.

“Why are you so late?” her friend Jackie asked, noting her full  mouth of food, crumbs on her chin and plenty on her jumper.

“Oh I slept in again” She always told her friend the truth….her boss was a different thing. Over the two years she had worked here the excuses had been quite varied! She didn’t know if he believed her on the last occasion when she told him that her cat had died over night and he asked her “Oh your new cat? What bad luck two dying in three months”…

The rest of the morning went quite quickly. There were no disgruntled customers today, no disputes about why electricity bills were so high and no complaints about how rude the meter readers were. (Well it’s no fun when a Rottweiler wants to bite you every time you go into the front yard to read the meter – even though you’ve rung ahead and given them enough time to tie the vicious thing up). “I feel like taking a pepper spray with me” said one of the meter guys after getting a nip on the leg but of course couldn’t!

“I had that dream again Jackie” she began, telling her friend as they heated up their lunch.

“What dream?” Jackie asked, more interested in how hot her soup was.

“You know! The hunky guy that I dream about, three dreams now!”

“Did anything happen or are you still at the chatting stage?” Jackie wanted to know

“We don’t talk. It’s funny - we just stand and look at each other. But I can tell he likes me”.

“You’re weird Sally – honestly it’s a dream, a recurring dream – maybe unresolved conflict? Who have you annoyed now?  I learnt about that from a show on telly the other night!”

“Well there will be conflict if we don’t get back to work – we’ve gone over time”.

She didn’t have the dream again about the hunk – as hard as she tried to conjure the dark haired man up in her mind and think about him, she couldn’t! But she didn’t forget him either.’ Oh I suppose I am just being ridiculous – dreams are just that – but he is rather nice’ she thought.

The merry go round of life carried on for Sally. She was now getting fed up of the place she lived in. Her landlord was mean and not interested in fixing anything up the house. When she complained about the leaking tap in the kitchen and the broken handle on her bedroom window, making it impossible to open up for fresh air , all she got from the estate agent inspector , a tired looking middle aged woman who didn’t actually know much about anything, and walked around Sally’s flat with a clipboard the size of two A4 pieces of paper side by side as if she was important was “No love I can’t see the owner of this place (and here she had a look that said ‘I wouldn’t live here for anything’)…wanting to put any money into it. I will of course get in touch with him and it is his decision entirely”. And then proceeded to say, thinking this would absolve him from any responsibility, “But he hasn’t put the rent up for quite a while”. 

Sally responded with “Well the last time he put the rent up I thought it was for two years in advance!” and added pointedly, “As you can see from all the looking around you have been doing, I keep a very neat and tidy place here!”

So she decided to give her two months’ notice and look for something else. She had gotten a miniscule pay rise at work, but it was enough to upgrade from a rundown hovel to a more attractive hovel, so she started looking.

She really only wanted a place that was clean and didn’t leak. Oh and maybe that it was a peaceful area, and safe, on a good bus route and train line. A decent stove would be good too though’ she added on to the list of necessities, in her mind.

At least she had a good reference. ‘Miss Sally Johnson has been an exemplary tenant for two years. She had always paid her rent on time. The premises have always been maintained to a very high standard. It has been a pleasure to have had a tenant like Miss Johnson’.

 It had ended up being a compromise between Sally and the real estate agent. Sally needed a good rental reference and in return she wouldn’t report them to the Real Estate complaints and advice about not fixing anything up in the flat. She really wanted to report them but more importantly she needed a good reference.

A week later Sally had a phone call from the real estate agent who managed the ‘place’ she was still in, the same lady who had inspected it. “Hello Sally. It’s Vera Linton – the General Manager and Real Estate Inspector from Johnson and Gaynor Real Estate Agents. How are you?” she asked Sally, who was still trying to get over the magnificent title That Vera Linton had enthusiastically but obviously, given herself! And how on picturing her, the title didn’t match the person……

After listening to Vera, Sally had a decision to make. The real estate agency had talked to the owner, who had been overseas but was now back- he had offered to fix all of the problem areas in the flat and in return the rent would go up another $10 per week.

She was having trouble finding anyway else much better than her current rental for the meagre extra money she was able to pay. Time was running out as she only had a week left before she and the furniture, mostly bought at op shops, were due to vacate.

She did have options – living with overbearing parents who hadn’t gotten over the fact that after stopping her university degree half way through to go overseas, and not going back to it on return, she ended up in the accounts section of the Water Authority (‘You’re ruining your life – you could have been ANYTHING’ her mother had sobbed!), or staying with a sister who had OCD so badly that after just a weekend at her place, you went home still counting everything you did four times, your hands red raw from sanitising them every five minutes, and a scratched face from your sisters nails when she screamed at you to ‘put the spices back in alphabetical order in the pantry’ and lunged at you like a mad cat.

“Hello It’s Sally Johnson here. I’ve decided to take up the offer of a rent rise of $10 and for that I get all of the repairs done – is that correct?”

 “It’s a win/win situation really” she told her friend at work. “I like where I live but I couldn’t have put up with that bathroom for much longer. Isn’t it strange how things work out? If I hadn’t complained again, I would have just given notice. But because Vera came around and obviously saw that I was a good tenant from the way I kept the place, and the fact my rent has never been late, reported back to the owner and ‘bingo’ we’re all happy!”

“You’re pretty pleased with yourself aren’t you?” teased her friend. “It’s like you’ve won something big.

“I know this will sound strange Jackie, but I’m convinced that because I’m staying in the house now, I’ll meet him. The man I dream about. I think he might be one of the tradesmen who will come to the house. Does that sound far-fetched?”

“Yes it does and weird too”.

“Well I’ll be at home when the plumber turns up tomorrow morning – he’s coming early, and I will let you know when I get to work”.

“I’m sure it will be him…Not!” said Jackie

That night Sally dreamt of the ‘man of her dreams’. His handsome face stared into hers, his dark eyes like deep pools. Nothing was said between them – he just stared and then suddenly for the first time, he smiled at her. When she woke up with the alarm she was annoyed. It was only a dream but when would he speak?.

She lived in hope that the smile meant they were getting closer to meeting. In her mind was the thought that she couldn’t wait for him for ever. “What the heck am I thinking?” she said out loud “It’s a dream for goodness sake. I must be going nuts. Maybe I need a holiday? But Sally was still full of expectation when she opened the door to the plumber after checking her face and hair in the mirror on the way.

“Oh Hello” said a very happy and friendly voice. “I’m Brett the plumber. Here’s my ID card”.

And sure enough the photo on the ID card matched the red haired, freckled face, tall slim plumber standing in front of Sally.

She felt disappointed. Sally was sure this plumber was going to be her dream man, but he was far from it. “Oh pleased to meet you Brett. I’m Sally and I’ll be late for work if I don’t run. Could you please leave the key under that rock?” she asked pointing to it.

The bus trip was miserable and she knew why. After she rose from the ‘jungle’ seat, shouted ‘have a good day’ to the driver of the bus and walked to her work building she had rationalised the dream situation and felt like she was back to normal. ‘Another day in paradise coming up’ she thought heading for her desk.

“Hiya” Jackie called looking backwards as she headed towards the kitchen area. “How are you? And how was the plumber?”

It wasn’t him! Sally bemoaned. “Well there’s a surprise” laughed Jackie

I need to talk to you about holidays Jackie…I need one!”

“Really, together?” asked her friend as she quickly headed towards her, forgetting about her coffee for the minute.

“I, I, I, mmm….I need to sit down” stammered Sally suddenly…

“What’s wrong? Do you feel ill? Let me get you to your desk”.

“It’s him; it’s him the dream man, behind you, at the counter. Oh my goodness. It’s him, it really is” Sally had turned an ashen colour and was staring at the dark haired man at the accounts counter.

Jackie turned quickly to look at whoever Sally was staring at.

“Is that your dream man?” she asked Sally “He’s a bit of all right”

“But how is it him? It’s a dream, that’s all, just a dream”.

“Who cares Sally? I know I kept saying it was just a dream and not to take it seriously but strange things happen in life – all the time. I watched a programme on telly the other night about that too! Just go over to the counter – it’s your job to deal with him! You can find out his name, and where he lives. Go and make your dream come true”.