Take Me Back to Dreamworld

She couldn’t decide if she should wear the red ones or the pink and silver pair.

She lifted them both from her shoe rack and placed them side by side on the floor. Then rushing into the closet or ‘spare room’ as her friends called it, took the dress she was thinking of wearing down off the hanger and laid it on the bed above the shoes. After looking from the dress to the shoes a couple of times she declared aloud “No none of those – and definitely not that dress!”.

Her closet was enormous with deep shelves, drawers and hangers full of clothes, shoes, handbags, jewellery and so much more. A lot of the articles of clothing still had the tags on them, never worn. She wasn’t that tidy either so when she was hunting for a pair of shoes to go with a certain outfit, there was no putting them back neatly in pairs - no it was as if a mini tornado had ripped through the room, just lifting and dropping wherever.

But it didn’t really matter how messy she left her closet, bedroom or even the house because every Tuesday Sally came.

Sally was a marvel according to Pip, or as she liked to tell her friends ‘a cleaning wizard’. She would come at 10.30 each Tuesday (that way Pip didn’t have to get up early), let herself in with the hidden key and set to work. By 1.30 the house was immaculate and every shoe in the closet was paired up, every article of clothing lifted off the floor or bed or anywhere else it had been dropped, folded and put away neatly.

Sally happily and deservedly took the money left for her off the table downstairs and shut the door behind her.

Today was Friday and Pip was going out on a dinner date with a man her best friend had set her up with, hence the need to look stunning!

Apparently, he was gorgeous and the CEO of a huge organization (according to her friend Jess, he was handsome and loaded!). Not that Pip needed anyone with money; she had enough of her own – family money left to her from her Grandma, the one from her father’s Italian side of the family, and apparently the founder of an Italian shoe factory. So that was why Pip loved shoes – it was in her blood!

‘I think the dark dress will be better for a first date’ she thought ‘not too flirty – after all I don’t want to scare him off’.

The dark blue dress was laid out of the bed, on top of about six others and a pair of blue and pink stiletto’s sat on the floor below it. ‘Yes, lovely’ went through Pip’s head as she picked it up to take the price tag off it ‘my goodness, did I really pay that? Oh well let’s hope it does the trick’.

Her jewellery case was heavy as she dragged it from a shelf in the closet on to the island bench. She lifted the lid and looked in the earring section. There seemed to be every shape and colour of earrings you could imagine. “I think pearls would be nice” she said to herself picking a pair of earing out and putting one of them against her ear “but then should I match them with a pearl necklace or go a bit ‘different’ and have a coloured strand?”

Pip had been on so many first dates that if asked, she would find it difficult to remember most. Of course, there were one or two that stayed with her, the special ones.

She had actually been on a ‘helicopter’ first date. Now that was amazing. Her friend Zoe had told her about Philip, a lawyer, so many times and at the end of each conversation always mentioned that he was single and that the two of them would be really well suited!

After much consideration Pip decided that because the charity ball she was supposed to go to had been postponed and she was at a loss, she would consider going on a date with Philip. So it was arranged.

Unlike all the other blind dates she went on, this time it would be just the two of them. He would pick her up on the Saturday morning at 11am, and her instructions after talking to him on the phone were not to get too dressed up as this would be an adventure. (But bring a swimming costume!).

It was a little strange being picked up by someone she had never met but she trusted her friend’s judgement and knew they worked together closely so she would surely know what he was really like. ‘What else would I be doing this weekend?’ she thought ‘I’ve got nothing to lose!’.

Philip had turned up in a red Maserati (Pip was watching sneakily from the top window) and when her doorbell rang she was already waiting downstairs. As she opened the door, Pip got a very nice surprise. He was as handsome as Zoe kept telling her, dark hair, white teeth and tall, very tall. ‘Mmmm, nice’ she thought after the introduction and kiss on the cheek, allowing his spicy aftershave to waft in her direction.

“Where are we actually going?” she asked him as they zoomed along the road, roof down allowing the wind to blow her hair back from her face.

“You’ll see” was all he replied flashing her a smile that showed off his pearly whites.

After about twenty minutes they turned down a side road. The environment had changed from the big city busyness into the peaceful countryside. Houses, shops and people gave way to the green fields and forests – even the air seemed clearer.

Houses were sparsely dotted about and even though they were driving along rough and hedged roads, those she could see were more like manor houses than farms.

“Oh, this is very nice. Do you live here?” Pip enquired.

“Sometimes” he answered “this is where my helipad is”.

When he stopped the humming car abruptly at the end of a long driveway, with tall and pencil thin poplar trees standing to attention either side of it, she looked straight ahead at the huge house and then to the right at the cleared and flat square of land.

“Don’t tell me that is yours?” she asked excitedly looking at the orange and white helicopter that sat on the pad!

 ‘So, this was the adventure’ she thought, waiting for his answer.

“Yes, all mine” he replied getting out of the car and walking towards it. Pip followed him, not knowing whether to bring her bag or not. She assumed they were going up in it but didn’t really know. She had been on lots of aeroplanes but never a helicopter so she hoped that they were going for a trip.

Philip turned to her “Bring your bag, we’re not just going to admire it!”

“Seat belt” he said to her. She felt a little nervous but the butterflies were more from the thrill of the ensuing flight. She was happy that it wasn’t a windy day though. The sky was blue and the sun was shining. “You do have a helicopter licence, don’t you?” she asked the man she didn’t really know, and who was about to start up the engine!

“Ha” he laughed as the engine revved into life and the blades began to whirr “Too late now if I don’t” …

She hadn’t expected the noise to be so loud. The slapping noises were obviously perfectly normal but took a while to get used to. Philip handed her a pair of headphones and she put them on.

“Ok?” he asked through the headset and she gave him a ‘thumbs up’. “I’ll take you for a twenty-minute ride – we’ll land at my friend’s place and have lunch and a swim there”.

“Sounds good she replied” giving him a big smile. “This is amazing. How wonderful to be up high, looking down on the fields, farms, cattle and enormous manor houses!”

Looking back, Pip had enjoyed Philip’s company, especially the adventures they had gone on with all the thrills and fun but when he decided to start up a new company overseas, sadly within three months they had lost touch.

He had never asked her to join him, his phone calls became less frequent and the last she heard was that he was engaged to a debutant from an extremely wealthy family. She remembered thinking, after the initial shock that it was his loss and there were plenty of fish in the ocean.

So here she was deciding on the plain or coloured strand of pearls for her next blind date.

With the dress, shoes and jewellery decided on, she needed to rush to the hairdressers. Today was just a style. ‘Shouldn’t take too long’ she thought, feeling relieved that the nail salon was just next door as she had made the appointments just half an hour apart.

As the doorbell rang, she remembered happily that Clara was coming over to work her magic. “Hello Pip” she said to her client popping the huge bag of tricks she had lugged inside the front door down on the floor. “No work today?” she asked

“Oh, I took it off – I really need a day sometimes to get organised”.

“I understand” Clara lied. It only took her about an hour to get herself ready to go out, but then she didn’t have much to choose from – it was usually dress one, two or three!

“Big date?” Clara asked Pip, and wondering just how many times she had asked the same question!

“Well, I was going to a charity ball tonight but that’s been postponed so I’m actually going on a blind date – another one! He sounds divine so I’m going all out!”

It was relaxing having makeup applied. With the gentle tickle of the little brushes on her face going back and forwards, her breathing slowed and she felt her eyelids grow heavy as she was nodding off. ‘But when I wake up I’ll look beautiful’ she heard her own voice saying.

Suddenly an alarm was sounding and Pip sat up quickly while looking around feeling slightly dizzy from the rush of blood to her head.

“You’re a sleepy head today. You’ll be late for work love” a familiar voice told her.

Rubbing her eyes and focusing on where the voice came from, she realised it was Tom, her husband standing at the foot of the bed and looking at her. She recognised his threadbare boxer shorts and balding head before she saw the morning cup of tea, he always made for her in his hand.

“You were doing a bit of tossing and turning Pip and who, I would like to know is this Philip – you called it out in your sleep!” and her overweight and balding and unemployed husband just laughed.

“Oh, I have no idea who Philip is. I was just dreaming. We do have a resident at the nursing home called Philip, maybe it was him”.

As she sipped her cup of tea and thought about her day ahead, she sighed and said out loud “What a bloody shame that was just a dream”.