This morning I wake up at the top of a loft and walk down it’s stairs, shirtless, after stretching. As I step down into the gallery everyone stops talking and focuses their attention on me, as if it’s a going away party. I now have a dark blue tee on and start to greet people. I go around saying thanks for the hard work—probably about the gallery— and notice several pieces hanging on the walls that I recognize. UPSO and Murakami come to mind right now.
After talking for a bit, everyone decides to go for a jog. I bid them farewell and almost make it back upstairs before I’m in an adidas tracksuit jogging after them. I catch up and everyone’s glad to have me. We pass several blocks and make it to a tree-lined neighborhood reminiscent of Brooklyn during the 80’s in the movie Squid & The Whale. I see a girl get out of a car and start to walk in the same direction. She looks familiar. Is it? Yes. It’s her. I yell her name and she turns around.
I slow down and throw my arms around her. From the momentum we tumble to the ground holding each other as everyone I was jogging with passes us with caution. I look to the left and there’s a patch of grass so I motion towards it as she bites her lip and agrees. We tumble our way to it and I end up on my back and she on my left side propped up by her arm. She stares at me and we talk about our significant others and the trips we’re taking with them—I’m off to Barcelona and she to South America. We then get on the topic of childhood and I go on a tangent about how much I loved my Use Your Illusion I & II cassette tapes. Everything from the orange vs. blue artwork, to the fact that I liked II more than I. She laughs to the point of tears and tells me about her Teddy Ruxpin and how she used to put in Billy Idol cassettes to make him sing Rebel Yell.
Neither of us want to leave, so we continue to talk as the sun sets. I tell her I’m about half way through Norwegian Wood and she says that’s probably why she’s in my dreams and it explains the way I’m feeling. It starts to rain a bit, so we get up and say our goodbyes. I can’t look away because it feels like the last time I’ll ever see her, and she starts to cry knowing that it is. I turn around and sprint towards the coffee shop where everyone is meeting up, and sit down just before they all arrive. I’m soaked to the bone and all I can think about is her.
