The Dreamweaver

The Dreamweaver

The Dreamweaver is only seen by those whose lives he chooses to influence; once he enters their dreams, the dreamer is lost to his whim.

Elaine sits looking out of the aircraft window on the evening return flight from Budapest to Heathrow. In the quiet aeroplane she recalls a recurring dream of Oakington, the country town where she had grown up and not far from where she now lives. In her dream she retraces the same route each time, along the familiar High Street, past an estate agent, a card shop, once a small post office, a newsagent and a closed up cinema, now a small shopping mall. Here the dream ends.

Late that evening, as Elaine vacates her window seat at Heathrow a man in the row of central isle seats stands up. She notices he is wearing a ski jacket, jeans and trainers; informal and shaped by habitual wear. In the movement of passengers she has a moment to study him. He allows her to pass in front of him along the aisle to the exit. At the airport bus Elaine turns but the man has gone.

Early the next morning, Saturday, Andrew awakes slowly in his flat, some eighty miles from Oakington, lingering in the quiet mystery of his dream. He looks at the clock, twenty past four and just becoming light. He lays still for a moment, gathering his thoughts following his dream.

At first he had seen an unknown country road. He moved slowly along the road, his sense of anticipation increasing. The countryside was unfamiliar, low rolling hills and high hedges. Over the next few weeks, each time his dream occurred, he travelled further along the road, a signpost pointing to a town, the road winding around the hills. At a road junction, a bus shelter with a dark haired woman of about his own age. A dark blue and chrome motor cycle close by. A man he does not recognise dressed in an old and well worn ski jacket, jeans and trainers stands by the motorcycle.

Two weeks have passed since Elaine’s last dream. Now the dream comes back to her. She is in the same High Street that has been familiar since childhood, the estate agent, the card shop, the newsagent and closed up cinema. Elaine stops opposite the newsagent, preparing to cross the road. The street is crowded, more so than when she had grown up here. This time an unknown figure appears from amongst the anonymous crowd; a man in a wide brimmed hat, walking away from her. In her dream she feels that if he turns she will know him. There the dream ceases. Over a period of weeks during which June becomes July her dream repeats, each time the same sense of expectation. Always with the same idea that if the man turns she will know him.

During the first week of July, as Elaine dreams of the long High Street, Andrew is dreaming that he emerges from the crowds in an unknown town in front of the dark haired woman he had previously seen at the bus shelter. Behind him he hears her footsteps, he turns round, only hearing the echo of his feet upon the pavement; the woman has disappeared. Then he sees the man dressed in casual clothes he had seen before standing by the motorcycle. The man stops Andrew and speaks to him. Andrew awakes.

There were no more dreams for several days then, in his next dream, the woman Andrew had seen at the bus shelter is walking in front of him, she turns and looks past him as if expecting to see somebody. He continues to walk on, past the card shop, the newsagent and closed up cinema. Behind Andrew the blue and chrome motorcycle is parked at the roadside. The woman turns again and this time looks at Andrew as if wanting to remember him. Andrew tries to hold her gaze but she fades into the background of people.

The next day Andrew receives an e_mail. He is to go to Oakington on business. His first time there. Driving the eighty miles he approaches Oakington, aware of the familiarity of the road from his dream, winding round the hills. He comes to a road junction with a bus shelter. He slows to a stop, startled to see the motorcycle, the bus shelter is empty. He waits in a small lay-by, wondering if the man in the ski jacket will appear but he does not. He drives on to Oakington, and parks on an industrial estate to meet his business colleague.

Three weeks later, after travelling the eighty miles two or three times each week, his company reserves a hotel room for him on the outskirts of Oakington.

One afternoon, with time to spare, Andrew goes into the town centre alone to look around, he walks along the street he recognises from his dreams. In the crowd he thinks he sees the man in the ski jacket. He follows the man down a side street then the man vanishes.

At the same time Elaine has returned home from town on the bus, she is tired and dozes on the settee. In her dream she sees the man in the wide brimmed hat walking past the closed up cinema, he comes to the side street, beside him the man wearing the ski jacket. They appear to be talking. They continue along the side street to a coffee shop, recently opened.

The scene shifts. Elaine is sitting in a coffee shop. The man in the ski jacket she first saw on the aeroplane is sitting opposite, he is saying something. Later, when she is awake she puzzles over the meaning of this man being in her dream. She tries to remember her conversation with him but she cannot, only the sound of his voice drifting through the passages of her mind. Elaine is thinking about the man in the wide brimmed hat; feeling she is beginning to know him, tall, tidily dressed, a determination in his step. She does not think to question who he is, he is a part of her dream, as much a part as the street, the shops, the shopping mall.

That same night in his sleep, as if from some distance, Andrew sees the bus shelter. The man in a ski jacket sits on his motorcycle looking at him. He sees the dark haired woman walking toward the bus shelter, seeming not to see the man in the ski jacket. Andrew feels he knows this woman, There is a calm about her, a contentment shown in her poise as she walks.

A bus arrives, the woman gets on and leaves toward Oakington.

The scene changes. Andrew is sitting in the coffee shop talking to Elaine. Andrew awakes.

Two days later Elaine is shopping in Oakington. Suddenly she thinks of the new coffee shop. She enters, buys a coffee and sits at the only empty table. Looking out of the window she sees the man with the wide brimmed hat across the square. For a moment Elaine thinks he is talking to the man wearing a ski jacket who seems to point in her direction.

Andrew walks to the coffee shop and enters. There is only one seat available, at a table where the woman he recognises from his dream is already sitting. From the counter by the till he looks at her, he notices that he is not surprised to see her sitting there.

Elaine and Andrew look at each other, there is a feeling of recognition between them. They feel as if they have known each other for a long time. They sit and chat, each thinking they alone have seen the man in the ski jacket.

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