Invitation to A Wakeful Dream
A Short Story by Willow Kang
Invitation To A Wakeful Dream
Aria yawned as she glanced at the rivulets of golden lights that streamed through her windows. Not sunlight, or moonlight, but artificial beams from the city. Aria’s eyes started to droop, and she huffed in annoyance. She could not afford to sleep yet, not if she could not complete this report by the time the sun rose.
Aria reached for the cup of coffee on her desk, while her phone chimed. Unexpectedly. She had not anticipated anyone to be awake at this hour of heavy slumbering. Aria read the message from her colleague. Or… friend? Bella had joined a few months ago before it was solely Aria running the shelter with sporadic counsel from her kin in the sky. She had to contain her shock at meeting another being like her, but Bella just looked unperturbed. Aria remembered Bella walking into the office meeting on a sleepy afternoon. Bella, with her mahogany eyes and raven hair. Orbs for eyes that pierce like a water nymph's, always knowing, always silently mirthful. Over the months, Aria and Bella had chatted briefly on several occasions. Was this considered friendship? Aria had no wish to bare to Bella something so powerfully vulnerable, even as they dealt with vulnerability on a daily basis.
Rubbing her eyes to keep sleep falling into them like wilting violet onto graveyard walls, Aria read the text message. ‘Will you join me for dinner? I think there is something we can do together.’ Dinner? What a strange request. Aria struggled to process the reason behind Bella’s proposition. Although Aria was far from being a loner, she still preferred to spend evenings in the refuge of her own cloud-hazed bedroom. Nor had she thought that her friendship with Bella was deep enough to warrant a…dinner meet, or whatever people called this. Outside people had a sort of miasma attached to them that Aria did not enjoy contacting. Of course, she knew she herself was tainted, but working kept her mind off such incorporeal matters. But perhaps emerging from this immutable cocoon could be an occasion for excitement. Aria accepted with only an offhanded hesitance.
The winds hurried towards the sea more insistently as the sun chariot descended. If Aria was working in any other more conventional occupation, surely she would still be in the living room with a cup of coffee in her hand, its rising steam becoming a diffusing aroma of delightful wakefulness. Regardless, Aria’s fate was more troublesome, at least to her anyway. Work never started so early in the morning, but there are people to save and even more troubles to be comprehended. Aria made her way to the city, pirouetting but not quite, verdant parks blending into marvelous sketches of viridescent flora. Amongst such illusory allure, Aria felt a sort of desperation gnawing away at her. It coalesced from countless failed prayers of this planet's humans, a helpless pawing at the gods. The heralds had warned her about the lost ones, but hope was a thousand-legged spider. In the office, Bella was already waiting, her gentle perfume wafting, reminding Aria too much of the confectionary candies of her childhood. Aria made a quick note to check with her once again that the dinner was happening, then diligently got on with her duties.
Throughout the day, Aria snuck intermittent glances at Bella, once again feeling like a child faced with an unexpectedly peculiar puzzle. Bella’s motivations remained difficult to discern, though surely borne of friendship. Yet, Aria found that she had never actually taken the time to know Bella well. Against her better judgment, Aria found Bella to possess her own, eccentric brand of otherworldly gracefulness. Bella was cheerfully carefree, curious to the point of sheer childishness, and insufferably intelligent. Bella was never focused on her work, instead flitting about the sun-washed floors, randomly toying with the myriad of curios lying around on her floors. Normally, Aria would have mildly chastised such behavior for slacking, but there was almost an endearing charm to Bella. Besides, Bella somehow got her work done anyways, Aria thought. Maybe Bella’s nonchalance too could be attributed to sleepless nights, to flirtations with crystal ball spirits. What dreamcatchers guard Bella for her to retain her wholeness?
Work comes and goes. The evening primrose stretches on its earthy bed, and the masquerading sprites sent by Electra as helpers take their leave, each one duly classified into absentee boxes in Aria’s heart. Then there was the matter of Bella’s dinner. The woman in question shows up at Aria’s door on time, earrings jangling like xylophones, and an uncharacteristically artful grin marking her features.
“Shall we go?”, she asks. “Also, there is no need to be so curious about me. I don’t bite people who converse with me, you know,” Aria flushes, her neck and cheek filling with beads of ruby gold. So Bella found out about her incognito tendencies. Even despite this social fiasco, Aria, in a complete fit of incredulity, agrees to the dinner.
At the cafe, Bella leads the food order. Aria has coffee (again) with salad, to which Bella makes a comment on her insipid food choices. Aria stares as Bella orders. To her own chagrin, Bella was appealing in a way no one else had been to her. Bella was full of infinite curiosities, like a rebelling pirate’s shipwreck sunken in coral seas. Bella, with her puerile goodness. Bella, who could afford the residents of their shelter at least a single night of solitude, would point out entire constellations just for a child. She places an order for fish and chips. Aria had a sudden urge to ask her what landed her in this cafe today, what blissful ignorance she would sacrifice to comfort those wailing masses.
“-so I was thinking about a programme where we…’, Aria started as Bella’s rambling jolted her from a muddy stupor. Aria grimaces. Bella had that half-smile on her face, and she was laughing. At her.
“I apologize. I will, uh-”, Aria stuttered as she struggled to invent some ingenious remedy to the situation.
“It’s alright. I will start over.”. Bella’s voice tinkled like wind chimes in high spring. Aria listened over again, paying more attention this time. So Bella had come to dinner to discuss a new programme with her. Bella’s naivety was deceiving to lesser eyes. The new programme was a truly brilliant scheme. Whether it worked out in real life is yet to be decided. But if they
argued well, and the mayor could listen, then…of all those glittering prospects…For all of her more bizarre facades, Bella was far from cloistered.
The evening rolls by in waves of rippling magenta, then ultramarine. Aria finds time to be merciful today, the clock allowing for some more seconds of this unfamiliar revelry. With anyone else, Aria would be done by now, but Bella chatters on, and Aria gladly complies. They sift through boxes of sand, seaglass, then jellyfish. Bella sweeps away ancient layers of stardust, and Aria makes insignificant discoveries with the weight of gemstones. Aria tells her tales, both worldly and celestial. The absentee door god who she continues to make offerings to. This and that. The infants born into the cold of a prison. Those and these. Aria weeps from the burden of bearing witness to mortal callousness, and Bella is a succoring seraphim, sprinkling the Lethe’s waters onto her lips.
Aria sits up, dismisses these episodes as a fit of senile madness. Maybe I should sleep properly tonight, Aria thought. Bella looks at her with the inquisitiveness of a sprite, concern swirling as mournful striped ribbons of bubblegum pink and lagoon blue.
“It won't hurt to rest,” Bella sighed, a complicated frustration lacing itself about her voice. Aria pushed down the urge to bolt. She would never have spoken to anyone else in this manner, aware of the hours of pity she would be subjected to.
“I could say the same to you,” Aria muttered, thinking of Bella's late-night texts. Bella chortled softly, knowing that Aria saw the plain truth. Bella’s nights are those kinds where you can intrinsically feel the twinkling wonder that any roadside pedestrian could offer you. Aria could not wish for such illumination, not if the previous ones persisted in their hauntings. How did Bella fend their spirits off? Bella’s touch was a sanctuary of temporary ignorance, tempting Aria to lean in.
“We could have these dinners more often, if you like.”, Bella offered with the tenderness of a birthing divinity. An offer of humane connection. Bella was to Aria what Aria was to the foolish fires she faced everyday. There are no immortals left to watch over here. And despite the impossibilities, by sundown’s glow, Aria intertwines her red thread with Bella’s. They returned to Aria’s apartment later that night, together. Through a caffeinated fog of dreams yet to be dreamt, you could see two people traversing the same cobblestone street, one prancing with the lightness of a rabbit, the other coolly strolling along.
It was dusk by the time Aria finally felt a fitful doze creep up on her, like ivy around resolute stone walls. If not for Bella, Aria would be watching the stars again, fruitlessly trying to read the kismet of the people she was entrusted to rescue. Such a thing was impossible for a mortal, even one that has earned the favor of the Pleiades. Aria tried anyway, occasionally catching whispers on the wind, of deeds past and done, of wishes coming and unfulfilled. The clouds were a lonely paradise to take refuge in. Beside Aria, Bella twisted, soaking in the fascination of the rippling starlight, murmuring promises of solace into Aria’s side. It was too early to tell if this idyll would last, Aria decided. Still, now, she was content with simply watching as the night sky set forth their fate.
