The Dreamscape

“Welcome to the dreamscape.”

That was the first thing I heard upon arrival to my new realm. Waking or sleeping, who knows, but I was there, bright eyed and bushy tailed.

“I’m Autumn,” she said. “I’d ask your name, but I assume you don’t know what you want it to be yet.”

“Walter,” I said with more certainty than I felt.

“Walter?” She narrowed her eyes at me. “You can choose anything you like, and you pick something so … old.”

I shrugged. “Maybe I’m old in the soul.”

“Or you have no taste. Follow me.” She started walking away, and I followed. At least she didn’t dwell on my stupidity.

We walked through a glass hall separating us from the outside—or was it still inside? Hard to tell with no horizon. Beyond the glass, I beheld the most uncanny scenes I’d never imagined. A girl flew a dragon as her kite to my left, and to my right, a man climbed a metallic cathedral only to realize he hung upside down to the sky.

“That’s trippy,” I said.

“The dreamscape is exactly as you don’t expect.” She said it matter-of-fact, as if no one had ever questioned it.

I could only shake my head. “Fun place.”

“It’s home,” she said softly. “After a while, it feels like you were born here.”