Chapter 2

I woke up with a sweat. Man, that was rather intense. That last part was definitely something that I did not appreciate. My heart still felt like it would rip itself out through my spine.

As I showered, I reflected on my dreams. It was definitely a much better one than my everyday dreams. I made a slight smile. I missed seeing Mother in my dreams. I haven't seen her since the night she attempted to kill me in my dream and since I took my prescription.

Oh heck! I forgot to take my pills last night. I didn't have any nightmares though, so did this meant that I no longer needed the pills?

Mother Gaia, as I understood to be her name, used to appear in my dreams starting shortly after my mom's death. At first I thought that it was my mom in disguise, sent back to help her poor, left-behind family cope with her departure. I immediately knew it to be wrong. Mother Gaia was very different from my mom. Mother Gaia had a more subtle mix of caring and love. Oh, you can feel it there, but you'll always know that it was just maternal instincts and that she had more important things to do or talk about rather than holding you and rubbing you kindly.

But Mother Gaia helped me in a lot of ways. When I was sad from my mom's death, she was there and although she did nothing, she stood there listening to me whining about the unfairness of it all. Sometimes I would ask her questions, and she would reply with images that form descriptions of which I had to translate myself.

My shrink told me it was just me desiring a mother figure after losing my mom. He told me that it was all simply my subconscious splitting a part of myself to converse with the main personality. It all sounded rather weird to me, but I followed his suggestion of recording each minor details of the dreams in a little book I called 'dream diary'. Some of the dreams were forgotten as soon as I opened my eyes, though some lingered a while longer. So the 'diary' wasn't very complete.

If Mother Gaia was just another part of me though, I must be some kind of a closet Socrates deep inside because the answers she gave were very deep and philosophical.

A message popped up as I entered my cubicle, "patty, you free this evening?"

Must be Sue, I thought. That IP looked like hers. I placed my coffee next to the keyboard, "I don't have any plans for today if that's what you're asking".

"would you like to come to my place for dinner?"

I grinned; I've been to her place a few times before. It was a cool house with a swimming pool and such, inherited from her favorite uncle. I know, at my age, I shouldn't be so giddy about swimming pools, but I couldn't help it. I love swimming pools.

"My, my, girl. You're asking me for a dinner date? What would your bf say?"

I thought she suddenly felt guilty and won't be replying me. As I took a fourth sip of my coffee, her reply came,"we just broke up".

I soaked the LCD flatscreen with a mouthful of coffee. Immediately getting a handful of tissues, I wiped it all clean. It wouldn't do to have the boss walk by and saw me vandalizing company property.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know. Want to talk about it?"

"just tell me yes or no. i'm not sure what i want right now."

I decided that I need to be a good friend to her, so I sent, "Sure, I'd love to. May I bring my swimming trunks? ^-^".

"you're such a kid. sure, maybe we can have a swim after dinner". I didn't know how, but I could sense her mood had improved with that reply.

"OK, I'll see you at 8?"

"sure, bring some booze though. i'm thinking of getting plastered."

Laughing inwardly, I recalled that Sue had a very low alcoholic tolerance and it wouldn't take much at all to get her plastered.

"Will do."

I sent another message quickly after, "This is Sue, right?"

"of course this is sue. who else calls you patty and sits in accounting?" Well, I can name a few.

Avoiding argument, "Right, but I wish you would stop calling me Patty. It sounds really girly".

"patty patty patty". I could sense her smirk as she typed those.

Oh well, at least she was participating in the joy of making fun of me.

"Hey dude, need I remind you that it's Saturday? Which means half day?" Guhh, that damn son of a something really annoy me.

"Too much work to finish." Please, just piss off.

He hovered outside my cubicle for a while, probably thinking of an insult of sort.

"I heard you'll be having dinner with Sue Preston tonight."

How could such insignificant news be a subject of gossip? I turned around facing him, "And how, pray tell is it any of your business who I'm having dinner with? I don't remember signing up as public property, and I sure as hell don't remember signing up as your personal property. Why is it that you always want to take what I have?"