The Dream Catcher
Publisher: Michael Wolfe
Published: 2010
Table of contents: title: It all started when, Indigo Black, woke up in a cornfield. It was a strange feeling. Suddenly, she realized that her beloved Dream Catcher was missing! Immediately she called for help. Cookie on the other end was no help. Cookie was unique. He was plucky though sometimes a little... annoying. Indigo Black called him anyway, for the situation was urgent. Cookie calmly assured her that that everything would be alright. He had no idea what that meant; he was only concerned with distracting Indigo. Why was Cookie trying to distract Indigo Black?  Because he had snuck off with the dream catcher. It was a saucy little Dream Catcher... how could he resist? It didn't take long before Indigo got back to the subject at hand: her Dream Catcher. Cookie shuddered. Reluctantly, Cookie invited her over; assuring her they'd find the Dream Catcher. Indigo grabbed her coffee and disembarked immediately.; title: After hanging up the phone, Cookie realized that he was in trouble. He had to find a place to hide the Dream Catcher and he had to do it aptly. He figured that if Indigo took the tractor, it would take at least thirty minutes before Indigo would get there. Before he could come up with any reasonable ideas, Cookie was interrupted by Nigra, Indigo's pet crow. Cookie turned red; “Not again”, he thought. Feeling exasperated, he carefully reached for his stapler and aimlessly shot staples at the bird. Apparently this was an adequate deterrent--the discouraged critter began to scurry back toward Indigo, squealing with discontent. He exhaled with relief.  That's when he heard the tractor rolling up.  It was Indigo.; title: As she pulled up, she felt a sense of urgency. She had had to make an unscheduled stop at Jim's House. So she knew she was running late.  With a skillful leap, Indigo was out of the tractor and went scandalously jaunting toward Cookie's front door.  Meanwhile inside, Cookie was panicking.  Not thinking, he tossed the Dream Catcher into a box of pencils and then slid the box behind his grandfather clock. Cookie wasn't pleased but at least the Dream Catcher was concealed.; title: The doorbell rang. “Come in,” Cookie earnestly purred.  With an apt push, Indigo opened the door. “Sorry for being late, but I stopped at Jim's house.” “It's fine,” Cookie assured her. Indigo took a seat nowhere near where Cookie had hidden the Dream Catcher. Cookie turned red trying unsuccessfully to hide his nervousness.  “Uhh, can I get you anything?” he blurted out.  But Indigo was distracted. She felt the presence of the dream catcher. Almost immediately, Cookie noticed a funny-look on Indigo's face. Indigo slowly opened her mouth to speak. “...Where is it?” Cookie felt a stabbing pain in his abdomen when Indigo asked this.  In a moment of disbelief, he realized that he had hidden the Dream Catcher right by his oscillating fan. “Wh-what?  I don't know what you're t-t-talking about..!” He stammered.  A stupid look started to form on Indigo's face. She turned to notice a box that seemed clearly out of place. “Th-th-those are just my grandma's staplers from when she used to work as a secretary.  She, uh...dropped 'em by here earlier.” Indigo nodded with fake acknowledgement...then, before Cookie could react, Indigo skillfully lunged toward the box and opened it.  The Dream Catcher was plainly in view. Indigo stared at Cookie for what must've been eight minutes. Without warning, Cookie groped scandalously in Indigo's direction, clearly desperate. Indigo grabbed the Dream Catcher and bolted for the door.  It was locked. Cookie let out a striking chuckle. “If only you hadn't been so protective of that thing, none of this would have happened, Indigo Black,” he rebuked. Cookie always had been a little annoying, so Indigo knew that reconciliation was not an option; she needed to escape before Cookie did something crazy. Unexpectedly, she gripped her Dream Catcher tightly and made a dash toward the window, diving headlong through the glass panels. Cookie looked on, blankly.; title: “What the heck?  That seemed excessive.  The other door was open, you know!” Cookie shouted. Silence from Indigo. “And to think, I varnished that window frame six days ago...it never ends!” Suddenly he felt a tinge of concern for Indigo. “Oh. You...okay?” Still silence. Cookie walked over to the window and looked down. Indigo was gone. Just yonder, Indigo was struggling to make her way through the bush behind Cookie's place. Indigo had severely hurt her neck during the window incident, and was starting to lose strength. The last thing she saw before losing consciousness was Cookie running off with her Dream Catcher.; title: About four hours later, Indigo awoke, her neck throbbing.  It was dark and Indigo did not know where she was.  Deep in the inhospitable vineyard, Indigo was really lost. Subsequently, she remembered that her Dream Catcher was taken by Cookie. But at that point, she was just thankful for her life.  That's when, to her horror, a misshapen shape emerged from the thicket.  It was the stranger in black. Indigo opened her mouth to scream but was cut short when the stranger said, “I can help you.”  With a faint groan, the life escaped from Indigo's lungs. As she was clearly shocked.; title: Less than two miles away, Cookie was entombed by anguish over the loss of the Dream Catcher.  “STUPID DREAM CATCHER!!” he cried, as he reached for a sharpened pencil.  With a quick thrust, he buried it deeply into his back.  As the room began to fade to black, he thought about Indigo... wishing he had found the courage to tell her that he loved her.  But he would die alone that day.  All that remained was the Dream Catcher that had turned them against each other, ultimately causing their demise.  And as the dew on melancholy sapling branches began to reflect the dawn's reddish glare, all which could be heard was the chilling cry of the distant tractor. Indigo's tractor. Sweet Indigo's tractor.