A 16 Year Old's Dream Chapter 7

## Story

Half the year has already flown by.

It's night in early spring, and Maya sits at her desk finishing up a science fiction novel. She adjusted to school right away. Nipples remains her only friend as always, but she gets along with the other students in her grade. The other students would come up and talk to her first, having read her novel and liking her already. Even Boni from TV reached out to her. During that time, she dreamed all sorts of dreams.

Maya would write the details of her dreams in a diary, which she would later incorporate into her novels. Nipples would run off with her writing once this was done. She would ask when the next story would be finished and then create a schedule like an employee for a publishing firm.

These days, Nipples is absolutely enamored with Maya's writings about "a character with supernatural powers." She's constantly practicing the dialogue spoken by the female protagonist. It's hard to believe the novel was even published, but Nipples really seems to want to be an actress.

Rose was mentioned in school. Several students still remember her. She's all right, Maya wanted to tell them, but wondered how she'd explain that she found Rose in a dream, so she decided to drop it. Suddenly, she became curious about how Rose and Coco were doing. She looked through her drawers and found the white wooden horse.

She remembers riding a white wooden horse just like this, except it was much bigger and could talk. She wishes she could ride it again. Most of her dolls in her display case had disappeared. It seems that they had all left through the attic. She thinks she knows what she'll dream about tonight. She walks along the yellow brick road. The road was in a great state of disrepair. It was as if a huge dump truck had driven by.

The fields laid out by the sheep spread far and wide. The golden grains waving about gave it the look of a large scale farm. Here and there are children that resembled Maya's dolls, chasing crows. Nosey is fighting off a crow pecking at his head. Cry Baby is helping Nosey while jingling a bell. Seeing how she was using both her arms, her injury seems to have healed. No. 69 couldn't be seen, but there were so many sheep to begin with it's hard to see their numbers.

Maya went past the fountain and into a room in the fields. It has a desk and a chair, but it is so big, she can't sit in it. It was several times her height.

"Everything's so big." she said in amazement. She suddenly heard a "woof woof" next to her. It was Tom Tom.

"When did you follow me here?" she hugs him, happy to see him. She gets on top of a hexagonal pencil with Tom Tom and has fun rolling every which way.

She is concerned about the compass with its pointy end like a giant pick. The bed, the curtains, she feels she has seen them many times before.

Slanty Eyes sits in a display case by herself.

"So you've been living here," she spoke to Slanty Eyes. "What's it like living here?"

"Ah. Living here is manageable."

"This place reminds me of my room."
"Of course it does." Slanty Eyes replies arrogantly, the way some Oriental women might speak.

Her favorite hand mirror was leaning against the wall. Of course, it is much bigger than Maya's own mirror. She cannot hold it in her hands. She looks into the mirror out of habit. She has to make sure her makeup isn't smudged and that there's no food stains by her mouth. And then, she sees the "thing." That "thing" in the mirror moves a bit more slowly than herself. She remembers it from before and feels scared. Tom Tom looks into the mirror, too, and growls.

Maya-in-the-mirror looks at the dog and makes a scary face. Maya takes some steps backwards. Slanty Eyes stands behind her and tugs on the hem of her clothes.

"It'd be best to stop looking. Bad things will happen if you keep looking into it." It wasn't like her to be worried for others.

She tries not to look, but her eyes keep going back to the mirror. She thinks she needs to get out of this room.

"You mustn't think of bad things in your dreams," pleads Slanty Eyes.

"Why not? It's just a dream." She shrugs off Slanty Eyes' concerns.

She leaves the room from the opposite side and goes down the hill. The grass was so high that it did not hurt even when one slipped and fell. In fact, rolling down the hill was fun.

"I feel like a kid again coming here," she thinks to herself, but she could not keep herself from having fun.

After rolling down the hill for some time, she comes to a stop at the foot of a hill and sees feet belonging to a wolf. The wolf looks down at Maya while blowing soap bubbles.

"Ah, aren't you the wolf with the balloons from before?"

"That's my uncle." The wolf answers curtly. Unlike his uncle, this wolf seems like a bad egg.

Tom Tom growls again. The wolf growls back. His fangs glistened. She holds Tom Tom and hurriedly walks away. This dream is turning violent.

"Go to the lake. I'll be looking for you," the wolf yells at the back of Maya's head. Tom Tom wiggles around in Maya's arms.

\*\*\*
She walks along the yellow brick road. The lake is extremely large. It would take half a day just to walk around it entirely. The lamps floating above the lake shine with a sharp light.

"It's not even night yet, why are the lights on?" Amazingly enough, night fell right at that moment.
"Well, that was unexpected. How should I use this in my novel?" Her professional side showed itself in that instant.

A single boat approached the shore, cutting through the floating lights. A man and a woman are on the boat. As soon as the boat landed on the shore, a man leaped off of it.

"Maya! What took you so long?!" It was Coco. One has to look up at him because of his height. He did not even look like a high school student anymore.

"Do I call you oppa now?" She wasn't sure how to address him.

"I've really missed you. All I've done is just wait for you to come back-"

"I missed you, too." It was the truth. It was because she had thought about him for a moment earlier. This is why she is dreaming about this.

A pretty young girl disembarked the boat after him. It is Rose. She has a butterfly shaped ribbon in her hair. Her baby face had been replaced by a more mature one. Her face is still pale, but she no longer looked as if she needs to sit still all the time.

"Have you been well, Rose?" It was easier addressing her.

"I'm okay."

"Are you all healed now?"

"Don't concern yourself with that." Rose doesn't seem so happy to see her.

Maya decided to drop the matter. She is very good with putting things out of her mind.

"Anyway, it's great that you came. Get on the boat. The lake looks really nice at night."
"You're saying this to me?" Rose snapped. Coco smiles quietly.

They get on the boat. Coco asks her many questions. Maya tells him all about school, Tom Tom, and her friends. Coco enjoys himself as he feels envious, laughs, and holds Tom Tom. Rose is silent. She stared at Maya's necklace then finally spoke.

"Your necklace."

"Hm?"

"Give it to me."

"..." She thought about what she should do when Rose asks again.

"If not, forget it. Just let me borrow it for a bit." That seems all right.

Rose takes the necklace and places it around her neck. She looks over at Coco and asks, "Does it look good on me?" Coco smiles and avoids the question.

"This necklace is weird." Rose murmurs to herself.

"Yeah. It seems to light up occasionally. I don't really know," Maya replies.

"Not that, it feels weird. Did you know about all this?"

"Me? Know what?" Maya is having a hard time understanding what Rose was saying.

Rose gives her back the necklace and then whispers something in Coco's ear.

"I can't follow grown-ups' conversations," she thinks to herself.

The three are now floating in the middle of the lake. The white lights above the dark green lake are making her feel hazy.

"This feels like a dream. Ah, it really is a dream." She lets out a laugh.

"Wake up. You're going to be late."

She could hear her mother's voice from far away. It seems a lot of time had passed by.

"I think I should go back," says Maya.

"I should give you something... I didn't have a chance to prepare anything." Coco is sad as always. He holds her hands tightly.

Suddenly, somebody pushes her off the boat. She plunges into the water and sinks. Deeper and deeper she sank into the water. She could hear them fighting from above the water. "They need to get along…" She opens her eyes, worrying.

Previous: Chapter 6 || Next: Chapter 8

## See Also

* Story (Complete version)
* A 16 Year Old's Dream