Dream Man

Wednesday has come around again and I’m happy to present this week’s flash fiction.

Ratina’s dreams had ever been vivid, a fact her kin, especially her long-suffering mother, had lamented her entire life. Either they lost her too them (ah, the dreams which drifted pleasant), or they were woken by them (when they weren’t she screamed to wake the dead). Either way, Ratina never forgot a moment of them.

So much to her surprise, on her eighteenth birthday her family presented her with a cake which perfectly matched a fanciful concoction she’d dreamed of since age five. Her mother cavorted over the cake so fiercely (it was magnificent testament to her family’s fortunes) that she did not notice the Ratina’s darkening expression.

Ratina, recalling the dream, knew it had not been a pleasant one. No, she’d woken the entire family soundly that night. Ignoring the festive, melting candles, she turned toward the door. There backlit by brilliant sunlight stood a man. She did not know him, but the moment he stepped forward Ratina knew the stranger was the man of her dreams.

She spun as she rose from her seat. Grabbed the outrageously priced wine bottle from her father. Grasped its neck as she knocked it against her chair’s back. Turned to face the stranger with the bottle outstretched before her.

Fully intact.*

Ratina glanced between the stranger and the bottle. And back again. He cocked an eyebrow at her, and she shrugged. “I’d imaged that going better.” Chucking the bottle at the man**, she hiked up her skirts and ran.

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Be sure to check out the other Wednesday Words authors’ take on the prompt.