Dream

It's incredibly hot, the kind of heat that makes you want to bust out of whatever room you're in, doing whatever mundane task, and run through the streets barefoot and in a ripped t-shirt and shorts, smiling and not caring, just like when you were a little kid. The kind of heat that makes you want to laugh and shout and tell someone that they're beautiful, just to see them blush. And you don't know whether to laugh or cry because you're just so damn happy to be alive. The sky is an incredible blue, more vibrant than any blue I've ever seen, with streaks of white light clouds that burn your eyes when you look at them, but you look at them anyway. I'm running down cobblestone roads, laughing silently at a joke that I can't remember and there's a gypsy playing the violin on the corner. He's playing the Romani song, just the same 12 bars over and over again, and i want to tell him that if he holds the bow differently -like this- he'll get a better tone, but I don't want to offend him. I run past the open air spice market and wave at the old couple selling bright orange curry out of a burlap sack and the little girl holding a sprig of rosemary (one day she'll claim to read fortunes.) I am running westward, into the setting sun, which dyes the corners of the picturesque skyline with watery purple pink and red, as if the mountains are bleeding. Someone grabs my arm. He looks at me with dark brown eyes and asks me where I'm going. I tell him that I am going home because it's going to get cold. He laughs and shakes his head, and points a finger at my abdomen. I then realize that the heat is coming from within me. I tell him I have to leave. He won't let go of my arm, and instead pulls me close to him. A dog runs past us, barking. We are glowing together, heat radiating from our bodies and he whispers to me in a different voice, real and clear and ringing: "No te vayas".
I wake up.