One day, a slow class day, a young boy falls asleep. When he wakes he believes he is still dreaming. He begins to do things he would have never done if he thought he were awake. He finally asked the girl he liked out, he spoke his mind, and told himself he could do anything. As he grew older he simply believed he was experiencing a long comatose dream.
He married a woman he fell in love with and grew older. One day he visited a hospital to see his mother. His mother lay on her deathbed and held his hand. He whispered to himself, “It almost feels real,” as she says “I love you” and a machine flatlines. His sister held him crying as his wife tells him everything is ok, but his expression was absent of sadness. He believed it was all one dream.
One day, on a slow morning an old man wakes next to his wife. He says good morning but receives no response. He shakes her and asks if she’s awake.
She feels cold he thinks. And then it hits him like a car. How can I feel if I am asleep? And that is when he realizes that he has been awake the entire time.
All of my life, I have believed I have been dreaming. My mother’s death, real. And now my wife’s. Why? Why has this happened to me? And think of how I have acted at all these events. When my mother passed I simply stared at her body like it were nothing. And the love I have shared with this woman. The heartfelt moments I shared with her and yet I felt nothing.
Why?
And now that man lives no longer, feels no longer. Crushed by his actions and the lies he told himself all his life.
And why? Simply because he fell asleep.