As usual: All mine, my ideas and all made up completely :)
Teaser:
Imagine your life between dreams and reality... what's real, what's unreal? And how will it all be mixed up by some Finns in your dream and in reality?
Sounds complicated?
Well, it is....
„Breakfast, you bloody lot!“ her father’s voice resounded in the hallway for the third time and Elena turned around in her bed, burying her face in her pillow. Family gatherings weren’t as “sleeping in” as she had hoped. As usual. Especially with her family. Sighing she dragged herself up on her feet, rubbing her eyes.
On the corridor she bumped into someone, cursing lowly. “Damn it, Kilian!” she murmured still rubbing her eyes, staring up at her younger brother in his boxers.
“Sorry, Gigi.” He ran his fingers over his face, putting his towel around his neck. “Looks like we’ve lost the race against Lilly anyway.” Pointing at the closed bathroom door, he yawned.
“Lilly’s in the bathroom already?” Elena groaned in annoyance. Just perfect! Her younger sister took an eternity in the bathroom, so there was no chance for her to get a refreshing shower before breakfast. Sighing she turned over to the stairs.
“Very well then, I’ll be downstairs. No chance to get in there any time soon!” over her shoulder she pointed at the bathroom again, running her fingers through her messy hair.
Grinning Kilian did the same. “I’m gonna try though.” He took a penny between his fingers, playing around with it. “Gonna open up, wanna join? Just a little catlick to annoy her, ou come on, Gigi! She’s gonna be sooooo pissed off!”
Elena returned his grin. “I’m in!”
Five minutes later the two siblings made their way downstairs, still giggling from Lilly’s complete outbreak in the shower. Their parents were awaiting them in the living room.
Andrew looked up from his newspaper, raising his eyebrow at them. “Late as usual! Pancakes are cold by now.”
“They’re good anyway!” Kilian climbed over the backrest of the huge corner seat, grabbing a pancake right away to stuff it into his mouth. “Morning folks!” he blew a kiss at his mother. “Lovely to be home!”
“How nice you’re still calling it home, dear!” Caitlyn handed the coffeepot over to him with a happy smile.
“Home’s where the people are, right?” he blinked his blue eyes, making his sister next to him snort.
“That one you stole from Christian Morgenstern, you little braggart!”
“Who the heck’s Christian Mogenstan?”
“Morgenstern, you nag! He’s a poet. Very famous. ‘Home is not where your house is but where the people that understand you are’. Sounds better in German though.”
“Now who’s the braggart, sis?” grinning Kilian sipped his coffee, dodging a blow.
“Know what?” Elena tried to change the subject. “I had the weirdest dream last night!”
“You always have weird dreams, Gigi!” her brother mumbled, half of his roll in his mouth.
“That one was different! It felt so real!” Elena tucked up her leg, putting down her foot immediately when she caught her father’s gaze. “It felt like I was there, you know?”
“Where were you?” Lilly had entered the living room as well, a towel wrapped around her head. “Coffee, Mum!” she begged, slumping down on the wooden bench. “God, traffic was so bad last night!” she sighed when she sipped the coffee her mother handed over to her.
“So, your dream, dear?” Caitlyn returned to the subject, smiling at Elena that was playing with the cereals in her bowel.
“I was married to this guy from a rockband, we had a huge house!”
Lilly giggled. “That Howard guy from Take That? Hell, he’s hot!”
“Nope, it was from a local band. D’you remember Sunrise Avenue? They started a couple of years ago, mostly rocky and mainstream music. We went to school with two of them, I think. There was this one from the old cafe downtown, he was in Cedric’s year or maybe one class above and another one in the year below him, I can’t even remember their names! They used to live somewhere in town but I was never friends with them and I really have no idea how they ended up in my dream!”
“So what happened? Were you rich and happy?” Lilly grabbed a roll.
Elena shrugged her shoulders indifferently. “Dunno actually. I was alone in the house, the huge house!” she corrected. “He was on tour I assume, but there were pictures of us all over the place. I had an enormous wand robe with hundreds of dresses and jewellery.”
Chuckling Kilian choked on his coffee. “You, and a wand robe and jewellery? I really wanna see that!”
Her mother laughed along with them before she reached out her hands over the table. “You wanna hear my opinion on this as a psychologist?”
“Spare me, Mum, please!” defensively Elena raised her hands and laughed before she put them into her mother’s. “Come on, Mum, wanna read my hand as well?”
Squeezing her hands, Caitlyn laughed. “I won’t need that talent right now! It’s too obvious!” chuckling she leaned back, grabbing her cup. “Well, dear, I assume you miss that boyfriend of yours around!”
Elena felt a little pain in her heart and nodded slowly. “Maybe I do.” She was still angry and a little disappointed that Rob wouldn’t make it this year. Again. He had to work over the whole Christmas holiday and she had to come to her parent’s place alone. Again. “So now I get married to a nice rockband bloke in my dreams, aye?” a little smile raised the left corner of her mouth. “He was a nice pick, though!”
Suddenly the doorbell rang and her mother jumped up. “That must be Cedric!” excitedly she rushed over into the entrance hall. “Finally we are complete again!”
With Cedric, his wife Lea and their son Jamie in her towline she re-entered the living, clapping her hands. “Now let’s have breakfast, kids!”
The breakfast turned into brunch and even into lunch because none of them wanted to leave the table. They kept chatting along, ignoring the passing time completely.
Although Elena enjoyed being home with all of them her mind drifted away to her dream every once in a while. It had been so real! As far as she could remember she had been completely aware of everything. She could walk wherever she wanted, prepare coffee and sit on the huge brown leather couch in the living room. She had tried on some of her dresses and even taken a shower, smelling the scent of the flowery shower gel she had used. There had been no strange things like pink mice or a huge Gorilla to tear down the house. It had been like... Quickly she shoved the thought aside. It hadn’t felt like a dream at all and the feeling of it sent little shivers down her spine.
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“So tell me, little one!” Cedric put his arm around Elena and offered a small red paper bag with sugarroasted almonds to his younger sister while they were following their parents and siblings along the tiny alleys of the local Christmas market. “What’s new with you? Still with this doctor-guy? What was his name again? Terence?”
Elena nudged him softly. “It’s Rob! God damn it, Cedric! I know he doesn’t join me for family gatherings, but you could at least start memorizing his name after two years!”
“Just making fun, sis. So,” he pulled her closer. “Any plans? How’s work going?”
“It’s good, it’s good. I got this new project back home in London. It’s about the influence of different parasites on the digestion. Very interesting actually.”
“Very disgusting actually!” Ced laughed. “Well, as long as you’re happy, little one!”
“So how ‘bout you? How’s Lea doing?”
“Growing bigger and bigger every day! The baby’s gonna come in March.” Smiling he gazed at his wife that walked only a few meters ahead, linking arms with Lilly while the two of them were rummaging around a booth with woollen children’s wear. Jamie was trying to escape his mother’s grip when she started pulling different hats over his head.
“We’re actually quite fine.” Ced continued, a huge smile on his face. “As long as I always have something sugary in my pocket she still adores me despite the hormone float.” Still smiling he kissed her cheek. “So how ‘bout you, little one? You’re 27, any plans with doc Terrence?”
“Ced! Nope, we have no plans. Not just yet.” Sighing Elena loosened her scarf. “Maybe next year, You’ll be the first to know, ok?”
“Don’t let your mother hear this!” he chuckled and looked up when he heard their father calling out for them. He beckoned all of them over. “Food, kids!” smiling he pointed at one of the little huts, where grilled meat, sausages and roast were sold. Following her father into the small and completely engarlanded and decorated room Elena couldn’t help smiling. It was lovely to be home. And although she missed Rob a lot it didn’t feel bad as long as she was with her family. ‘The people that understand you’ came to her mind and her smile grew wider when she picked a few fries from Kilian’s plate, getting her hand slapped immediately. “Never do this again!” he said warningly, sticking two fingers into her mashed potatoes, quickly licking them clean. “Now we are even!”
Elena burst into laughter. “I’d have given you my fork!”
“This way it was easier!” smiling he licked his fingers again. “And a little more disgusting, I needed to make an example of you!”
“I’ll give you a tenner if you stick that mashed-potato-fingers up yer nose now!” Lilly offered, leaning over the small round table.
“Kids, behave!” Caitlyn giggled. “And stop picking into each other’s food with any part of your bodies!”
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Lilly had fallen asleep on her lap later that evening and after a while Elena put her book aside, carefully running her fingers through her sisters long blond hair. All her siblings, including herself had darker hair, Lilly was the exception and often she was the target of her older siblings’ jokes that she had been adopted from a Norwegian chicken-farmer-family. Enjoying the softness of Lilly’s hair Elena kept playing with it, half-listening to her brothers that were discussing some political issues with their father. Looking around the huge room with its open fireplace, the dark couches and armchairs and the enormous library that covered two entire walls of the room, Elena sighed. It was the place all of them grew up in. She loved the old house with all the memories it had been keeping for her, even now that she had not been living with her parents for over six years.
Everything seemed to remain the way it used to be, the old house was a place to relax and to calm, nothing from the outside world could bother her in here. Smiling Elena bent down to kiss Lilly’s cheek. The younger woman wrinkled her nose. Sleepily she ran her fingers over her face and narrowed her blue eyes. “You’re comfortable, sis! Better than a pillow!” smiling she stretched her arms and yawned. “You wanna go sleep?”
Elena nodded, getting up from the sofa to shake her legs and make the numb feeling disappear by moving. “Good night, folks!” she rubbed Cedric’s back before she bent over to kiss her father on the cheek.
“Night, love!” her mother gave her a tight hug. “Sweet dreams!” she winked at her, making Elena poke her with her finger. “Don’t you be so saucy, Mum! It’s Christmas!”
“See you at breakfast, dear!” Caitlyn giggled. “I’m looking forward to a little dream talk!”
“Dream on, Mum!” Elena laughed. “Night everyone!”
Upstairs in the bathroom Lilly sat down on the rim of the bathtub, her toothbrush in her mouth. “So tell me,” she tucked up her legs and grinned. “Your dream-guy, who was it?”
“I told you, it was one of those Sunrise Avenue blokes.” Elena answered evasively, washing her face.
“But which one? There’s two dark ones and three blondes, which one was it?”
“Puh, I can’t even tell! He looked different. His hair was a little darker and longer and also... Well, I only saw the pictures in the living room but he seemed quite handsome.”
“Is he small or tall?”
“I have no idea, Lilly! It was pictures! As I told you, he wasn’t at home.”
“And you were with him in those pictures?”
“In some of them, yes.”
“So why can’t you tell me whether he was tall or not?”
“God, Lilly! Stop it! Look, I am actually quite small, so each guy that is over 5.9 is tall for me!” she kept brushing her teeth. “He was definitely taller than me. On those wedding-pics I found he held me close and my nose was pressed to the middle of his chest, so...” she shrugged. “Why are you so interested anyway?”
“Well, I kinda like those guys and... hum... you know I like dreaming around, so... it’s in fact quite funny that you have those dreams, because you are so not into bands and mainstream stuff!”
“I know!” Elena laughed and rinsed her mouth. “Maybe I can arrange a dream about Wolverine tonight!” winking at her sister, she dried her face and threw the towel at Lilly. “Sleep well, lovey! I’ll see you in the morning!” Elena was about to leave when she suddenly stopped short, turning back at Lilly. “So tell me, d’you know his name? I think that I remember finding a letter for Haber, d’you know his forename?”
“Well if it was Haber his name’s Samu. Samu Haber.”
“Sound’s weird, don’t you think?” Elena giggled. “God, I was Mrs. Samu Haber in my dream!” she over-enunciated the name, making her sister giggle as well.
“He is definitely one hot piece of Finnish-man!” Lilly winked at her. “Sweet dreams, sis!”
Still giggling Elena switched off the lights in her room, burying her face in her pillow. ‘Good dreams never come twice.’ She thought to herself and closed her eyes.
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