Travis emerged from the bathroom drying his hair with a plush pea green towel. His wife, for the moment her name escaped him, had a light lunch ready. He attacked it ferociously.
This woman, who was maybe his wife, sat across the table and watched him eat. The clink of his fork against the plate sounded massive in the quiet room. His wife concentrated on him and he tried to concentrate on his lunch.
“Ray tell me if I guess it,” she said.
Travis winched at the realization that here he was “Ray” and her sternest was not going to give up.
“Guess what?” Travis/Ray asked.
“Your latest dream adventures, of course,” she replied almost sweetly.
Ray thought intensely. It came to him. Her name was April.
“You owned the gas station. Went to high school. Played on the football team. You weren’t the mayor again were you?” she taunted. “Came back after being in the army, married your high school sweetheart and had a family. I hate that one. And my favorite, you were an old man and the last resident.”
Travis looked up still chewing the last bite of a tuna fish sandwich. All of this did seem vaguely familiar to him.
“Well?”
“You know it is just a stupid dream. Let’s forget it,” he said in a bid to escape.
“No, Ray, I want to hear this, “she said with more than idle curiosity.
Travis, who was now Ray, sighed in resignation.
“OK, I was a stranger that came into town late one night and slept in my car in the cold.”
“Its 80 degrees.” said April.
“Well, in Otter Lake it is February. So I end up making friends with the owner of the local diner.”
“A woman…?”
“Yes, a woman and an old friend came to help and we end up living there in a trailer. That’s about it.”
“Help you with what?” she asked.
“I wish I knew,” he said honestly.
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