An Equivocal Dream

Arthur still has not made it into Brampton. He has been asleep.

.........

The moon shines brightly over the forest. He stops under a tree, leans his bicycle against the tree trunk. The bike topples over, he smells a strange smell. Picks up a grey yellow-edged fungus, sniffs it and throws it away.

Falls asleep in the damp grass and dreams an equivocal dream.

He is at a child's party, his party. Today he is four. He sits at one end of a large wooden table, on a balcony overlooking a steep leafy garden. On the table is popcorn and cake.

At the table are five friends and his sister. Her forehead is bandaged with a white bandage that covers her eyebrows. The day before, she ran into a brick.

The cake is decorated with black bats and purple icing. The icing has cascaded over the cake like purple lava and the bats have slid down the sides. There are four black candles which someone has lit with a lighter.

The children are singing. He blows out the candles, makes a wish.

I wish I could marry my sister. He says it. That is his wish.

..........

Arthur wakes up. His head is spinning. He can still smell the fungus on his fingers. Birthday wishes are circling like sharks.

..........

He cycles into Brampton. Where will he find this Pelican? What did Gaius even mean?

Forgetting that he has a smart phone, he stops at a bakery to ask.

Oh yes, says the baker. That'll be the windows. At Saint Martin's. It's just down the road.

Thanks, says Arthur, not yet turning to leave.

He is hungry. He is in a bakery, with change in his pocket.

And a knife. Old habits die hard.