THE LIFE OF BOB & JEAN (eBook)

2: Her Dream

Jean wakes up from one of her dreams, and all of a sudden is quickly out of breath, breathing heavily and once she recalls her dream, starts to experience sulky emotions from it. She lies in pj’s next to Bob as he listens to her describe a dream she had.

“I remember being in a giant, empty room. It was one of those old school European type apartments and it reminds me of a dusty old art studio in a way. I was smoking a cigarette and I still remember the feeling, the taste of the paper in my mouth and I just recall inhaling it (the paper) and everything from then on was just intense and long lasting - it was an intense moment. The feeling of inhaling the smoke was like no other. I’m in that apartment, and I’m looking out the window. I hear honks and chatter coming from down below the balcony and as I lean over and look down with my arms wrapped around the railing, and as my body draped over the balcony, I notice that the traffic was really bad, and the sea of people moving past - everything is so completely choreographed like a military company is in a film.

“The next part I remember happening was my brother and sister kicked me out of the apartment for smoking - they were playing a board game on the floor, and I was distracting them. On my way down I remember something like bumping into a stray dog wandering down the hall and I was coughing because it was dusty and so was the dog. Then soon after, I start walking down the street with this joint and started walking faster and faster and inhaling too. I inhaled even more quickly and even more intensely then swallowed it, but this time held my breath in, so it would stay in my lungs. The dream felt so real, Bob- ‘the experience’. I’ve never experienced anything like this in my life. After that, I started sprinting for my life, and that’s when the high really set in and everything felt so completely different, even the feeling part of it. I felt something drastically change, it was like a forever moment, like in a movie. A second later, I opened my eyes and there I was, in bed just like a nightmare except I wasn’t afraid, I was calm and focused on something.”

“After that I’m in the city just walking around and came upon this old café and walked in for some coffee and sat inside at a small round table.”

Bob (her husband) has turned his back on her halfway through her story and fallen asleep.

“You fell asleep on me? Are you listening to my dream?” She shakes him. “Well?”

She wakes him up: “Well, what?”

“Do you agree?”

“Um… yes.

“Which part again do you agree with?”

“Okay, I wasn’t listening.” He confesses after all.

“Wait a minute guy! YOU WEREN’T LISTENING TO ME?” She says in a high-pitched voice.

“No, I am! I WAS! I mean. But boy Jean baby… that was some dream you had! Because Jean, you sound really drunk…” (she looks at him and he feels bad) “Sorry, it’s the truth.”

Bob’s cell phone rings and he gets up out of bed to answer it (in his socks and underwear) and digs through his pant pockets on the back of the chair for his phone. He answers it and goes into the other room shutting the door behind him. For a while, Jean is sad and cries a little (to herself) her arms and legs are crossed.

“But fine…” Five minutes later, he comes back into the room and starts getting dressed (bare-footed):

“What are you doing?”

“Well, I have to go now.” (Points to his watch with his finger, she looks over with her eyes).

“Oh. Where are you going? Not somewhere dangerous, I hope.”

“No, to the office hon.

“What now?!”

“Don’t worry Jean baby…” (As he slips into his suit pants).

“Bob! Why’s work so important to you that you gotta leave this early? It’s 7 a.m. after all and you don’t work till 9!”

He thinks of something to say to excuse himself and bites his tongue:

“Um…” Bob finishes getting dressed instead.

“Well, what then?” (Waiting for him to answer her).

“So… what? You’re not gonna tell me?”

“No, sorry.” He tucks his shirt in and puts on his jacket and walks out the door.

All the secrets being kept from her makes her fall out of love, and it’s more like she’s dating somebody she happens to be married to.

With her husband gone, she feels all alone and when she feels alone, she gets depressed. Jean sticks her hands in between the sheets and digs for something and pulls a metal flask secreted in her pillowcase. She unscrews the metal cap and leans her head back as she drinks straight vodka out of it.

Now that she’s drunk, she rants loudly to herself in a noisy way:

“Well… perhaps he’s a spy.” She wonders to herself. “That’s it isn’t it? He’s a spy, isn’t he? With all these secrets hidden from me! I better get used to it, my husband’s a criminal, a mafia criminal. He lies, he has a gun, he’s a mobster of some sort. He must be. About time I admitted it to myself: (she shouts towards the window) MY HUSBAND’S A MOBSTER! Better get used to it.”

“Yes, you should!” a voice outside the window shouts back at her in response. She feels alone in this fear she’s married to a mafioso mobster; she also feels isolated and dizzy. As soon as that washes over her, Jean crawls out of bed to see who it is who spoke to her. She opens the window and spots the guy mowing their lawn and on the phone speaking to somebody:

“Yes, you should buy me a pizza ese… I’m extremely hungreeeey.” Turns out he was speaking to someone else, and it had nothing to do with Jean. As he walks away chewing gum, and she feels his conversation has ended, she hears an engine start and watches the Gardner through the wooden curtains toss his lawn mower in his back car seat then slam the door shut and drive off the street. After, she hides under the bed and just drinks herself into more boredom but once she’s lazy enough to get up, she goes into the kitchen to make herself some coffee and turns the kettle on. While she waits, she notices a set of binoculars resting on top of the window ledge in the living room. She goes over and watches Bob make his way over to the car, dressed in a white fur coat and a set of diamond studs on top of his golfer’s cap – “holy bejesus he’s dressed like a pimp!” Jean says out loud:

“Is he going to a costume party, perhaps?” She hears the kettle whistling and puts down the ‘noculars, pours herself a mug of Irish Coffee then moves to the couch and sips. As she places the mug on the table beside her, something outside the window grabs her eye. She gets up to look out and inserts her fingers between the slats. She’s positioned on the couch and waits for her mafiaonaire husband to leave the driveway. She hears the car start and watches him drive down the driveway.

“Where the hell is he going?” After thinking about it, she acts on it. This is her que to follow Bob around and start getting ready, so she gets up off the couch to look for a pair of shoes to wear out.

Jean can’t find her regular flats. That neighbor’s dog probably took them and ate them, so she slips into her clogs lying beside the door mat. They’re wooden and loud, so when she wears them, she gets lots of attention from people she walks by. The clogs cry out when she walks around in them, and they get compliments and recognition in return.

Her feet keep slipping in and out of them and are feeling sore and tired when she moves so she takes them off—she gets around easier holding them in her hands so she’s better off. She goes outside to follow Bob around wherever he goes in contempt. On his way to work, Bob talks to the neighbors and engages in friendly morning conversation with them and Jean hides in the bushes spying on him, so he won’t notice her out on the street. She hides while he socializes for 2 hours (it feels like) and her legs have fallen asleep.

Jean spots a thug with a ski-mask on over his face trying to rob an old woman of her purse, so she gets involved in the exchange and saves the day. She chucks one of her clogs at him and hits him in the back of his head with it.

“Oghhahhhh and ouch! That hurt. Who was that?” He looks around.

“OLD LADY…. Was that you?” He says in a silly disapproving tone while waving his finger at her.

Immediately, she goes back into hiding and watches him run around and scout the area. She continues to hide in the bushes for some time, watching him, but then he reverts to his original attempt to steal her purse, and she’s so scared her legs start to shake uncontrollably. The man eventually manages to steal her purse and run away. But not before pushing the old lady over. The old lady falls down backward and yells in agony. Jean is even more terrified now and starts urinating. Piss runs down her smooth silk like legs, coming to rest at her feet for lack of anywhere else to go. The urine now lies there in a puddle. Jean sits there in shock, as if she’s been traumatized by something.

After the old lady manages to get up off the ground, and leave the block, Jean comes out from the bushes and grabs her shoe and puts it on then starts making her way home (in shame and embarrassment). Her feet are swollen and bleeding and the blisters are bright red from walking around for so long.

Once the sun starts to rise, she approaches a park and sits down on a bench. She just sits there in the blithering cold with her swollen feet on the dry grass and her bright...