Someone was saying her name. “Lily….. Lily.” Who was that? Where was she? She rolled over in bed and realized she’d been sleeping again. Who had said her name?

“Lily…” the voice said again. “I know you’re there…. pick up!” Ohhh, she thought. It was her answering machine. Her best friend Sarah was coming over today to help her unpack her boxes. Boxes that should arrive in—she glanced at the clock—only an hour!

She leaped out of bed, and then got a little head rush from moving so fast. “Whoa,” she said. She picked up the phone, “Hello?”

“There you are!” Sarah said. “Coma?”

“Pretty much,” Lily answered. “The movers will be here in an hour, I should get ready.”

“I’ll be there,” Sarah said. “Tootles.”

“Bye.” Lily smiled as she hung up the phone.

Okay, now that she was fully awake and standing already, she may as well get dressed, she thought. But, oh, how she wanted to dive back into that dream. Handsome man. Probably a sign she needed to get a boyfriend.

It had been a while since she had dated. Years, in fact. It’s not like she met a lot of straight single men at her job. She mostly had female clients, and the occasional married or gay man. She did recently design a sleek bachelor pad for a sleazy older single man. Pass.

She wondered if she could even still attract a man, of the non-sleazy variety, that is. She glanced in the mirror. She had gotten one of those old-fashioned looking oval-shaped full-length mirrors that you can tilt this way and that. Not exactly modern, but she liked to keep her home plain. It helped spark design ideas better than a fully decorated home. She had light brown carpet and white walls. Ordinary furniture. The latest appliances, though. May as well have the best in technology. And when she did finally buy curtains, they would probably be in a solid neutral color.

Her hair was a neutral color she thought as she surveyed herself. Medium brown. Her eyes were a lighter weird sort of amber brown. “Freaky” her friend in Home-Ec in high school had called them. But pretty, she herself thought. She turned sideways and looked at her body. She was slender, like a ballerina. She actually used to be one. Took lessons for years anyway. Until her knee started to hurt too much. She had briefly entertained ideas of doing it professionally. But the knee just wouldn’t let her. She wished she had more curves. But slender was a look. It was in, right?

She started to unbutton her pajama top, then got paranoid about the lack of curtains. What were the odds that someone was hiking through the woods behind her house right at that moment? Still, she grabbed some clothes and stepped into the big bathroom to change.

* * *

“Well, that’s the last of them,” Sarah said while shelving a handful of books at once.

Lily laughed. “The last for you maybe. I have a few more boxes yet.”

“Oh, I thought I’d hidden those properly,” Sarah said. She smiled with a twinkle in her eyes. Pretty blue eyes, and a whole sheaf of red naturally curly hair. ‘Now why can’t I look like that?’ Lily thought. Something to make her stand out. Oh well.

“Mm, yes,” Lily said, “right in the middle of the room.”

“Hey, I threw a blanket over them,” Sarah laughed. “I gotta go, my lady. Steve will be freaked out by the twins by now.”

“Yes, that’s true, “ Lily said. “And funny.” She smiled.

“I’ll see you later, my dear,” Sarah said, grabbing her purse and coat from the table near the door. “Thanks for the pizza.”

“Thanks for being my unpaid slave labor,” Lily said as Sarah opened the front door.

“Hey, pepperoni is a form of payment,” Sarah said with mock seriousness.

“Yeah, but it doesn’t keep well in the wallet,” Lily smiled at her.

“Doesn’t do well in vending machines either,” Sarah said super seriously. “Later, Lily,” she said with a smile and a wave and left. Lily gave her a quick wave goodbye, and smiled. Then she went back to unpacking the last three boxes.

It was early, about eight o’clock. The sky was darker, but not night yet. She looked at the box of pots and pans and sighed. She plopped down on the couch and stared out the window at the trees in the twilight. Nice. A very pretty place. “Good choice,” she congratulated herself. Then she let herself fall slowly over and lay down on the couch, curled up. She closed her eyes to rest for a minute and let her mind wander.

Here she was, 35 years old. Self-made thousandaire, she chuckled quietly at the stupid joke. She had everything she wanted in life, except one little thing. A family of her own.

Sarah had a nice husband, two kids, house, dog, the works. She worked in the consignment shop next door to Lily’s design business. Maybe she had chosen a better path, Lily thought. Lily had spent most of her twenties building up her business, then doing the work of maintaining it. Hiring more designers, and receptionists and an office manager. Each new hire she’d thought would make her life easier, but it just freed her up to do more work.

She didn’t have time for a boyfriend, let alone husband and kids. But she wanted them. More than anything. She just didn’t know where to fit them into her life. Sixty-hour work weeks. She’d be at the office today if she hadn’t needed to unpack her belongings. She’d been living in a hotel for a month, since she’d sold her other house, with her furniture and other things in storage. It had been change after change after change lately.

Yet she was still baby crazy. She actually got teary when people brought their new babies into work to show them off. Where had her life gone? She was at the point where if she got pregnant now she’d actually be considered high risk, just for her age alone. Thank God she was healthy in all other ways. But nowhere near the point of getting pregnant. She had pondered lately using a sperm donor to have a child, but she’d decided it wasn’t quite time for that yet. She was still holding out on the idea of finding “true love”, whatever that was. Wasn’t that just supposed to happen all on its own?

She’d glanced through personal ads, but rarely did a man catch her eye. Or fancy. They all seemed like freaks to her, ordering up what they looked for in a woman. What was wrong with them that they couldn’t get a woman in real life? Well, what was wrong with her? Good point.

She’d rested long enough, she figured. Time to get back to unpacking. She opened her eyes. She saw daylight. How long had she—wait. She saw trees towering above her.

She sat up. Oh, no. she was in the lucid dream again. She’d been sleeping in the woods on a bed of moss and fallen leaves. Very comfortable. She glanced down. She was still wearing the Renaissance dress. Dark green velvety bodice with laces, and a flowing white skirt of a few layers. With white puffy long sleeves too. Her long hair felt curly and wound into coils on top of her head that were tied together at the back, where the rest of her hair hung free in wild curls.

The wood was quiet. Maybe a few chirping birds or crickets far far away. The air was warm, but not at all hot. She hadn’t been cold sleeping in the wood, even though it was fairly shady.

If this is a dream it is pretty darn real, she thought. She grabbed a low hanging tree branch and pulled herself up. She brushed the dead leaves off her dress and started to walk through the woods with awe. She was getting that warm relaxing glow of being in fairyland again, even with no actual fairies in sight.

She heard the crack of a twig somewhere to her right. She glanced over quickly. It was the man, the muscled red-haired man she’d seen before. He was mostly obscured by trees, he seemed to blend into them. He was looking at her intently. She didn’t feel the need to speak for some reason, in this world, but she started to walk towards him. He quickly turned and ran.

“Wait!” she shouted after him, and started to run herself. Apparently she did feel the need to speak. But everything was hopeful and pure in this world. Even as she ran she felt free. Wind in her hair. She felt like a child playing. Like nothing mattered and it was all okay. Like she and the man were just playing a game. It was silly. She felt the air of this world fill her lungs. It was like it renewed her from the inside. She stopped to ponder this and be amazed. She was in the clearing again. She smiled and closed her eyes and tilted her face toward the sun, letting it warm her. Even the sun of this world kissed her face a little more gently than the sun of her world would have. It was renewing her too.

“And then we dance,” a man’s voice said very close to her. It was a rough low soft voice.

She opened her eyes to see the man from the wood standing in front of her. He quickly put his arms around her waist and lifted her up and spun her in a circle. She laughed as she held onto his strong shoulders. And then she woke up.

She sat up on her couch, startled. Actual daylight really was streaming in through the windows now. And she wanted to get back to the man. Why did she always wake up at the good moments?

“Damn,” she said.

* * *