Tell The Others For Me, Wouldja?

Such a funny light, and strange, that flooded the road Sandy and I were standing on. In front of us was Thunderhead, but it was a mile away. Closer, and off to our left, were two very weathered houses that became one as we talked. She asked if I intended to keep them both, and I said, “You know, I thought about selling them, but there are so many memories in the front room alone– I just can’t let them go.” She nodded that she understood and we stayed there in that funny light talking about things. She said, “There’s nothing more important than family” and I said, “I believe that, too.” She was gone then and I was in the living room of Grandma Myrtle’s house, which had also magically become the room off the living room in Great Grandma Lillie’s house. The room was bare, and I could sense, in fact, that the entire house was empty for the most part, but even as this registered I heard someone call out, and recognizing the voice as Paula’s, I began walking through the empty room toward the living room in search of whoever else might be there. As I closed in on the door that separated the rooms, I knew that when I turned the corner there would be something good. I turned the corner and saw my Dad sitting there. I yelled, “Dad!” and lit up with the same funny light that Sandy and I had been standing in earlier from my happiness at seeing him. As I began walking toward him, my whole heart filled with a heavy dread, and I told myself, “Now, listen. Don’t feel too happy, because this is a dream and he could be taken away from you before you even get to him” and the fear of this happening resonated with each step, and with each step I felt the cumulative weight of the panic of losing him and my happiness at seeing him, and when I reached him and we both were still there I kissed his cheek a thousand times and told him how I’d missed him and how I loved him and how happy I was to see him. He was laughing and smiling and shaking his head at the flurry of love I brought with me, and when I asked him, “How are you, Dad?” he said, “I’m doing fine– well, really pretty great! Tell the others for me, wouldja?” and I said I would and just then Paula came in with some food she had fixed for him and as he took his plate I stood up to thank her but instead I awoke in a world where he was dead again.