Gift of Dreams

Jeremy has a special gift: he can request what he wants his dreams to be about. He wants to keep his gift for himself, but what happens when millions demand to have his gift too?

Jeremy lied in bed and thought to himself for a moment.  He smiled at his thoughts.  Alright then, let’s go for it.

“Dream that I’m with my beloved in a green valley that stretches as far as the eye could see.  Let there be a sky with no clouds, and let there be red roses completely surrounding us.  Don’t let it stop until we kiss,” he said out loud.  Then he was asleep, and the dream he had requested came.  He stood in the middle of a green valley that stretched as far as the eye could see, with red roses all around.  In the dream, he looked up and saw the sky.  Not a single cloud occupied it.  The sun shone brightly over this unbelievable dreamland.  He realized that he was holding his beloved’s hand.  She was just as tall as him with long dark hair and piercing eyes.  Her bright smile, which flashed her stainless white teeth, brought a smile to his own lips.

They didn’t talk.  They stood where they were gazing out at the valley.  They couldn’t lose their childish grins as they looked at this sight.  No time passed before he and his beloved drew close and kissed.

Jeremy woke up from his dream.  Morning light flashed through his bedroom window, blanketing the room in early sunlight.  He glanced at his alarm clock and saw it was two minutes before the alarm would go off.  He lay there until it did, filling the room with radio music.

Jeremy got up and got ready for work.  His office was located in a place where gifts were studied and its information given to the manager for money.  It was normally a temporary job, but Jeremy had been there for a month trying to learn his gift.  Jeremy only cared about studying his gift.  He never intended on sharing the secret.  Maybe his beloved when the time was right.  He sat at his desk in his office and began writing.  He wrote everything that he experienced that night.  Everything that he had requested.  The manager came in, his face slick with sweat.

“In case you didn’t notice Jeremy, there are crowds of people trying to break our door down to get to you,” he said.  Jeremy smiled.

“I think that’s to be expected, sir,” he said.

“Everybody’s been asking for a taste of your gift.  Have you learned anything at all?” The manager asked.

“I don’t know.  And what if I don’t want to share this gift?  It’s mine to have,” Jeremy said, his last word having a sharp edge to it.

“Everybody craves it now.  You can’t deny millions of people this.  We have to find a way to give it to them.”
“What if it was only reserved for me?”

“How?”

“Maybe that’s God’s will.”

The manager shook his head.

“Millions of people aren’t going to take that as a good excuse.”

Jeremy stood up and clasped his hands behind his back.

“Well then, they’ll just have to live with that, okay?” Jeremy said.  At the end of the day, when everyone was clearing out, Jeremy passed by the receptionist, the one that was with him in the dream last night.

“Was your day productive?” She asked.  Jeremy sighed.

“That depends on your definition of ‘productive’ Sally.  This is my gift, and I intend to keep it that way.”

“I understand.  It’s your gift, you keep it.  I’m not asking for it,” Sally assured him.  Jeremy smiled.

“Thanks.”  Though, personally, he hoped to share it with her someday.  It would just be something between the two of them.

“Say, what if I told you that someday I’ll share my gift with you, and only you?”

“No no, I couldn’t�"“

“I insist, Sally.  You deserve it.”

Sally’s eyes glistened with tears.  She was obviously in awe at what she was hearing.

“You deserve it.  Someday, you’ll have it,” Jeremy insisted.

That night, Jeremy requested for a dream where he was alone on an island with Sally.  No one would be trying to get to him and demand for his gift.  There would be no nagging manager.  Just him and Sally.  Sally was the only person in his life that demanded nothing from him.  He could trust her completely.

The next day at work, as he wrote down his experiences once again, the crowds outside chanted his name.  He threw down his pen in frustration and clamped his hands over his ears.  Why couldn’t they just go away?  Why couldn’t they leave him alone?

For a month he had not shown himself to the crowds.  He knew he should’ve kept his gift a secret.  What a typical thing to come out of people.  When a new way of receiving pleasure is discovered, everyone wants in on it.  It drove Jeremy nuts.

Yet, the idea of his name becoming one of the biggest ones, probably in the whole world, tempted him.  These people wanted the pleasure of possessing his gift, but Jeremy would have the bigger pleasure of fame for sharing it.  Sally would understand.  She had to.

“They want it?  Then they’ll get it,” he finally declared out loud.  At least he would be the one with the money, and them blowing their own.  He would be the first one to step out and share his strange gift with everybody else.  He stepped out in front of the crowds.  The crowds hushed upon seeing him, and waited eagerly for him to speak like a lion waiting for its meat.

“You guys want my gift?  You want to know the secret?  Then you can all have it,” Jeremy said.

The following night, Jeremy had his last dream.  He requested that he be surrounded by massive crowds, a lot of them with cameras.  Camera lights would flash all over his vision and he would let photos get taken of him with the ladies.  He remembered Sally, so he hastily requested her as almost an afterthought.  The dream came, and at first, everything was exactly how he wanted it.  But way in the back of the crowd stood Sally, tears running down her cheeks.  Her face was red.  She turned away and began walking away.

“Sally,” Jeremy exclaimed, crushed to see her leave like that.  He tried to get to her.  He had to stop her and tell her he was sorry.  But the crowds pushed him back, cheering for him and shouting questions at him.  Camera lights blinded his vision.  He began to scream.

Since then, Jeremy never dreamed again.  And everyone around him had his gift.

Author's Note

Tell me what you guys think! Each of my stories are different because I like to experiment with something new. Richard Matheson was a great inspiration for this story.