Anew

"10 years, Dad. 10 years… " a lonely voice echoes.

Asher rubs his eyes slowly. Something feels different, as he sits up to observe his surroundings. He was lying in a hospital ward. Rows of patients stretch out over the horizon of the dim room before him as he slowly sits up in bed.

"You're finally awake," the sound of a young boy's voice rings in his ears. "I thought you weren't going to wake up… like the other people."

He turns his head around to find Wilder sitting on a stool next to his hospital bed. It felt weird to finally see him dressed in something that wasn't hospital attire. The little boy smiles cheekily. The two missing gaps in the top row of his teeth were gone.

"Am I dead?" Asher laughs. "No wait. I am dead."

He starts laughing out loud. His laughter reaches the end of the large room and echoes back to his eardrums. And then he pauses when he notices Wilder's dead serious face.

"How many times do I have to say this?" the young boy frowns to no one in particular. "You're not dead."

"Ah, I'm not?" Asher blinks. "Then where am I?"

Wilder pauses.

"Long story short, you've finally woken up from a long, long dream. A dream that seemed so real that--you thought you were living in it," Wilder says. "The dream offered many things that reality couldn't give you. And so, you chose to live in it."

"You're talking nonsense," Asher mumbles.

"I knew you weren't going to believe me," Wilder says seriously. "But I was in that dream too. I was dreaming in the dream you were dreaming too. We were all dreaming the same dream."

And then a memory flashes into his mind, lingering long enough for him to grasp and hold onto it.

・・・

That night, he and Constance had had an argument. It wasn't like the normal bickering they usually shared between dinner conversations, bus rides, or movie nights. It was a cold, quiet argument. He had complained about her role as a housewife for their small family. She had argued that he wasn't spending enough time at home with their newborn son.

We had a son, he thinks to himself. How could I have forgotten?

Things didn't end on good terms that day. Constance had brought their son with her to stay the night at Evelyn's. He remembered cursing underneath his breath as he watched her run away from him underneath the dimly lit streets. Their baby was strapped to her chest as she ran through the pouring rain, slipped, but never looked back. That night, Asher ended up sleeping in their bedroom all by himself.

And then he had that dream. The dream where he quit his job as a construction site worker, and became a doctor in the medical field. The dream where Constance never bothered him about his once physically-demanding job, or the countless hours he now spent at work. The dream where the marriage they shared was a peaceful, harmonious one. The dream where a "son" role did not exist in their family.

Asher remembered giving in to the dream. He felt remorsefully guilty for wishing so hard that he lived the life inside the non-existent world in his head.

That night, the world fell into a deep sleep. And when the sun rose again, only a few woke up.