Chapter 4 — A Dream

Marvin arrived back home. He entered his apartment, careful not to wake up his wife since it was now very late. But when he entered the bedroom the door squealed, and Angie woke up. Still half asleep she mumbled:

"Where were you?"

"Just took a walk outside. I couldn't get to sleep."

"Are you drunk?"

"No… no, don't worry.""

"Then you should come to bed."

"Yeah…"

But instead he sat down next to her and started telling about the strange encounter he made that night. He told her about that ridiculous man at the Phenix bar who claimed that the aliens weren't real. And that he got this information from a kind of dream in which he saw a galaxy and heard voices telling him he was the chosen one.

"That's weird." said Angie.

"Yeah, I thought our baby was supposed to be the chosen one…"

"No, but the description you made of this guy's vision… It reminds me of a dream I once had."

"Really?"

It was about five years before that. Angie and Marvin weren't yet married at that time. One night, during her sleep, Angie had a very vivid dream. First, she saw a distant galaxy. It was strange because she felt disembodied. She was nowhere, really. Not on Earth, not floating in space. She was just passively receiving the vision of this galactic image. It was a fuzzy cloud of light, shimmering with millions of tiny silver stars, spiraling around its bright center. The center of the galaxy was like an iridescent fountain of light emitting soft chimes. Angie thought it was beautiful.

 Then the dream shifted. She saw cats everywhere. Cats swimming in the interstellar void, beautiful little feline animals jumping from planet to planet. Angie marveled at that vision. Then she heard a profound voice, giving her an important message, but all she could remember from the message the next day were the words " Red Paw".

In the morning she woke up with an unexplainable desire for adopting a cat. Searching the Internet she found that Red Paw was the name of a pet store on Saint-Catherine street. She didn't know about that pet shop before, but she thought it was not too weird. Sometimes we know things, then we forget them, and they later re-emerge in a dream, unexpectedly, with the appearance of total novelty. Nothing supernatural about this.

But Angie felt troubled by this new and overwhelming urge for having a pet cat. She had never considered it before. And now it seemed that all she ever wanted was a kitten. She literally obsessed about it all morning long. It might not be such an unreasonable desire after all, she thought. A furry little presence would make her feel less lonely in her solitary apartment.

The very same day she went out, took the subway, and arrived at the Red Paw. She went in, walked past the friendly puppies, the cute bunnies, the colorful birds, the indifferent fish, and arrived at the pet supplies department without having seen a single kitten. She spoke to a young employee who told her that the last cats were sold a couple of minutes earlier.

"But I have a nice chameleon if you want. I can show you."

Despite the employee's claim that chameleons were very trendy, Angie declined the offer and walked out the store with a bit of disappointment. She was already quite far away on the street when the young employee rushed out of the pet store, ran after her, and called her :

"Miss! Miss! Wait…"

She stopped.

"We have a truck that just arrived at the store. I think there might be something there for you."

Among the new arrival, there actually was a single kitten. Angie discovered a small ball of grey fluff with pointy ears and large yellow eyes that started to purr softly when she touched her head.

"How much?" asked Angie.

"Twenty dollars."

The cardboard box in which they handed her the kitten had an inscription on it saying: "I found a home".

Back in her kitchen, Angie put the little box on the table and poured some milk in a bowl.

"Since you are so fluffy, I think I'm gonna call you Fluffy. What do you think?"

"Meow!" went the kitten.

"So, you bought her for twenty bucks…" said Marvin.

"Yes, indeed. And since she is actually a galactic goddess, I guess they were the best spent twenty dollars in my entire life."

"You bet!" said Fluffy who just woke up. "Why all these late discussions? We can't even sleep quietly in here."

"I was telling Marv about some good memories. Do you remember when I bought you at the pet store?"

"Of course I do."

"And…" said Marvin "she was also telling me about the dream she had just before, where she saw a galaxy and then felt like adopting a cat."

"Yeah, I know. The Fluffy galaxy. That's our visual signature when we send a message."

"A message?"

"Of course. Do you think I would land on Earth and just wait for the right person to come and pick me up by chance? Obviously, these things are planed beforehand. Nothing is left to chance. We send a psychic message to the target — sometimes conscious, sometimes subliminal — in which is revealed the required information. Then the subject, of course, is free to act accordingly or not. But generally speaking, we always select the people whose personality is most compatible with our ways. Planification. Not easy. Lots of work."

"Oh really?" said Marvin. "'Cause I was wondering… I just met this guy in a bar tonight. And he had a dream in which he saw a galaxy just like Angie's. And then he heard a voice telling him he was the chosen one."

"What?"

"Yeah. His name was Gropius. Do you know him?

"Never heard that name. There's no Gropius in our plan."

"Well, it's strange then. Because he also claimed to know from the same dream that the aliens from the news are not real."

"What?! What else did he say?"

"I think this is it. Oh yeah, he also mentioned the fact that he was to become the commander of some Golden Fleet, but that makes no sense, does it?"

"My Golden Fleet !"

"What is the Golden Fleet?" asked Angie.

" It is my elite space force! Composed of invincible golden ovoidal vessels. But no one on Earth is supposed to know their existence. How come… Oh, I see…"

"What?"

"They're probably looking for me now."

"Who?"

"My space force! They are supposed to eventually come and take me back together with my new general. But they probably lost track. And they sent a message but not to the right recipient, not to your son. But to this Gropius or whatever…"

"I see." said Marvin "Nothing is left to chance."

"Oh, shut up, Marvin! It is possible to be a noble galactic goddess and still be surrounded by incompetence."

"It's ok" said Angie. "It's not such a serious mistake anyway, is it? And there's probably a way to set it right."

"Actually, it could be disastrous…" answered Fluffy. "I have to check what's going on with my crew."