Originally written for 31_days. The prompt on May 5, 2009 was "there are cracks in the universe." The original title was "Looking Forwards, Backwards."
For three years, she was the constant flicker through his dreams.
Sometimes she was nothing more than a shadows in the periphery or disembodied smile. At other times she was every female face and her approving eyes looked him over at nearly every angle as versions of her passed him on the street. They rarely ever touched but she was capable of grabbing his hand and bringing it to her lips. On those mornings, he would have sworn that the residual heat still lingered across the tips of his fingers.
During each dream, his mind would focus at the only words she ever spoke to him: "Come back to me."
But it was his own voice that woke him from his dreams. His eyes would flutter open and he would sit up as soon as his body allowed. His eyes would grow wide as he tried to remember what he had said. He was just incapable of remembering. The randomness of the syllables never made sense. His eyes would lazily drift toward the door and to the familiar form of his mother. Her face always held the same expression of frustrated anger on those early mornings. He felt ashamed to having awakened her.
He never failed to ask if she had heard what he had said the next time he saw her. She always said no. "Why can't I remember?" he would lament.
"It doesn't matter. It's only a dream," she would say in her calm manner. "They exist to be forgotten."