Strangeness

Mike sat bolt upright in bed and yelled. "Eleven!"

He frowned. He must have had a bad dream. He didn't wake up sweating like he usually did when he had a nightmare… instead… he had a feeling of longing. He couldn't explain it. The last time he'd felt like that was when he'd lost a toy he really liked, he missed that toy for months. He finally got over it but he never forgot the feeling of longing for it.

This was a little different though. This felt like he was missing a person. A long time friend. Not a girlfriend of course, he'd never had one, and this year wasn't looking any better. Hmm, maybe not. It was more like the feeling you get when you liked a girl, but you knew in your mind that it was never going to happen. Your heart longed for the her, but it was not just not going to be a possibility in this reality.

He got dressed and made his way downstairs for breakfast. He got Eggos from the freezer. His dad had already gone to work and his sister Nancy and their mother were sitting at the table.

Nancy looked at him and smirked. "You had another Sesame Street dream last night. You were looking for the number eleven. What does that even mean?"

"I was probably looking for eleven ways to avoid talking to you?"

"Michael! Don't be so rude to your sister." His mother said.

"Yeah Mike, don't be so rude. Why don't you spend the rest of the summer looking for a girlfriend?" She tried to keep from laughing.

It was a sore spot for him. He was lonely and at the age where he'd taken an interest in girls… but they had not returned that interest. Whatsoever.

When he'd finished his Eggos he went down to the bathroom in the basement to brush his teeth. When he was done he sat on the sofa and pulled out his D&D Dungeon Master's Guide, looking for ideas. He wasn't really feeling it today but he'd promised The Party that he'd at least have enough material to start a campaign.

There was a knock on the back door, and he got up to let Lucas and his girlfriend Max in. He wasn't a big fan of Max. There wasn't anything wrong with her… not really, they just kind of rubbed each other the wrong way.

"Hey Lucas… Max. Come on in."

"I can just tell by looking at you that you had that dream again last night." Max had an uncharacteristically concerned expression on her face, and Mike could help but like her a little bit more.

"Yeah, I don't even remember the dream, I just wake up yelling eleven. I have no idea what it means. Maybe I'm counting in the dream and that number is significant."

"Have you noticed anything else weird happening in your life?"

Mike thought. "I seem to have a craving for Eggos a lot. Doesn't make any difference if they are toasted or not."

"That's not that weird." Max said.

"If I'm watching a movie late at night, instead of opening up a bag of chips, I'll eat a box of frozen waffles." Mike said.

"Ok that's weird." She said. "And what's going on with your hair?"

"I try to comb it straight, but it's like if I move my head to fast or even think about it, my hair is like it got caught in an eggbeater. I'm just going to stop combing it... "

XXXXX

That night Mike wasn't feeling well. He felt like he'd been on some kind of spinning ride at an amusement park and had to get off and just lie still for a month or two. Nausea didn't quite cover how it felt. Super-pukey-hurl-master was closer.

The room was still spinning when he got to sleep.

In the morning, he woke up suddenly, tears in his eyes with a question. "Promise?"

He wiped his eyes. He wasn't crying now and the memory of the dream was completely gone. The feeling of longing was still there, but there seemed to be hope behind it.

He got up and went down to the kitchen for breakfast. He was half glad that Nancy wasn't at the table yet. Just his mother. His dad obviously at work early again. Maybe he could finish his Eggos before Nancy came down.

After a few minutes Mike was on his third Eggo he asked his mom. "Where's Nancy?"

"Who's Nancy?" His mother said looking up from her book.

Mike looked around. "Um, my sister Nancy?" Trying to sound as sarcastic as possible.

"You're sister's name is Holly." Her mom was already losing her interest in the inane conversation.

"Yeah, my younger sister's name is Holly. I was asking about Nancy."

"Well, your older sister Holly should be here any minute." No sooner had she said that when a blonde girl older than Mike sat down at the table.

"Hey Mike, you sleep ok last night? You were doing a lot of talking your sleep." She smiled at Mike, she was genuinely interested.

Mike panicked a little. This was his sister, but he must still be dreaming. He was almost ten years older than she was. "I'm sleeping ok… I guess. I didn't keep you awake did I?"

And how come his mother didn't know who Nancy was? He was having a lucid dream. He'd only heard about them, never had one… at least not until now.

"Nah, I fell asleep dreaming about Steve." She waited looking take a quick nervous glance at her mother. Her mom either hadn't heard or was ignoring here.

Steve. That would be Harrington. He wasn't the asshole he used to be. Although in this dream, who knew maybe he still was.

He'd grab Lucas and maybe Dustin. They would go down to the library and look up books on dreaming.

"I think I'm going to the library to day with Dustin and Lucas," he told his older sister Holly. Then nodded towards his mother, "you know, in case she asks."

Holly giggled at him, and then asked, "Ok, Mike… who's Lucas? A new friend?"

That stopped him. He'd go over to Lucas's house to make sure there was a Lucas in this dream… he was starting to suspect that this wasn't really a dream and it scared him a little bit.

He grabbed his jacket and threw on his runners. Once outside he hopped on his bike and and peddled the short distance to Lucas's house.

He knocked on the door and Max answered. "Hey Max? Is Lucas in?"

"Ok two things, asshole. First, you ignore me the whole summer, and now you come waltzing over here and knock on my door? Screw you. Second, nobody calls me Max, it's Maxine wasteoid."

'Uh…."

"Uh…. Uh…." Max mocked him, "and who the hell is Lucas?"