Microwave
Freddie groggily sat up, feeling dazed and confused as he looked around at his unfamiliar settings.
"Where am I?" Freddie mumbled, staring at the room around him. It appeared to be some sort of living room, but not one he ever remembered being in before. He had no recollection of how he got to this strange room, and he was starting to get freaked out.
"Okay, what's going on?" Freddie asked loudly. "Where am I? Is anybody here? Hello?"
He walked frantically around the room, looking for any hint that would tell him what was happening.
"This is so bizarre," Freddie said, running his fingers though his hair anxiously. "This is like a bad dream or something. Hold on…wait a second…"
Freddie looked around the room and hurried back over to the couch he had been laying on when he had woken up. He bent down and with one arm, managed to lift the entire couch up into the air.
"Okay, I am not that strong," Freddie said. "I am dreaming. Alright, slightly less freaked out now. But this is still kind of weird…this doesn't seem like one of my Galaxy Wars dreams…"
Suddenly he caught sight of something shiny, and he looked down at his hand and saw a gold wedding band around his ring finger.
"Oh wow, I'm married!" Freddie grinned. "Sweet! Maybe this will be better than a Galaxy Wars dream. Wonder if my 'wife' is around here."
He continued to look around the room, where new objects seemed to pop up out of nowhere.
"Looks like dream-Freddie has done pretty well for himself," Freddie chuckled, looking at the flat screen television that now hung above the large fireplace. "Oh, and is that Tech Weekly on the coffee table? Nice touch."
He sat back down on the couch and put his feet onto the coffee table. "Wonder why my subconscious is dreaming about all this…Well, I'm not going to question it; it seems like my mind's made a real nice life for me here. If I wasn't a man of science, I'd say I was seeing the future."
He suddenly noticed a photograph on the mantle of the fireplace that he could've sworn was absent until that very moment. He stood up and crossed the room to get a better look.
The picture was of four kids; two boys and two girls. Three of the kids seemed to have his dark eyes, but one had sparkling blue eyes instead.
Eyes that looked strangely familiar.
"Huh, are these supposed to be my children then?" Freddie said to himself. "Wow, four kids…well, my mom will be happy with that. And they're all fairly attractive…which means…yes! I've dreamed myself up a super hot wife! Oh, I better find her before I wake up; I'd never forgive myself if I missed this. Now let's see…are there any other rooms in this place?"
At his command, more of the house seemed to materialize in front of him.
"I could really get used to this," Freddie chuckled. He set off into the next room, which turned out to be the kitchen.
The second he stepped inside, he was greeted with a delicious aroma. He followed the smell to the oven and opened up the door to find a giant ham cooking inside.
"Oh man, that looks good," Freddie said, his mouth watering. "There's no way I could even dream of making something that good, which means my dream wife must've done it…ha! This just keeps getting better and better!"
He looked around the kitchen a little more, but there was no sign of anybody else. All he found was a half-dozen bottles of barbecue sauce in the fridge, a plate of leftover pizza in the microwave, and an empty carton of Fat Cakes in the trash.
"Guess I'm really taking advantage of not having to eat my mom's health meals here," Freddie grinned. "Yup…this is definitely better than the dream I had when I got initiated into the Star Fleet Academy."
He headed out of the kitchen and started up the stairs. All along the second-floor corridor was more pictures of the same four kids he had seen downstairs. They were at the beach, getting awards at school, laughing around a giant Christmas tree…Yet he still didn't see a single picture of his wife.
"I did dream myself up a wife, didn't I?" Freddie frowned. "Because I swear, if I messed this up…"
He stopped in front of what looked to be the master bedroom. He stepped inside and saw a king-sized bed, half neatly made up, half incredibly sloppy. A pair of women's slippers lay haphazardly by the unmade side of the bed, and on the bedside table was an old Boogie Bear comic book.
"Boogie Bear?" Freddie said, confused, as he picked up the book. "What's this doing here? I don't read this garbage…"
He set it back down and glanced over at dresser. Like the bed, half of it was neatly organized, the other half was cluttered and chaotic.
He walked across the room to further examine it. On the cluttered side sat a half-filled bottle of perfume. He picked it up and took a sniff of the contents.
It smelled strangely familiar, but he couldn't place where he had smelled it before.
Just then he heard a door slamming downstairs. Freddie nearly dropped the bottle of perfume. Was he finally going to meet the wife he had dreamed up for himself?
He hurried back downstairs, hoping to get a glance of her, but when he arrived back in the living room, there was no one there. By the front door, however, was a purple purse and a pair of black boots.
She's here! Freddie thought excitedly to himself. Sweet!
He cleared his throat, about to call out for his wife, but realized he didn't even know what name to call her. So he settled for a simple "Hey, baby?"
He heard the kitchen sink turn on, but there was no response.
"B-Baby?" Freddie called again, a bit more hesitantly. Maybe whoever was in the house right now wasn't his wife. It would be just his luck to have a perfect dream like this ruined by having an ax murderer suddenly swoop in.
But then…
"Freddie? Is that you?" came a female voice from the kitchen. "Hey, baby, I'm just making a quick snack."
"Yes!" Freddie cheered to himself, jumping up in the air. "I've got myself a wife! Well, at least until I wake up. Okay, Benson, you better enjoy this. Who knows if this will ever happen in real life!"
He ran into the kitchen, eager to meet his dream wife. But as he raced in, he nearly collided with someone.
"Sorry," Freddie said quickly. "Sorry, baby, I didn't mean to-"
But his sentence trailed off as his jaw dropped.
The woman he had collided with, his 'wife', had long, curly blonde hair, light, blue eyes, and had a leg of fired chicken in one hand, and a bottle of root beer in the other.
"It's okay," the woman said. "Nub…"
Freddie backed away slowly.
The woman standing in front of him…the woman who was wearing a wedding band just like his was…
Sam Puckett!
"You-You what are you doing here?" Freddie stammered, his heart racing fast.
"Um, I live here," Sam laughed.
"Since when?"
"Since we got married ten years ago," Sam chuckled, rolling her eyes.
"You-We-We're-No!" Freddie exclaimed. "No, we-we can't be! There's no way-We-We wouldn't-We don't-You and I-No, no, no, no, this-this is insane!"
"Freddie, what's wrong?" Sam asked, concerned. "Rough day at the office? Here, maybe I can make you feel better-"
"You stay away from me!" Freddie said at once, jerking away from Sam's reach. "You-This-There's no way this is happening! Why would I dream this? Why would I torture myself like this?"
"Freddie, what are you talking about?" Sam asked. "Freddie, are you okay? Freddie…Freddie…Freddie…"
"Freddie!"
And suddenly Freddie felt his eyes fly open and just like that, his previous surroundings melted away and he found himself sitting an airplane seat, covered in beads of sweat. He looked over to his left and saw Carly staring at him with a strange expression.
"You alright there, Freddie?" Carly asked. "It sounded like you were having a nightmare or something?"
"Where-Where am I?" Freddie panted, trying to calm his breathing.
"You're on an airplane," Carly frowned. "We're flying back from Jodi and Gordon's wedding, remember?"
"I-yeah," Freddie nodded, his senses slowly recovering. "Yeah, that-that's right."
"So did you have a bad dream then?" Carly asked. "Because you were thrashing and mumbling stuff and you seemed all distressed."
"Um, it-it was something alright," Freddie nodded.
"Well what was it about?" Carly asked.
"I-"
"That stupid snack cart only has diet Mountain Fizz," Sam said suddenly, coming down the aisle and taking the other empty seat next to Freddie. "Can you believe that? Oh, the doof's finally awake."
"Be nice to him, Sam, he had a bad dream," Carly told her best friend.
"What? Did you dream you got an A minus or something?" Sam scoffed.
"Sam…" Carly said warningly. She turned back to Freddie. "So what was your dream about?"
"I-I forget," Freddie said lamely, though he doubted he'd ever get what had just happened out of his head.
"Oh," Carly nodded. "That happens to me sometimes too. I'll wake up from a really scary nightmare, and then two seconds later I'll have no idea what happened. Crazy, right?"
"Yeah, it's insane," Sam said, rolling her eyes. "Anyway, Carls, the snack cart was also out of those peanuts I like, so you care if I swipe your bag?"
"Sure," Carly sighed. "I'm not a fan of the honey roasted kind anyway. Here."
She held up the bag of nuts and Sam reached over Freddie to retrieve them. As she leaned over him, though, Freddie caught a whiff of the very same perfume he had smelled in his dream…
Well, Freddie thought, taking a deep breath as he slouched down in his seat. I-I bet it was just that spicy mustard I ate at the reception that made me have that dream…Yeah…I'm sure that's all it was.
It was just the mustard.
