D and H. Chapter One.

I sat up in bed smoking a cigarette watching her as she sat in front of the mirror making herself up. Actually she just sat there studying her image. Danielle worried about her looks but there was no need. She was thirty two but still looked twenty. Unlike me. My damned face fell apart on the stroke of thirty leaving me looking forty.
We'd been in bed for two days too broke and uninspired to go out but now she had to go to work. Danielle sat and stared for a full fifteen minutes before attacking the mass of perfectly tangled hair.

The phone rang. It was Sean.
Sean always phoned at the right time. Always after you had showered or after you had made love or just after you had woken. It was uncanny and a little unnerving as though he could watch your every move. I liked Sean. He was sure of who he was and seemed to know who and what everybody else was without having to scratch beneath the surface. This man was a breath of fresh air to me with his high cheek bones and long slender legs and a grace of movement that was pure harmony. He was enormously attractive to women which made me slightly green.
" Are you straight "?
" The whole weekend already, why "?
" I need a driver. "
" Today "?
" Yes, interested "?
" Your wish is my command. "
"Broke , right "?
" Right. "
" Get a job H."
" You just gave me one."
" Okay , my place at midday.
"You got it." There was a short pause and then he said softly , "Is Danielle with you ?"
"Physically yes."
"You're a bum H, why can't you do the right thing?" Before I got a chance to defend myself he rang off. He liked Danielle very much and I don't think either of us could figure out why she was with me. He seemed much more her style. Sean didn't think that I treated her right, but Christ she was a big girl and didn't depend on me for anything.
" Who was it?" , asked Danielle as she came out of the bathroom buttoning her blouse.
" Sean."
" Oh Sean", she said as if she were melting, " how is he?"
" Sounds fine. I have to drive him somewhere this afternoon."
" Oh well, it gets you out of the house I suppose. There's an empty page in the other room."
" This evening , I promise."
"Not this evening, I want to cook for us tonight." This was a real stunner. We never arranged to eat , at leased not at home. If it happened then it happened but 'dinner time'? No way! I tried to look pleasantly surprised but I probably just looked puzzled. "What's the occasion?"
"Oh just that James' exibition ends today and he's now going to finally pay me and I feel like ....well I don't know.... celebrating?
"Great", was all I could say. I was in shock because if we ever had anything to celebrate we always went out. And we made quite a few excuses to celebrate.
She smiled and left.
I got out of bed and looked in the mirror. Christ !



I was on time for my meeting with Sean. He seemed very exited when he opened the door to his warehouse apartment.
"Hey, how ya doin' H?"
"Good, and you.?"
"Yeah, fine", he said with a smile. It was obviously a good day for him. He looked strangely beautiful when things were going good. "We're going north to see some people about the 'Dream Inducer'." This was one of his so-called inventions. I'd never figured out or asked how Sean made his money but it surely wasn't from his inventions. Mostly they were ridiculous if not amusing flights of fantasy. I was sure they were just a passtime but somebody was obviously interested. This new device was one of the more whacky ones. It was a scullcap rigged up to electro sensors which was in turn rigged up to a main ' computing unit'. You were meant to put the cap on a half an hour before going to sleep and meditate on a subject that you would like to dream about. Then you were to change the program, a kind of reversal program I suppose, and the device would somehow feed the information back to you as you slept. You should then be able to dream what you had meditated on for longer and more vividly than a normal dream, including all the things that you had imagined. I hadn't tried the device so I shouldn't have been so sceptical but it seemed a bit too far out for me . My comprehension of this sort of technology was beyond me. Somebody of importance would surely have been interested in such a device if it worked.?
Anyway, we set off at a very low pace to begin with through the narrow streets of the old part town where Sean lived but soon we were racing along the open road of the country.
" We've plenty of time and I would prefer to arrive in one piece", said Sean.
" It's your car", I said taking my foot off the accelerator pedal. He had a good looking car and couldn't even drive. It made him feel good to be driven around was his only explaination. We cruised along at a pace that seemed more reasonable to him, silent for a while, the sun beautiful on our faces. Sean broke the silence by saying," You were in one of my dreams last night."
Other peoples dreams bored me and I told him so.
" Do you not think that dreams have meaning?" he asked.
" Actually I do but I think a dream is only of significance to the dreamer."
" I think my dream was significant but to you , not me."
" Okay, let's have it."
" Well we were in a dim blue lit room which was very cool but you were burning up with a sort of fever. A phone rang in the room and you picked it up and listened for a while. Suddenly your face took on the look of someone who had just received the worse possible news. You put the phone down, stunned, and then you turned to me with such a look of black sorrow. I asked you who it was and you said "Me." I could feel your dread." He stared straight ahead, expressionless.
" Yeah right." I said with half a smile, trying to look calm. " As I said, the dream is only important to the dreamer." But inside I was freaked. I'd had a very similar dream the night before too but I was on holiday with Danielle and I got the call at the reception of the hotel and it was me on the other end of the line. But it was the real me. The truth of me. But for the life of me I can't remember what I told myself.
" Well if you had dreamed it , what would you have thought?" he said.
" That would have depended on what I said to myself I suppose."
" But if you could have seen how you looked when you put the phone down it could only signify something terrible." I didn't really want to go on with this.
" So if I had dreamed this what would be the point of trying to figure it out?"
" Well I see it as a warning , I'm afraid."
I wasn't taking him seriously. The dream didn't freak me but the fact that we had both dreamed much the same thing on the same night was something else. Sometimes he would get so serious, and then , as now, he would just smile , revert back to his old self and change the subject.
" I'm giving a party in a couple of weeks, you and Danielle must come. Danielle can do some networking. I've invited a varied crowd. She'll enjoy it."
" Will I?" I said.
" I doubt it H. You don't enjoy too much at all." ( He was close. ) " But there's free booze."
I didn't get the connection. I smiled at him quickly and then gazed at the road ahead. I liked Sean. In a detached way I suppose but everything seemed detached to me. Especially funerals. I hated going. Worse still were weddings. The world and his wife. It was all so comical. I can't understand why I can't understand.
The only thing that made any sense then was Danielle.
Still is!

Chapter 2 will follow..........