And When I Dream, I Dream of You

Dreaming just comes natural, like the first breath from a baby, like sunshine feeding daisies, like the love hidden deep in your heart……John Prine. I spend a lot of my time dreaming, lost in a make believe world of cartoon animals and I like it that way. This whole quarantine thing, it’s been tough for most people. It’s kind of the norm for me, I guess. I have a select group of people I like and that’s it. If I like you, I like you forever unless you’re mean to my kid or my nieces. Then things don’t go so well. But, I don’t like the not hugging thing. I do like the more drinking thing. Today, I came out of the drinking/dreaming world and I tried to keep pace with skinny running guy. I’ve been running “with” skinny running guy for years now. He is somewhat of a mystery man, a recluse, a naturalist, all of those things. I am 100% interested in getting to know him and he is 0% interested in getting to know me. It is rumored that he is some sort of undercover cop, or a navy seal, or that he has cancer or something. Tommy Lee, the neighbor who knows everything, says some tragedy has befallen him, but no one really knows. He used to be bigger and clean-shaven, but now he’s really thin and has grown his beard out. He never speaks to anyone, never turns a light on in his house, every blue moon cuts his grass with a swing blade and disappears for weeks on end. But, mostly, he runs, all day, every day, no matter if it’s snowing or 100 degrees. And he doesn’t like for you to get too close to him. Over the years, our relationship has progressed from him totally ignoring me to a wave then, after years, saying hi. One day, I made a joke and he actually smiled and it lit up the entire world. Today, when I tried to keep pace with him, he turned and ran up a road that I avoid; the killer hill road, and he lost me mid- hill and he looked over his shoulder and smiled. We both know I’ll never catch him, but I can dream. Yep.