When the sun sank low, behind the nebulous forest, a coolness swallowed the air.
Remi pulled his new, blue bicycle from the garage and shouted, “Dadda!” at the top of his lungs. “I want to ride my new bike!”
“Remi, Dadda’s resting after work. Want me to take you out?”
“I need Dadda to,” he said, trying to fasten the buckle of his helmet beneath his chin.
Renee walked to the stairs and listened for any sign of her husband stirring. There was nothing except a black and white cat that came ambling down, rubbing its face against her lowered hand as it passed.
“Did you see him?” Remi asked.
“He’s still sleeping.”
Remi walked up the front steps into the house, shouting, “Dadda! Dadda!”
He stopped at the stairway leading to the attic bedrooms, and a black cat walked down, pausing halfway to the sound of birdsong. It ignored Remi as it passed, then stopped at the food bowl, lowered its head, and crunched on Purina chow. Remi climbed the stairs to the attic and repeated in a lowered voice, “Dadda!”
He walked through his own bedroom, making his way to the next room where his parents slept. It was always horribly dark and smelled enclosed and dusty, as if the last time a window was opened was before the French Revolution.
Opening the door, he saw his father sleeping underneath a gray blanket. At the far end of the room, an air conditioner was humming.
He said, “Dadda, I want to go outside and ride my bike. Can you wake up?”
Chad didn’t stir.
“Dadda, I want…”
His father put his hand up and motioned for him to lie down next to him.
“I don’t want to sleep. I want to ride my new bike.”
His father, not opening his eyes, said, “Remi, put your head on the pillow and walk with me. But first, you must close your eyes.”
Remi scoffed, but when his father turned away, he lay down next to him.
Chad was walking on a gravel path, and Remi struggled to catch up. There was a pine-covered cliff on one side and a gradual rocky incline to the other.
His father slowed down and turned towards him, smiling.
“See, I know you’d be able to get in. Want to try climbing that hill?”
Remi looked up a few hundred feet and said, “I guess. If you hold my hand.”
They walked in a zigzag pattern across the breaks in the boulders. When they got closer to the top, it steepened. Chad instructed Remi to crouch low, so he wouldn’t topple downwards. Just in case, he trailed behind Remi with his hands ready to catch Remi if he fell.
At the top, they looked out and saw the tops of the Prudential and John Hancock buildings in the distant Boston skyline.
Remi turned around and saw a boy lying down.
“What’s going on? That’s me!”
“I thought we’d find you there.”
“But I’m right here! How could there be two of me?” Remi said, frowning and about to break into a cry.
“That’s you sleeping last night. Once you stepped into my dream, I figured that there’d be a way for us to get into the last dream you had.”
“How do we do that?”
“We lie down on either side of you and close our eyes.”
They did that and found themselves in the crowded Boston aquarium. Remi was tugging his parents forward as they dodged groups of people. He led them up a ramp that wound around an enormous tank that held hammerhead sharks, groupers, sting rays and barracudas. But Remi had his eyes on something else swimming near the surface.
The three of them arrived at the top of the tank and looked down.
Remi pointed, “There’s Murphy!”
Renee asked, “How do you know the sea turtle’s name?”
“That’s just what you call it because that’s his name. That’s just how it is.”
Renee and Chad caught each other’s eyes and smiled.
They went to a smaller tide pool area where kids could touch hermit crabs, sea urchins and starfish. As Remi placed his hand into the water, he felt the slimy smoothness of a hermit crab’s shell and, after picking it up, the ticklishness of its legs on his hand.
His dad said, “Remi, something random. You know how Momma and Dadda work every day?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, sometimes, when they get home, they’re tired and need some quiet time to nap. Not too long, just a bit of time.”
Chad looked to Remi, who was reaching for a starfish, which Renee pushed closer to him.
“So, even though you might want to do something with us then, if we’re napping, just let us sleep. Because if we don’t, then we’ll be like Grumpy Monkey and won’t want to play with you as much.”
“Just let you sleep…does that mean I can watch TV?”
“No, not after school. Just find something to play with.”
“Like what? I don’t want to do that.”
“Maybe make a train tack.”
“Oh, alright…”
Before he knew it, Remi was back in his parents’ bedroom, and his dad was sleeping next to him.
He was about to tap him on the shoulder to wake him, but then pictured himself in the aquarium, looking at a hermit crab’s wriggly legs.
Remi went downstairs and said to his mother, “Mom, since you’re awake, can you take me out to ride my bike?”
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