Hugging

 I was going to call this one"Dreams" but I think I've given that title to about half of these posts. 

In the last three weeks, I've had at least two dreams where Alice appeared. They're the usual reveries where like someone from my elementary school is interacting with someone I met more recently, I don't have any clothes on, I'm about to miss a big deadline, and I need to persuade that 5th grade classmate to help me out and the question will be hanging in the air of whether or not I was a good person to this individual from so long ago enough to merit their bailing me out in that "present" moment. 

And then, Alice will appear. Most recently, like 2 nights ago, she had long hair. It was Alice circa 1985. Right in the middle of my chaos, she shows up and I drop everything. Nobody around me matters anymore. I walk up to Alice, my arms open. And I hug her. I get a feeling of "I knew you weren't dead, you've just been spending time away," also of "thank you for coming to see me, I've missed you so much too," also "let this moment never ever end," and "I'm so grateful to see you and have this chance to hug you."

Then the dream ends. What stays with me is that non-negotiable moment in which I first see Alice and stop everything to connect with her. I wish