Chapter 2 - Begin Again
“Babe, you’re going to be late for work.”
Andy woke up from Patrice’s elbow nudging him.
“Wait, Trizzy?” his thoughts were in shock. He was in shock.
“What the heck is she doing curled up beside me in bed? She’s supposed to be in the morgue because she hung herself.” his thought continued to confuse him.
“This is a dream,” he declared.
“Yes, babe,” she sat upright facing him, “This is a dream, and it has finally come true!”
She wore her brightest smile yet, and her eyes were twinkling in excitement. She looked like an anime character with that comical grin.
“Wait. Okay, so this is real and that was just a dream?” Andy scratched his head confused.
“I think you had a nightmare,” she said concerned.
“How do you know I had a nightmare?”
“I don’t. I just think you did because you look so confused.”
“Okay. Sorry… Yeah, I guess I had a nightmare.”
“What did you dream about?”
“It was weird…”
“Yeah? So tell me.”
“Well, you wouldn’t want to hear it.”
“Of course, I do!”
“No… I don’t even want to think about it. It was terrible.”
Patrice’s face smudged. She was annoyed that Andy wouldn’t tell her.
“You dreamt of someone else, didn’t you?” Patrice was being forceful now as she leaned in closer to his face.
“I did not,” Andy said annoyed.
“Then why won’t you tell me?”
“Fine. I’ll tell you. But don’t get upset, okay?”
“I won’t be. It’s just a dream.”
“I dreamt that when I got home from work, I found you hanging in your writing room.”
“Hanging as in hanging out? Or hanging as in I killed myself?”
“You killed yourself, Trizzy,” he let out a huge sigh and hugged his fiancee.
“Why?”
“Exactly. I didn’t know why you hung yourself, you didn’t leave a suicide note. And your diaries and journals were nowhere to be found.”
“Wow. I must’ve been depressed.”
“You think that could have been the reason?”
“Yeah, probably. I mean, if I wanted to kill myself I would at least leave a note or something to let you all know why I did it. But not leaving anything including my diaries and journals, it must be something really deep that I am too ashamed to let anyone know.”
She explained it as if there was an underlying reason behind it.
Andy got concerned and pulled her in for a tighter hug and kissed her forehead.
“Look, babe. If there is anything that you want to tell me, especially if it’s something going on in your brain, don’t hesitate to tell me. Okay?”
Patrice just looked at him farcically, a smile still stuck on her face.
“I’m serious,” Andy noted and kissed her on her lips.
“Okay, babe.” she kissed him back on the lips.
“But, you have to get up and get ready for work. I’ll meet you downstairs, I’ll make you breakfast and lunch.” Patrice slid off from his arms and walks out of the bedroom.
Andy followed her up and went to the bathroom to take a shower.
As the water rained down on Andy’s face and his body, his dream replayed.
Andy was a dreamless sleeper. And in rare cases where he did dream, he easily forgets them when he wakes up and goes about his day.
This dream was too vivid to forget. It seemed so real. It didn’t feel like a dream to him at all. It felt like he was living in the moment.
He shook the dream off his mind and continued to shower and then got dressed for work.
He went down to the kitchen to the smell of honey-cured bacon and freshly-cooked egg-fried rice.
“Babe, eat your breakfast. I’m just making you orange chicken for lunch.” Patrice said to Andy as she set a plate of egg-fried rice and four strips of bacon on the dining table.
“And take your vitamins,” she put a tiny saucer in front of Andy with a bunch of vitamins on it.
Andy had finished his breakfast and Patrice was just done packing his lunch bag.
He got up from the dinner table and kissed Patrice before leaving to the garage to his black Kia Sportage.
“Kia... in my dream this was my car a year prior to when it supposedly took place and my Subaru was just recently bought.”
Patrice followed to say goodbye to him.
As Andy was backing out of the garage he stopped leveling to where Patrice stood and said, “In my dream, I drove a black Subaru Ascent.”
“My dream car!” Patrice giddily said.
“See you later, babe. You better be alive when I get home.”
“We’ll see.” Patrice laughed.
“I’m serious.” Andy retorted.
“See you!” Patrice waved as he drove off to the road to work.
At the office, Andy had to stay late again to figure out a bug that was on the system. He was getting fed up with him and his team not being able to track this error down.
Bill the janitor walked in with a broom and a dustpan and started sweeping the office floor.
As Bill was approaching his desk, he stopped and faced Andy. “Rough day?”
“Could be better,” Andy replied.
“Well, at least you can come home to a lovely house, a hearty dinner that your fiancee prepared, and relax for the rest of the evening.” Bill chuckled at Andy.
And then his dream flashed.
“Wait. I have to make a phone call to Trizzy,” Andy said looking suddenly overwhelmed in shock. “This conversation was in my dream.” his memory of his dream surged.
Bill looked at him confused and continued to sweep the floor.
Andy took out his phone and called his house number.
He could not believe Bill just said exactly what he said to him in his dream.
The phone kept ringing.
“Come on, Trizzy. Answer the phone,” he muttered under his breath.
“Hello?”
It was Patrice’s voice on the other line.
“Oh, thank God! Hi.” Andy sighed in relief.
“Hey, babe! What’s up?” Patrice sounded her usual bubbly self on the other line.
“Nothing, just checking in.”
“Good that you called! But strange because you’re calling me on the house phone. Haha!”
“I was just checking to see if our telephone still works.” Andy lied to not give off a weird vibe.
“It’s working alright. Anyway, babe, what do you want for dinner? I was planning to either make bolognese pasta or chicken curry. Which of the two are you craving?”
“Chicken curry!”
“Mmm. My favorite! Alright. What time are you coming home?”
“I’m about to just leave,” Andy said as he gathered his things and his lunch bag to leave the office.
“Okay, great! I’ll see you soon, then.”
“Yes. But Trizzy, do you mind calling me on your cellphone and just you know, stay on the line until I get home?” he asked his fiancee as he was turning off his work computer and pushing his chair back to his desk.
“Someone misses me. You’re too sweet!”
“Yeah, will you?”
“Yeah. Let me just go get my phone in the kitchen and I’ll call you right back.”
“Thanks, babe.”
And Patrice hung up on the other line.
Andy waited for Patrice to call back as he was walking out of the office door.
“See you tomorrow, Bill.”
“See you, Sir.”
His phone rang and he quickly answered.
“Babe!” he said over the phone.
“What’s up with you, anyway?” Patrice sounded a little concerned.
“Nothing. I just wanted to hear your voice as I come home.”
“You’re weird. Did your dream get to you?”
“No, of course not.”
“Okay. So I’m just washing the chicken meat and just preparing the veggies. Do you want it mildly spicy or super spicy?”
“Mild,” Andy was entering the elevator door. “Babe, I’m entering the elevator now so it might get a little choppy but stay on the line with me, okay?”
“Yeah.”
The call got disconnected as he arrived in the basement parking.
“Shit,” Andy exclaimed.
He quickly jogged to his Kia Sportage, got in, strapped his seatbelt on, and started the engine.
“Why is there no signal down here?” he was annoyed at the thought.
As soon as he exited the basement parking, he immediately called Patrice back.
It rang once and Patrice answered.
“The call got disconnected,” she tells him.
“Yeah, there’s no signal down in the basement. Anyway, I am driving now.”
“It’s not safe to use your phone while driving, silly.”
“You’re on loudspeaker. It’s fine.”
“Okay. Drive safely, babe.”
“Yeah, of course. And babe, can you walk me through the steps in cooking chicken curry while you’re on it?”
“Sure! So right now, I am just pre-cooking the chicken meat by pan-frying them along with some onions, garlic, ginger, salt, and ground pepper. To render the excess chicken oil and to make sure the chicken is already cooked and flavored when I add to the curry sauce.”
“Sounds basic.”
“That’s because it is!”
“How many minutes do you pan-fry it?” Andy asked as he made a left turn exiting the city’s IT center.
“I honestly don’t know. I just wing it most of the time. When I feel like it’s done.” Patrice giggled embarrassed over the phone.
“Haha! So you just wing it. How are you supposed to say that if you’re writing a recipe book?”
“Uhmmm… feel the meat? Listen to the sizzle and smell the cookedness of the meat.”
“Cookedness? Is that a new word you invented?” Andy asked amused.
“Yeah, I’m going to put it in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.”
“And on a scale of one to ten, how is your chicken’s cookedness at the moment?”
“Oh wait, tenderness! I meant to say tenderness. Smell the tenderness of the meat.”
“I like ‘cookedness’ better,” Andy remarked as he was making his way toward his everyday shortcut to the subdivision.
“I think this is tender enough. It smells tender enough and all the excess oil is rendered.”
“So now you’re going to make the curry sauce?”
“Yup. Doing it right now. I’ve just set aside the rendered oil and the other stuff in it. So I am just cooking the potatoes and carrots in the same pan.”
“Well, you better cook those potatoes right.”
“I already boiled them to make sure they’re soft.”
“Nice. By the way, I am five minutes away from the subdivision. You think you can finish cooking that as soon as I arrive?”
“Oh, no! I feel pressured! I’ll try.”
“Just listening to you cooking makes me hungry.”
“Well, you’re in luck because I accidentally cooked too much chicken.”
“Curry them all!”
“Tonight is going to be a ‘No Leftover Policy’ dinner.”
“More like ‘Try Your Best To Leave Leftovers Policy’ dinner.” Andy teased.
“We’ll see about that.”
“I’m just driving into the main gate.”
“No worries, I have just added curry powder and the coconut milk.”
“I’m starving just thinking about how the dish smells.”
“Oh, trust me, babe. You’re going to love this.”
“I’m just driving into the garage.”
“You want me to open the garage door for you?”
“No. You’re fine. Just get that hearty dinner ready.”
“Okie dokie.”
“I love you.”
“You’re cute. I love you too.”
Andy disconnected the call and proceeded out of his vehicle to open the garage door.
He had parked his car and was walking toward the front door greeted by the smell of curry mixed with coconut milk.
“This girl can cook.” he thought to himself as he pushed the door open.
“Babe!” Patrice jumped into his arms for a hug and a kiss.
Andy felt a huge relief off his chest as he held his fiancee tight and kissed her forehead.
“I’m still alive!” Patrice teased him.
“Yeah. And I hope you stay alive until you’re 100.”
“Babe, go get changed. And I will be setting the dinner table.”
Andy walked upstairs while Patrice was in the dining room preparing for dinner.
As he landed on the last flight of the stairs to the second floor, he stopped and looked to his left where Patrice’s writing room was situated.
The image of his fiancee’s hanging body from his dream took over his thoughts and he felt chills running down his nape to his feet.
“Babe! Go on, get changed!”
Andy snapped out of his thoughts.
“If you’re not going to get changed in 10 seconds, you’re going to have a different dinner.” his fiancee grinned mischievously.
Andy went into their bedroom, into their walk-in closet, and got changed into his home wear.
As he walked back downstairs he could smell the savory scent of curry and freshly-cooked Jasmine rice.
The couple enjoyed their dinner and enjoyed the rest of the evening together.