Rhys watched her for a moment before breaking contact to look down at Rex as the animals tail started wagging excitedly at Penny, he shook his head, bending down to clasp his leash on his collar to avoid any further excitement to Vegas morning. “Penny, that’s cool.” He spoke, smiling as he looked over at her animal, “Rex seems to have taken a shining to her, anyway.” His brow raised at her next words. “Oh,” pausing momentarily, he mulled over whether or not to ask the stranger about it, he shook his thoughts aside and opted for the easy question, “are you alright now?”
Rhys hadn’t hadn’t had a bad dream in a long time, and whenever he did it was the same one over and over, never ending. Visions of his mother storming through his otherwise peaceful sleep. He didn’t really understand why it happened, maybe it was the abandonment? Maybe he was concerned, although out-loud he’d say he didn’t care — which is what he believed, after all she’d abandoned two small children, but maybe somewhere deep inside of him he had a recurring wish to know where about’s in the world she was, whether or not she was still alive. The previous nights sleep wasn’t anything of nightmares though, just those fluttering butterflies, flapping around and getting caught in his stomach. Nerves of the new job, not that he needed to be nervous, Rhys was a great social worker, though part of it was the semi-sick feeling he got from leaving kids behind in the city that trusted him, he’d play a game of basketball, tell them he’d be there and yet he’d left, just like most people in their lives seemed to. A mix of guilt and nerves was a bad concoction for a good nights sleep.
“I always wanted a cocker spaniel after watching Lady and the Tramp when I was like, 4, but it wasn’t until I moved here I got this little bug.” She bent down and started rubbing small circles behind Penny’s ears. “I think she likes him too. Mostly she just sits and glare at other dogs, even at the larger ones that should intimidate her. I think she believes she’s an alpha.” She laughed and met the man’s eyes. “I still love her, though. How long have you had him?” she asked with a nod towards the slightly larger dog.
Her dreams did change. Sometimes, it was her falling while she was performing on stage and the audience laughing at her. That wasn’t really a nightmare, though, because she knew everyone could fall and she didn’t get embarrassed easily. No, the dreams where she got injured so bad that she would never be able to dance again, those were the worst. Those kinds of dreams often haunted her straight after the accident with her knee and the doctors didn’t know if she’d ever recover completely. She often felt as if she was feeling to strongly. She cried too much, shouted with too much anger and she loved too deeply and she brought those feelings with her into her dreams, making the movies playing in her head while she was sleeping much too colorful for her liking as she couldn’t control them in her sleep. “It’s fine now, thank you. An early morning walk always helps to clear the head,” the corners of her mouth curled upwards. “You don’t know why you couldn’t sleep?”¨
