“Of Dreams”
Aki-Shim slipped his toes out of his black, suede slippers and swept his legs up and underneath the covers. His bed was hard and unforgiving, but Aki-Shim slept best that way. He peeled his thin steel rimmed glasses from behind his ears and laid them on the maple nightstand. Tapping the touch lamp three times sent the room into moonlit semi-darkness; Aki-Shim smiled faintly. He looked at his wife resting next to him, her own face a look of ever changing dreams. She gave a small whimper, opened her eyes slightly, and gave Aki-Shim’s own faint smile back to him, but on her face it was a thousand times more mystical. He slipped his arms around her and closed his eyes.
Aki-Shim heard the small wall clock tick with rhythmic, mechanical bleating.
The furnace kicked on and the hot air began to circulate through the vents.
China slept.
Outside a wind blew gently and small raindrops tapped the thin roof of their home.
Aki-shim coasted easily into sleep, his arm resting loosely on his wife’s stomach and ankles barely touching.
Heat radiated from both their bodies.
Aki-Shim began to dream.
The room swayed with quick light as he shimmied through the window and into the master bedroom. The light was slowly strangled out of the room when the layers of dark silk curtains finally stopped swinging.
It was not a room he knew.
As his eyes adjusted, black pupils changing shape intuitively, Aki-Shim could begin to make out the place.
The bed was a cherry sleigh. The nightstands were deep mahogany with trims of black. There was a silver TV, large and flat-screened. There were matching silver alarm clocks, small ornate lamps, two or three jewelry cases spread on a huge armoire, and blankets of lush material draped across a giant chest at the foot of the bed.
He saw himself from outside himself. As dreams always do.
The steps he took were quiet and sharp, swift and practiced. The bag he carried in his right hand was rough canvas and made more noise than he did. His fingers were gloved in black leather and his shoes were black character slippers.
Aki-Shim stepped around the foot of the bed and headed towards the chest of drawers on the opposite side of the room. On his way he opened the bedroom door and looked down the long paneled hallway.
No one was there. No sound was made. And all of this made Aki-Shim unusually happy.
He shut the door and moved around to the armoire.
As his shoulders turned to face the jewelry boxes, part of body was caught in the bathroom mirror.
Aki-Shim was cut symmetrically, showing only half of himself in the distant mirror.
Only it wasn’t Aki-Shim anymore.
He saw the leather gloves, a tight, black, long-sleeve shirt, and a digital watch with a plastic band.
He saw a black stocking hat, rolled once at the bottom, from underneath which long matted strands of red hair poked out.
He saw a much more chiseled chest than he had. And a much thinner face.
He saw a green eye and half of a reddish-brown goatee.
But when he moved his hand up, the canvas bag and leather glove followed. And when he twitched his nose like a rabbit the goatee and all moved with him.
But just as quickly as he had spied himself in that mirror he was off again, attention focused sharply on the dresser.
And just like dreams, Aki-Shim didn’t know what he was doing.
He picked up the jewelry boxes from the marbled dresser top and dumped them each, one by one, into his canvas bag. He heard the rippling sound of glass and metal as the bag sagged minutely within his grip.
He opened the top draw and sifted through its contents, finding nothing.
Drawer after draw was opened and then abandoned.
The lowest right drawer revealed a pile of brightly colored panties and bras. He brought a red pair of lacey underwear to his nose and inhaled. It smelled of detergent and musk. He tossed it quickly into the bag.