I dream that my pen pal C. is here to visit once again, and there’s a little girl with her, possibly her niece. They are staying in the neighborhood, picking tomatos. I hope to convince her to stay for a few more days, but when I get there she’s got a strange expression. I ask what happened.

“My dad died. Without me, they forgot to buy his heart pills.’

I hug her tight. I ask what she needs; she wants peanuts, the little girl wants juice. I say I’ll be right back, I have super speed after all!

I run home and feel like I’m going so slow, but I know they’ll add the super speed Quicksilver effect in post production, so it should be fine. I tell the news to my parents: my mom volunteers to go back with C. to her family, which I find both sweet and impractical.

I open a trail mix bag and painstakingly pick each peanut. The results is a very small bowl, but it’ll had to do. As I go back I notice my cat is escaping from the front door, I pick her up and toss her inside our car. It feels cruel but I don’t have time to waste!

When I get back to C. it’s getting dark and there’s a priest blessing her door. The atmosphere in the neighborhood is somber. C. takes my arm in hers and smiles a teary smile when I tell her what my mom has volunteered to do. She reminds me she won’t have many college classes in January (she’s 40 IRL) and it’s her birthday on the 10th (not her birthday IRL). The implicaron it’s that she wants to spend it with me. It makes my heart soar.

(Other dreams included: my sister streaming my computer, the Sims having a massive update, a neighbor teaching me calligraphy). I’m