A Winter Dream
Chapter 4

Awakening inside a dream seems common enough. Lila wasn’t particularly interested in dreams before hers became a winter wonderland where she could interact with a beautiful beast with white fluffy fur and golden eyes. These dreams felt more like reality than any dreams she’d had in her entire life.

By the third time she opened her eyes to replace herself standing on a white blanket of snow that wasn’t cold, she already expected her snow beast to appear at some point during the dream.

Reaching out her arms to the sides, she grazed the deep green hedges with her fingertips. She was between two rows of them and the snow on the ground was undisturbed both in front of her and behind. The greenery of the hedges looked like any bushery, but it didn’t feel like that. It felt like her fingertips were dancing across soft, sugary marshmallows.

Turning to the right and stepping closer to one side of the hedges, she looked more closely. They did look like any plant, but when she pinched her fingers around a leaf, it was pillowy soft and squishy. If you squeezed your thumbprint into it, it would only expand again to its normal shape when your thumb was withdrawn. Huh. Memory foam hedges.

Lila turned her head from left to right, peering down the snowy carpet between the bushes. Which way should she go?

She wanted to go whichever direction would lead her to the beautiful purring creature and closer to replaceing out his name. With that thought in mind, she felt drawn to the left, so that’s the way she began to walk. Soon, after about three minutes, she came to her first decision in the form of a three-way choice.

“Of course, it’s a hedge maze,”she thought with a touch of sarcasm.

She could decide one of several ways. Perhaps a modified coin flip concept. She could make marks in the snow and then toss something up and whichever it landed closest to; she could take that way.

Or she could go with the classic maze strategy where she decided to go only left, trailing her hand along the left hedge all the way until she was out in the open again. Or was it only rights? Didn’t it depend on something…if the outside world was closest to one’s right or left? She couldn’t remember.

Closing her eyes and breathing deeply she felt strangely drawn to the middle path. It was her dream, after all, so following her intuition felt the most reasonable choice to make. With that decided, she continued walking down the chosen path.

Lila continued on for two or three more minutes when she began to see the hedge to her right shake slightly. A rustling of leaves clued her in to the approaching of a creature. She hoped it would be her snow cat friend and was certain it would be.

It wasn’t.

As the rustling and shaking of the hedge line continued, the scrappy sounds fast approaching, she paused in her walk and looked up. Soon, the hedges were stilled and just above her head, over the edge of the bushes, a face appeared.

It took Lila a minute to register what she was seeing. The face tilted to the side as the little black eyes observed her closely. After it peered to its own satisfaction, it leapt forward and landed a few feet away on the ground in front of her. Now that she could see its whole body, Lila realized it was a white fox. It was fluffy and soft-looking just like her snow cat, but it was larger than any fox she’d seen in the real world.

This fox was the size of a golden retriever and pranced around with a jaunty little walk as if it were showing off its graceful figure to her from every angle. Finally, finishing its parade, it sat down four steps away as its lips curled up into what looked like a smile.

“Hello, foxy,” she said aloud.

The fox laughed. The laugh was deep and pleasant like the amused sounds of a sexy man…a lady’s man. Lila immediately formed an opinion of the fox’s personality. Her gut feeling telling her he was a player who enjoyed the attention of the ladies.

She laughed at herself. A lady’s man. He was a fox for crying out loud. She shook her head and then crouched down to his eye level. She stared into his eyes for a few seconds and noticed that they weren’t just shiny black eyes the way she first thought, they were black eyes with points of light within that reminded her of the stars in the night sky. They were mesmerizing and beautiful to be sure, but he wasn’t her snow cat, who was more magnificent than Mr. Galaxy-eyes.

She stood again to her full height and cleared her throat, “You haven’t seen a giant snow lion anywhere, have you? He’s about this tall?” she asked as she raised her open hand to shoulder height.

The fox looked offended at her mention of another male and huffed, turning his head to the side as if he would ignore her. His eyes turned to side eye her while she waited expectantly. Finally, he sighed and jerked his head back over his own shoulder then turned to head back along the hedge behind him and in front of her.

She followed him for what felt like a long time until they arrived at the center of the maze. In the center was a large fountain and on top of the fountain stood her snow cat. He looked real and alive but wasn’t moving at all. He didn’t even glance at them. He just stood on his pedestal in a regal pose gazing off into the distance with a glazed look in his eyes.

“Hello…” she didn’t know his name so she couldn’t call it.

The snow fox jumped up on the edge of the fountain and sat, twitching his fluffy fox tail around like an angry cat. He looked up at the beast and called, “Ransom, your woman is here.”

Ransom leapt to life, pouncing down onto the fountain ledge beside the fox and growled in his face, bearing an awesome set of white fangs.

The fox huffed again but corrected himself, albeit sarcastically, “The Lady Lila is here to see you, My Lord.”

Ransom ceased his growling but reached out a giant paw and nonchalantly swept the fox into the water of the fountain before turning to Lila.

The fox surfaced, sputtering with indignation, “You know I hate the water!”

Ransom ignored him and Lila laughed, which started Ransom purring.

“Get lost, Cassias,” Ransom rumbled, still watching Lila.

Cassias the fox jumped out of the water, shook his fur with violent disgust then scampered away into the maze.

Lila turned to face her snow cat, who she now knew was called Ransom. She stepped up to him with a smile. Burying her hands in his face she happily rubbed and petted him there. She couldn’t get enough of the soft fur, but didn’t ever venture lower than his mane, feeling that it was somehow not appropriate.

Ransom’s purr grew louder, and he reached his nose up to nuzzle the hair at her neck. Lila shivered at the tingling sensation and bit back a moan. He understood what he did to her and pulled his face away slowly and regrettably.

“Who are you, Ransom?” Lila asked, hardly recognizing the sultry tone in her own voice.

“I’m yours, Lila…”

Lila blinked and when her eyes opened, she was buried under a mound of blankets in her mom’s bed. She heard the shower running and her mom was no longer beside her. Lila flung the covers off herself and raced to the bathroom. It wasn’t like her mom to be in the shower since they were conserving water in order to keep the bill low.

When she flung the door open and pulled the shower curtain aside, her mom was sitting on the shower floor, the warm water running over her and causing steam to fill the room.

“Mom?” Lila began cautiously, “Are you ok?”

Her mom muttered, “Mmmm,” in a drowsy sounding voice.

It was then that Lila realized the lights were on in the bathroom, and if the water was warm, then it was because the hot water heater was working again.

“How long have you been in here? When did the electricity come back on?”

Dana looked up at her daughter with a weary smile, “I called early this morning and paid the reconnection fee. I needed a hot shower. Can you grab a towel for me?”

Lila went to the small linen closet across the hall from the bathroom and came back with the fluffiest towel they owned. When her mom stepped out of the shower on shaky legs, Lila quickly wrapped her up and supported her weight to walk her back into her bedroom and seated her on the one chair within.

It was warm in the room and Lila noticed the clock on her mom’s bedside table now read 9:07am. She must have called them at seven to have everything turned back on.

Dana unwrapped the towel and began drying herself off while Lila reached into the nearby closet and pulled out a long sundress style maxi dress. She helped her weak mom pull it over her head and then grabbed a cardigan sweater and handed it to her before walking over to the dresser.

Lila pulled out some panties and a pair of thick wool socks and handed those to Dana, too.

Dana took the clothing and said, “Thank you, sweetie.”

Once her mom was done putting on all of the clothes, she looked up at Lila, who was now seated on the edge of the bed watching her.

“What is it, Lila?” she prompted softly.

“Mom, you’re sick. We have to replace a way to get you to a hospital or a doctor or something,” she urged.

Dana shook her head sadly, “I’ve already been.”

“What does that mean?” Lila asked a little too loudly.

Her mom smiled sadly and sighed. After a few moments she explained, “I’m dying, my love.”

Lila shook her head aggressively, “No, Mom. That can’t be true. You’re only forty-one! You just need treatment. What did the doctor say you have? Is it cancer?”

Dana nodded, “Yes. It’s too far advanced. The treatment had a less than ten percent chance of lengthening my life…if I’d gotten it a year ago. Now, there’s nothing they can do. I’m sorry, Lila. I wish I could have done better for you.”

Tears began to run down Lila’s face and her voice shook as she replied, “It’s ok, Mom. It’s ok. You did the best you could.”

There was no point in getting angry or blaming anyone now. They wouldn’t have had the money a year ago anyway, and Lila knew that. Even if she’d dropped out of school and gone to work, it wouldn’t have been enough. She now understood her mom’s desperation for her to finish college. Because she would be alone and would need to support herself.

Dana’s tears began to flow, too. She got up and sat next to her daughter on the bed, wrapping her arms around her as they cried.