Blog Love Omega Glee: The Stolen Hour Gets Returned (4 November 2012)

In her dream, Francine comes out of the shower, wraps a towel around herself, and is about to get dressed--her bathroom appears to be part of a huge walk-in closet--when her phone plays a shortened version of "Teenage Kicks" by The Undertones announcing that she has a new message. Why she has her phone in the shower she doesn't quite understand, but her dream self rolls with it, and finds it's a text from her friend Dyani, which is strange because Dyani is dead. Nevertheless, Francine is excited to hear from her as they haven't talked in years and since Dyani died, Francine has assumed that she would never talk to her again. The message reads, "Are you busy? I wanted to drop by." Rather than send a text back, Francine just looks up from her phone and says, "Sure!"

Dyani walks in the door. Francine's heard of the quick and the dead, but she's never heard that the dead were quick. Dyani looks as she did when Francine last saw her years ago. She's a little chubby, a little pale, and a lot stylish. Her hair is cut short except for long bangs which stick out to the left side a bit, and a long red streak runs through the middle of her otherwise jet black hair. She's dressed in nylon stockings, a denim mini-skirt, and a white shirt that says in large black letters, "What's your excuse?" Francine gives her a hug, "Dyani! I can't believe you're here. I never thought I'd see you again! How are you here? I thought you were dead."

Dyani says, "I am dead."

Francine wraps the towel tighter around herself, and Dyani says, "I just came to tell you something."

As Dyani begins to speak, Francine wakes up to find herself lying on her mattress next to Jake, who is loudly snoring. She shoves Jake in the back and he rolls over and the snoring ceases. Francine rolls over herself and tries to get back to the dream, but she's too awake. She shudders a bit at Dyani visiting her in the dream. It's a tad creepy to get a visit from the dead, even if it's just her subconscious dressing up a concept as Dyani. Or maybe it was Dyani visiting her. If so, what did she want to tell her? Francine wonders. Maybe Dyani was passing back into the universe, her singular essence about to be absorbed back into the everything, and she came to say goodbye. Or, if she were a manifestation of Francine's unconscious, then what did she represent? Why Dyani? Francine hasn't thought much about her since this summer when she heard the news that she died. While the dead die and lie, the living live on, and Francine got caught up in other things. She looks at Jake across the mattress and smiles. She puts an arm around him and pulls close to his warm body.

Jake starts snoring again.

Francine shoves him again. Jake says, "Huh? What kjuadsek kga asgaqb?" and rolls over.

Francine sits up. She is thankful that daylight savings time is finally over and the hour that was stolen from her in the spring has finally been returned. She's been sleepy since March. Maybe Dyani came to remind her to set her clocks in the fall back, or to check the batteries in the smoke alarms, Francine thinks. Maybe she and Jake should have gone out last night. If they were in a bar and it hit closing time, it would jump back an hour, leaving another hour for drinking.

Hmm . . . Francine decides that it's better they didn't go out. Last night had to be the biggest drunk driving night of the year.

Jake starts snoring again.

She leaves Jake to his snoring and goes downstairs to his new room and sleeps in his new bed. She dreams no more of the dead.

Blog Love Omega Glee is a novel by Wred Fright about two bloggers who fall in love while the world falls apart, which is being serialized on his blog. To start reading from the beginning or read another installment, please visit Blog Love Omega Glee Central on WredFright.Com. If you like what you've read, or you've read all of Blog Love Omega Glee and want more Fright, then please read his first novel.