After the Dream

by Stan Mason

  ‘Well,’ she laughed shrugging her shoulders uncomfortably knowing where the conversation was going. ‘It’s a mistake any one might make.’

  ‘I didn’t think anything of it at the time. And then I saw a photograph of the time I graduated from college. You and Dad were standing behind me in it. I compared the two photographs and you’re the only one who looks exactly the same in both of them. Don’t you think that’s strange?‘

  ‘Many people retain their good looks until late in middle age,’’

  she countered. ‘I’m happy to be one of them.

  He shook his head slowly. ‘It’s a good thing really but you’re almost sixty, mother, and you look so young.....so perfect. You look younger than I do. I don’t understand it. You really did look like my younger sister outside the Tory’s headquarters.’

  ‘You’re very flattering. Thank you for that but shouldn’t you be with Stella in case she goes into labour.’ He thought about her remark for a moment and then stood up. ‘By the way,’ she went on. ‘You father’s Will has been approved by the Probate Office so you’ll soon be receiving the money granted to you. Together with your new baby, you should be over the moon.’

  ‘I could do with it,’ he muttered. ‘Now that the baby’s coming we’re thinking of buying a bigger place.. We’ll need it.’

  He left the house with Diana slightly concerned about her son’s comments. It was something she hadn’t foreseen when she began the experiment....people realising only too well that she wasn’t ageing. Ostensibly, they were all moving ahead of her in years. She didn’t know how long she could keep the secret to herself before everyone prised it out of her.

  That night she lay in her bed reviewing the latest features in her life, cursing the fact that she had acceded to the whim of Carol Hemsley to stand for Parliament. Yet looking back, she could not help but smile at the interest she created, especially with those poor musicians seeking their fame and fortune. Nonetheless, despondency raged through her mind in relation to the Red Cross shop. She had been so happy there. Now the gift had been snatched away from her so quickly she had difficulty getting her head around it. There was a lesson to be learn. If a person is happy at their work, don’t be distracted and spoil it to be lured away to pastures green. You only have one life....enjoy it! What a fool she had been to give up something worth fighting for! She had gone for gold and had ended up with her feet in the mud!

  In a while, she drifted into an uneasy sleep and for the first time in many years she began to dream. At first it was mysterious in its content without any rational meaning but eventually it became clearer and an old scene returned to her. Once again she stood on the edge of the Sahara Desert staring at the sandy horizon at the side of Ahmed. On this occasion he looked so handsome....so good-looking...so much older. She put her arms around his shoulders and he clasped her tightly around the waist. Then his face moved forward and he turned kissing her tenderly on the lips. She found it warm and refreshing as she joined her own lips to his.

  ‘My dearest Diana,’ he cooed into her ear. ‘I love you so much. .I adore you...I need you....I want you!’

  She felt her body go limp as he kissed her softly on the lips once more.

  ‘I’m not sure,’ she told him in her dream. ‘I’m not sure I really want you. It’s all a matter of love and I don’t love you.’

  ‘Of course you do, my darling,’ he responded calmly. ‘You’ve loved me and wanted me all these years but you refuse to overcome your inhibitions. Let yourself go and feel the warmth of romance. The time will come for us to make perfect love together and we will both be ready for it.’

  She gazed into his dark brown eyes with an element of love forming in her mind. He was right. She had to let her inhibitions go. She looked at him directly running her eyes over his handsome face, feeling her legs weakening as passion built up insider her with a vengeance.

  ‘I think now is the time,’ he told her, kissing her on the neck which caused her head to jerk back slightly as a force of erotic nature surged through her body.

  Suddenly the chemistry between them began to spark into life. He was lithe, attractive, energetic and filled with love for her. It excited her so much that she felt couldn’t delay serious intimacy with him for a moment longer. Desire overcame her so badly that her body became moist with passion as he led her back inside the tent. In the dim light that existed, he lowered her gently on to the mattress and began to remove her clothing erotically, touching her softly in places which made her feel as though she was high on drugs. She began to experience feelings of high passion that she had never felt before in her life. Undressing himself, he moved forward so that their bodies closed fast together and he began to kiss her tenderly on the neck, the shoulders, her breasts and her abdomen. It was a wonderful exciting feeling that surged through her and she moved herself closer to his body in the expectation of serious intimacy taking place. Within a very short time, they were tightly united in ecstasy and Diana moved her body up and down in the bed as though being seduced physically by a fantastic lover. As the sensuousness began to reach its zenith she cried out in her sleep: ‘More....more! Don’t stop now! Don’t stop!’ And then breath spouted from her mouth in a series of short gasps as the continued action of the intimacy caused her to reach a sensational climax in the dream. Thereafter, her body relaxed completely satisfied and she woke up with every fibre of her body alive and burning with passion. She was bathed in perspiration and truly believed that what she had experienced had been an act of wholehearted sexual intercourse....except that it was all a matter of make-believe. Yet the sensitivity of her body and the actual climax she experienced proved that she was sexually satisfied. She now considered Ahmed in a different light and the photograph he had sent her appeared in her mind. He was a great lover....of that she knew from her dreams. The only segment missing from the equation was that none of it was real. She recognised from the imagined intimacy that she needed to strip herself of all her inhibitions in order to enjoy a relationship with him to the full...but that had to happen in real life! She glanced at the clock on the table beside her bed. It showed that it was four-thirty in the morning. How was she going to get to sleep again after such a fantastic dream? She lay back in bed trying to make some sense of her life when, to her surprise, the telephone rang.

  ‘Hi, Mom! It was the excited voice of her son, Robbie. ‘Sorry to wake you up so early but I can hardly contain myself. Stella’s just given birth to a bouncing baby girl. A sister for Jack!’

  ‘Congratulations!’ uttered Diana in a gruff voice as though she had a mouthful of cotton-wool. ‘Well done, Robbie! How’s Stella?’

  ‘Both she and the baby are fine. She was eight pounds six ounces. We’re over the moon...both of us!’

  ‘And what’s the baby going to be called?’ asked his mother beginning to wake up fully.

  ‘Evangeline Gwynneth,’ replied Robbie boastfully. Evangeline Gwynneth Templeton. How’s that for a name?’

  ‘Well she’s your child. You can call her what you like.’

  The conversation ended almost as quickly as it had started and Diana replaced the receiver tiredly and lay back in the bed. She had another grandchild. Well good for Stella and Robbie but where did it leave her as a twenty-eight year old looking woman just on the right side of sixty. By the time she was a hundred years old, the new baby would look older than she did. What would people say to that? It was a thought that really concerned her at four-thirty in the morning.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  The next time she travelled to Agadir, she took a taxi directly to the office of Dr. Mahmoud. To her dismay, he wasn’t there but another man sat in his chair with his feet on the desk reading a comic book.

  ‘Where’s Dr. Mahmoud,’ demanded Diana puzzled by his absence. He was always in the hospital at his desk. He lived his life there.

  ‘You’re Mrs. Templeton, a
ren’t you?’ advanced the man. ‘He told me you’d be coming. I’m Hamid Arran. I’m standing in for Dr. Mahmoud while he’s away.’

  ‘Away?’ Alarm signals began to cross Diana’s brain. ‘Where’s he gone?’

  ‘To North Borneo. He’s gone there to bring back some plants.’

  ‘Any idea which ones?’

  ‘Not sure. There’s a problem with people clearing the rain forests . I think he wasn’t to preserve some plants and grow them here.’

  ‘Those are be the ones from which he gets Beotag and ferradil-x I presume,’ she went on.

  ‘ I don’t know,’ he replied blandly. ‘He’s out there now and he’ll be back in a few days’ time.’

  Diana sat down in the chair opposite him trying to get her mind into gear. A few days! She could stay in Agadir for as long as she liked. There were no longer any pressing engagements requiring her attention in England. The only matter of prime importance was to see her grand-daughter but she had already seen her so there was nothing of importance on her agenda.

  ‘I’ll wait to see him,’ she told the man.

  ‘You can’t stay here in this office,’ he retorted believing that she would remain in her chair until the eminent scientist returned.

  ‘Not here, you fool!’ she rattled sharply. ‘I’ll be staying at the Sahara Hotel. I’ll come back in two days’ time,’

  The man nodded and rudely returned his attention to his comic book ignoring her entirely. She shook her head and rose from the chair.

  ‘I don’t suppose it would be too much trouble to make a note of what I’ve told you to show Dr. Mahmoud. It would be helpful if he rang me at the hotel when he returns.’

  ‘I’ll tell him when he comes back,’ muttered the man continuing to read his comic.

  ‘Right, Mr. Arran,’ she snapped finally with contempt in her voice. ‘Don’t let me interrupt your erudite reading!’

  Two days passed by and there was no telephone call from the scientist. Diana went to his office to ask Arran whether the doctor had been delayed to discover him sitting behind his desk.

  ‘I left a message with your deputy to telephone me,’ she bleated in annoyance, ‘but he obviously was more interested in the comic book than to deal with my request.’

  ‘I received no message,’ he informed her sombrely.

  She sat down opposite him. ‘You gave me quite a scare. I thought something had happened to you.’

  He laughed out loudly at her remark. ‘Didn’t you know,’ he joked, tugging at his goatee beard. ‘I’m going to live for ever.’

  She ignored his comment as idiotic. For ever! The man was surely becoming over-ambitious. It wasn’t possible for anyone to live for ever....even with organ transplants....or was it? ‘You travelled to North Borneo I understand.’

  ‘I was concerned about the clearance of the rain forests,’ he told her solemnly. As you know, the plants from which I extract Beotag and ferradil-x are extremely rare. The actions of the clearers could eliminate them entirely. So I went there to pick up a hundred plants which are now growing in the hospital. They remain in darkness in the forests which is their natural environment and they are so placed here. The temperature is established by the heaters in the hospital. So you see, I have secured an abundant supply for the future regardless of how much rain forest is cleared in North Borneo in the future.’

  ‘That’s a relief,’ returned Diana delighted at the outcome.

  ‘There is one problem however,’ he went on sadly.

  ‘The hospital will not fund the cost of the room in which the plants have been relocated. They refuse to pay the heating bill required to keep the tropical temperature.. I don’t know how long they can keep going.’

  ‘No problem,’ she retorted smartly. ‘I’ll pay the bill. You can leave that to me.’

  His eyes lit up and he stared at her brightly in appreciation. ‘My thanks to you, Mrs. Templeton. You’ve ensured that the experiment will continue.’

  ‘It’s in my own interest, after all,’ she told him delighted to be able to assist financially. ‘You’re looking well. Are there any further developments with the animals?’

  ‘Everything’s fine,’ he replied. ‘They’re all fine. Arran took care of them while I was away.’

  Diana paused before venturing on her next mission. ‘Dr. Mahmoud,’ she began tentatively. ’I’m very much aware that there are just two of us involved in the experiment. How do you feel about introducing a third person?’ She was thinking of Dr. Martin but ws unable to tell the scientist that she had revealed the secret to her.

  To her surprise he nodded his agreement. ‘If it’s the right person,’ he uttered briefly. ‘I’m currently writing a paper on the subject which I shall sent to all the medical authorities in all the major countries. In that case, our secret will be out.’

  ‘Is that wise,’ she countered seriously concerned. ‘Won’t you have every woman in the world knocking at your door to obtain the tablets?’

  ‘Truth is, no one will listen to me. They’ll all consider me to be a mad professor. My address and location will not be told to anyone so I’ve no problem on that score. No...no one will believe me so we’re relatively safe. I’ll be branded as a charlatan out to make money from unsuspecting people. It’s to be expected...par for the course.’

  ‘When do you intend to present this report?’

  He smiled at her tugging at his goatee beard. ‘In about six months time. It’ll be filed or lost, no doubt, so I don’t expect to hear anything about it again. I’m in no hurry. In a hundred years time I’ll be able to prove my point. My longevity will influence all the sceptics.’

  Diana saw a means by which she could bring Dr. Martin into the fold but it was quite clear that her bridge-playing friend would have to be patient. She discussed a number of minor matters with the scientist and then she left. Her next priority was to see Ahmed. After having experienced the exotic dream, she felt much warmer towards him and the light of love began to invest itself in her mind. It was the most important thing in her life that was missing...the warmth and sensation of true romance. Since the dream, her mind was filled with thoughts of love and Ahmed was the only man to whom she could relate. He was a person who had declared his undenying love despite all the problems which stood in their way....the only lover in her life about who she dreamed. She went directly to his office and entered without warning. His face lit up as he saw her and he leaned forward to readily kiss the fingers of her hand gently.

  ‘Diana!’ he exclaimed jubilantly. ‘You’ve made my day coming here! What a wonderful surprise. Oh...you looks so beautiful...so young!’

  She stared at his face closely. ‘No!’ she remonstrated puckering up her face. ‘I don’t like that moustache!’

  He touched the hair which adorned his upper lip and shrugged his shoulders. ‘If you don’t like it, it will disappear overnight,’ he said assertively. ‘You can be sure of that.’

  There was a pause as they stared into each other’s eyes. He looked so much older now than when she first met him, maturing over the years while she remained exactly the same. Due to her involvement with the experiment, the age-cap had changed between them considerably.

  ‘I dreamed about you the other night,’ she revealed openly. ‘I had a fantastic dream about the two of us.’

  ‘Snap!’ he retorted. ‘I dream about you almost every night,’ he exclaimed. ‘I can’t get you out of my mind and I’ll tell you one thing, we’ve got to do something about it. We can’t go on like this!’

  ‘I agree,’ she concurred, throwing all caution to the winds. ‘But what do we do? You have a firm in Agadir. Your family live here. I live in England What can we do?’

  He was surprised at the sudden turn of events. She had rejected his love so far but now the chemistry between them was different. Diana was clearly w
illing to lose all her inhibitions and start a new life with him....if only they could think of a way to overcome the obstacles in their paths.

  ‘Why don’t we capitulate,’ he suggested, staring at her face with a loving expression.

  ‘In what way?’ She couldn’t find a solution herself but he seemed to have found the means.

  ‘We could live in England together. We could live in your house.’ He was hesitant in advancing the idea believing that she would never agree to it.

  ‘What about your business here?’ She was taken aback as it appeared that he was ready to give up everything to be with her.

  ‘I’ve no objection to that,’ she remarked, ‘but what about your firm....your business...your family?’ The questions ran off her tongue like the rain falling heavily on trees in a tropical rain forest.

  He paused to reflect for a moment on her agreement for him to live with her in Britain. ‘I could sell my business,’ he advanced thoughtfully but we would have to be married in order for me to stay in England.’

  ‘And your family?’ she countered considering that to be the biggest obstacle in their path. However she was stunned by his reply.

  My uncle can take care of them. I mean my brothers and sister are old enough to look after themselves now. My sister will soon be married to a man chosen for her and my brothers are on the point of going out to work. I can’t see it’s any problem.’

  ‘So be it!’ she told him wondering what her son and daughter would think about the arrangement. Then another thought came into her mind. How would he react when he discovered that she was almost sixty years old. Would he be such an ardent lover then? It was yet another hurdle she needed to overcome. Of course she could keep it a secret from him but as the years went by and she remained the same he would realised that something was strange. But that was really not a serious problem for if he loved her enough and their intimate relationship continued to flourish she need have no worries on that score. For a while she fought in her mind whether or not to tell him then she decided against it. There was an old Chinese proverb which went: ‘A wise head keeps a still tongue. It was sound advice. After some degree of examination, she decided it was a saying she needed to follow.