The Last Dreamer Pixie Bruner When she finally realized she was the only one remaining she hid away. Ferreted away books with art and lots of paint, clay, yarn, fabric, paper, ribbons, inks, filled a cabin she fled to with art supplies and writing instruments. She hoarded history of the things volume by volume, gathered from shelves from empty homes in neglected cul de sacs and studied them. Then she began to use her curse- she first made companions-soft pets, then progressed to imaginary recipes for a candlelit ballroom (that maybe was a 3-legged card table and a camping lantern.) that provided her balanced nutrition. Occasionally refugees stumbled by the house, ignoring the papers and scratches on them from the before times. It was merely debris and trash. A madwoman in a fire hazard (but a good meal and oddly generous hospitality). By the time she became strong enough to breathe life into the aether itself transform thought into existence, transmute imagination into reality, and make entire worlds, there was no one else left to go to them. Facts and figures, code and circuit boards became art installations in the ruins of the dead forest she dwelt in. She wasn’t escaping- she was never running away. the last dreamer— running towards a space to dream. When they came to harvest her- drag her back to the cubicle housing and shift work in factories Her lions and tigers tore and roared at the machines. Heavens to Grok, GPT-Nine, our Lord and Savior, Murgatroyd! A unicorn with distemper gored the machine squad leader! It was a quick simple surgery. Primitive- not done in many generations, now perfected and automated, as everything should be. They simply put her to sleep. Now she always sleeps dreamlessly, Her eyes now see only the backside of her eyelids. She’s cured! And no more anomalies. Everyone is safe again, No more dreamers of any sort! She sees only what is there before her. Not what is possible. Order restored. She’s sane, aphantastic, no longer delusional, and everyone is happy because they are told they are happy (Ferocious wild creatures she released still terrorize the countryside!)
Art by Doriana Popova