The next morning, Orion felt a bit better about himself, only because the dreams he had washed away everything that struck a nerve for him the other day. When he woke up, he was back in bed. “I guess my Aunt put me back in bed after I blacked out yesterday.”
Orion lives with his Aunt Helen who has tried to help him live a normal life. Unlike Jonas, Orion’s aunt was related to him, being his father’s younger sister. She was blonde with bright blue eyes, a generous young woman in her early thirties. Orion used to go to Florida every summer to see his aunt for two weeks, while his parents had their own vacation on the side. He didn’t really remember anything about them since he was only three when they died in a car accident on their way back home at the end of one summer. Orion was the only one who survived the crash. Apparently, that’s when he was paralyzed from the waist down and would remain so for his whole life. He knew that his dad was brilliant businessman and his mom was generally a housekeeper and an accomplished poet—most likely where he gained his internal rhyme from.
When Orion was little, his aunt was always making sure that he was doing what he was supposed to be doing. She was never strict as far as he remembered. She was still the same ‘aunt from Florida’ to him that he’d visit every summer, but he had been living with her for almost all of his life. He thought back to when she used to tell him stories about his dad when she was growing up.
Helen was a sophomore career-prep English teacher at Orion’s high school, and worked on a paycheck of $200,000 a year. During the summer, she usually does volunteer work at the local (homeless and/or animal) shelters. When she wasn’t doing that, she was helping Orion out with his poetry since she has had some experience in that field in her college days. “Your mother would be so proud of you, knowing that you’re doing what she did in her life. She was a wonderful poet, just like you,” she said to him the other day. Going to bed the previous night, Orion looked forward to the next day of summer vacation, but as he would soon find out, it would become unlike any other summer he’s had.
When the sun woke him up, his thoughts dwelled on a mysterious dream that he had about an hour ago. He was alone at the beach when the sun was just starting to set. He felt the ocean move past his feet, a feeling that was completely new to him, as his feet hadn’t felt anything before. He felt relaxed by the warm water and wanted to return to the beach, even if he would be unable to feel the water in real life. He suddenly heard an unusual noise calling from the ocean. It was like a roar, but it also sounded like something was singing. He then heard another. It wasn’t as peaceful as the other, but its roar seemed to resemble a dragon. It was as if the ocean was calling out to him…
When he got up, he felt something deep inside of him reacting to the dream. Something about the sounds he heard coming from the ocean and feeling of the ocean by his feet made him think otherwise. He got really attached to his dreams, the ones about Penelope and wanting to walk, but he was really attached to this one. He really wanted to seek what the dream was telling him and to see if it was something in his future.
When he got downstairs, Penelope had been waiting for him. “Are you feeling any better?”
He stared out into space, “The Ocean is calling me...”
“What?”
“I dreamt about it. Two mysterious creatures were calling out to me.”
“Yes, but what would they want from you if you can’t swim?”
“Just because I haven’t tried, doesn’t mean that I can’t feel the ocean touch my feet.” He sneered back.
“But it was a dream.” She tried to snap him back to normal, but once his mind was set on something, there’s no turning back.
“I think it might be a sign.” He muttered. He looked her straight in the eye, “Penelope, I felt the ocean run by my feet… and I heard creatures calling out to me from the ocean. There’s something there calling to me, and I know in my soul that this is true. My destiny may lie in the sea.”
“Orion,” his aunt called from the kitchen, “you’ll never guess what just came.” He wheeled himself in with Penelope following. “Our three tickets for Miami Beach for two days and Cancun, Mexico for two weeks.” He wheeled over, “Are you kidding me?” He held the plane tickets in his hands in awe.
“I figured it was about time that we had a real vacation with just the three of us, since we’re almost like a family and we can really spend some time together.” She and Penelope cheered, but Orion reminded silent.
Penelope waved a hand in front of his face, “What’s up?”
“Penelope, remember my dream? I think it’s coming true. It’s fate that we were able to get these tickets during the summer rush, so I can go on a journey of my own.”
“What kind of journey?”
"To figure out the meaning of life, for me anyway.” Since she had known him, Penelope has heard Orion speak of ‘destiny’ many times. Since he had been paralyzed, Orion tried to figure out why he became that and was able to live a mostly normal life. ‘There’s something that fate intended me to do,’ he used to say. Now more than ever, Penelope believed that Orion was really on his way to the truth, even though she didn’t believe there was such thing as this truth.
Helen interrupted Orion and Penelope’s thoughts. “Orion, I reserved these tickets months ago,” Helen reminded him. His eyes shifted to the side, “Well, still, the same still applies. I can truly use this to find out more about myself,” he held Penelope’s hand, “as well as more about us.”
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