To Live The Impossible Dream- Flash Fiction

Sam stood outside his window wondering what it would feel like to hold a child or a woman in his arms. He'd fantasized nightly watching her play the piano from his window next door.

Sammy wasn't handsome or very smart, just an average guy who'd never caught a break in his entire life.

He'd lived his uneventful life in this small town USA just south of the big city Chicago. He'd never been to Chicago. In fact, he'd never been outside the city limits of this small town, he called a hole-in-the-wall

He lived with his mother who was growing more feeble as she aged. His mother's boyfriend had deserted her after she told him she was pregnant. She was only seventeen.

To say that Sammy was sheltered would be an understatement. His mother walked him to school daily, and she was the first person he saw when class ended. It wasn't that she loved him that much, she knew the whole town gossiped about them and had never been friendly.

The small town had a church on every corner, but not once were they ever invited to come.

Sam had just had his fifty-fourth birthday, and since graduation from high school had sacked groceries at the one grocery store in town. He worked from six AM till three PM seven days a week. If he wasn't home by three fifteen his mother was on the street to see what the delay was.

He'd been having the same dream for several nights. He was at his mother's funeral, and the whole town came to console him, but that's where the confusing part emerged. He wasn't sad. He was glad. Suddenly he could breathe deeply, and he felt free!

He listened as the girl next door played the piano and heard her parents telling her how beautifully she played. They called her Vanessa. She had never spoken to Sammy. In fact, she had never looked his way. She was getting ready to go to the University Of Chicago to study music.

He sure was going to miss her playing at night. He would sit under the apple tree that separated their property, and dream about holding her in his arms until it was time for bed.

One night he heard his mother cry out, " Sammy I need you. " He went to her room. She motioned for him to put a heart pill under her tongue. The bottle was on the night stand just out of reach. He looked at her and saw that her color was grayish and she was having difficulty breathing. He stood transfixed. He couldn't move. He refused to move. Soon she stopped breathing. He knew she was dead. He didn't care. He was glad. Alone at last, never to feel smothered again.

He walked to the police station and told them that his mother had died. He rode with the coroner back to his house. To everyone's surprise she was up sitting in her rocking chair. She said, " Sammy had a scare, but I'm alright as you can see. "

Sam left home that night. He was on his first journey to the big city. He didn't know what he was going to do, but he knew anything would be better than this. Soon a semi slowed and motioned for him to get in.

While clicking off the miles, he started dreaming again, Maybe he would get to listen to Vanessa play the piano again, or maybe he could get a job cleaning the floors at the college where she was studying. Oh, he knew it was an impossible dream, but hadn't he lived on dreams his entire life? One more couldn't hurt, could it?