The Everlast - Here and There and Elsewhere #02

(B. Schatz)

The Everlast - Chapter 02 - Here and There and Elsewhere #02
by B. Schatz

Back Then and Here.

Faith Edwards hadn’t slept in over a week, and it was starting to affect her ability to live and breathe. This wasn’t good, because she liked living and breathing: it helped her exist. But still, she knew the end of every month would be like this. They always had been, and would continue to be unless some kind of enormous windfall would come to her family and grant them enough money to buy adequate amounts of The Sleeping Dust for her condition.

That was not very likely.

From somewhere beyond the foot of her bed, Faith heard the front door of the house close, followed by a large and laborious fit of hacking coughs.

Her daddy was home.

“Hey daddy…” she whispered weakly, not expecting him to hear her.

“Hey babe,” he replied.

He had not actually heard her, but knew she greeted him every day all the same when she was awake.

He sauntered into her room and sat beside her on top of the bed.

“How’re you feeling today?” he asked, brushing back her long strands of brown hair.

“Okay,” she put on a brave face, eyes rolling involuntarily from fatigue, “I’m still here.”

“Hey, that’s great babe,” he smiled, “You know tomorrow’s the day, right? Our ship will come sailing in, and we’ll have no worries again. You’ll be able to go back to sleep, and you can be a little dreamer again.”

“’Kay,” she said, much happier now that someone was home with her, letting her know she only had to hold on for a little bit longer.

“Tell you what,” her dad smiled, “I’m gonna’ go get supper ready for when mom comes home, and when she does, we can bring the telebox in here and watch a little bit of the shows if you want.”

“Sounds good.”

“All right. See you in a bit, babe.”

He smiled and walked out of her room slowly, turning down the hall and making the short journey to the kitchen.

“God,” he whispered hollowly, “She gets worse every month…”

He didn’t like the fact that his baby girl was constantly in pain for extended periods of time, but then what good father would? And for that matter, what could he do about it?

Both he and his wife went to work everyday and worked as long as they were allowed to, and every month, they would be given enough money to pay for their tiny apartment, the bills that came, and the food that they ate. They would also be given a ration of The Sleeping Dust, which had, as of late, been in such short supply that buying any extra was not feasible by any means.

Now, for a normal family, there would be no problem: the amount rationed was enough to let a family of three sleep their daily requirements of 10 and 8 hours respectively. Unfortunately, Faith had a condition.

She, was a Dreamer.

“A Dreamer?” her mother had asked when they found out, “What does that mean? I don’t get what that means…”

“It’s quite fascinating, really,” the doctor explained, “Faith’s mind… like a few others of her age… lives in a different place than where the rest of us do. While her body might be here, her life and existence, is… well, for lack of a better word, it’s Elsewhere.

“Now… before you ask, no. No, I’m not really sure where her mind goes to, or why it does, but research is progressing,” the doctor smiled, “Some of the top existentialists at N. Consistency and Co. are piecing together what they can from studies, and their preliminary findings are suggesting that the Dreamers contribute to the balance of Everything, making sure things don’t tip and cause problems. But… sadly, nothings been proven yet, and until they are… you’re going to have some problems.”

“Problems? What kind of problems? I don’t like the sound of these problems…”

“Well, being a Dreamer, Faith needs lots of sleep. In fact, she’ll need to sleep more than she needs to wake, so that she can… well, continue to live. See, as long as her existence is maintained Elsewhere, her existence can be maintained here. But to do this, she needs more of The Sleeping Dust then is normally rationed, and unfortunately… since it’s not yet recognized as an occupation that helps maintain balance… there won’t be any more set aside for her, and even if both you and your husband cut back on your consumption… there’s a good chance that she still won’t have enough to keep sleeping an amount that’s healthy for her.

“But… the good news is, there are supplements. And… if you can’t afford those, there is a regimen that I can suggest that will, at the very least, help her continue existing. But beyond that… there’s not a whole lot I can do…

“Sorry…”

There was nothing worse than knowing you couldn’t help your little girl live a life a little bit above just fading away from Everything… but the truth was… Mr. Edwards was doing everything that he was capable of doing right now. Maybe one day.,. he’d be able to do more. But until that day came, Faith was stuck lying in her bed, writhing in pain, trying to be as existent as she could possibly be for long periods of a time, until the end of the month came…

And she could begin living again…