Alan's visions | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: Alan's visions | Previous Challenge Entry
By Jacob Drollinger
09/16/09
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Alan went to bed that night with mixed emotions. On the one hand, the following day would be his last at a job which had become so monotonous, so overwhelmingly mundane, that sometimes he wished he had worked in the post office. After forty-five years, at the age of sixty-five, he would be retiring from a job, not a career.

The sad fact of the matter was that it was simply that, a job. He had never envisioned himself as a measly pencil pusher. It was never a goal of his to spend hour upon hour just sitting there, staring at a bunch of what, in the end would be, meaningless numbers.

His professional life had never amounted to anything more than this. Not that he had never aspired to something greater. He had graduated at the top of his class from a prestigious university; majoring in Finance. After forty-five years, anyone would have thought he would have climbed from the ranks of account supervisor – at least to manager. But he had been passed over for promotion time and time again for people half his age. They were flamboyant, up-and-coming go getters. He was just Alan.

So he drifted off to sleep as double-minded as a man can be. Somewhere in the semi-lucid state between dreaming and sleep he heard a voice calling to him from a distance. He followed the voice into a vivid dream. It led him up to a mountaintop, where he stood on the threshold of monstrous cliff. At once he became filled with anger and bitterness. “What am I doing here?” he yelled at the top of his voice. “God, are you there? Are you the one who has brought me here?” Alan then raised his fist in the air, and with a great shout bellowed, “What have I done with my life, oh Lord?”

With his eyes closed tightly, visions started to come to Alan. The first was of him and his wife, Elizabeth, standing outside the house they lived in for the last thirty-eight years. It was a proud memory; for it was the day he had signed the papers stating that this house belonged to them. It wasn’t an extravagant home, but it was big enough for the family that they planned to start. He remembered what a happy day that was – not for him, because he would have been content to stay in his small, one bedroom apartment –
but for Elle, because he knew her heart’s desire had always been to have a home to call her own.

The next vision was that of a day which he would have rather forgotten. His four-year-old son, Michael, was being rushed into the emergency room on a stretcher. His skin was a pale blue and he was struggling to breathe. Michael had just ingested a whole bottle of liquid fabric softener. Alan was panicking as a nurse approached him and asked, “Sir, do you have insurance?”

“Yes, yes, he’s covered,” Alan responded rapidly. All of his attention was on his young son.

This vision ended as quickly as it had begun. Alan was grateful, for he knew that he wouldn’t be able to relive the feelings of that day much longer.

The third and final vision was one of great tranquility. It was of a Christmas long since past. He and Elle were sitting on the sofa beneath the Christmas tree, watching Michael and his twin sisters, Amanda and Jessica, playing with the toys they had just opened in a frenzy. Alan remembered this holiday very well. He had just received his Christmas bonus a week ago, and Elle had scrambled in and out of stores to buy everybody everything that they had asked for. Alan recalled the indelible sense of calm that had come over him that year.

Alan came back to consciousness suddenly. The visions that he had been given
were hazy at first, but slowly they became clear in his mind. The double-mindedness
disappeared when he realized what the dream meant. He literally hopped out of bed for first time he had in, well…it was the first time he had ever done anything but roll out of bed on a workday.

“My gosh, what on Earth has gotten into you today?” Elle asked him.

“Did you forget?” he replied jovially, “Today is the day I get to stop working, and start enjoying the fruits of my labor.”

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