The Journey of Victoria Morgan

Victoria and her mother Carrie Ann Morgan, an elderly woman who stood at 5 foot 7 inches with long black hair, are at lunch on a restaurant patio..

"How's work honey?"

"Good, I'm having trouble closing a deal though."

"I see."

"You see what?"

"Cakes you're twenty-five, I think it's time you marry John and have children. I would like more grandchildren before I die. You spend so much time at work closing deals; believe me, the day will come and you will be forty, unmarried, and childless."

"What? I see...you only asked me to lunch to push me to get married...I have a job to get back too."

Victoria opens her purse to retrieve her wallet and throws cash on the table. She gets into her car begins to drive while she calls her big brother Louis.

"You wouldn't believe what mom just did to me!" she starts just as he answers.

"She took you out to lunch and told you how much she wants more grandchildren."

"Yes, how did you know?"

"Did you forget I lived with her eleven years before you were even born?"

"How do you deal with her? Did she treat you like this when she wanted you to go to medical school?"

"Yeah that is why I'm lawyer. When speaking to her just listen to what she says but ultimately make your own decisions, I'll see you Sunday night."

"See you. I'm here at John's." "Have fun but not too much."

Victoria ends the called and goes into John's home and they begin to have dinner.

"John, that dinner was delicious."

"Thank you. Victoria I have something to ask you."

"Okay? "

"Victoria we have been dating for five years. I feel it is time to take the next step."

"Okay?"

John gets out of his chair and gets down on one knee. "Victoria Ann Morgan will you marry me?"

Victoria starts to cry. "John...I wish I could but I can't... I'm sorry."

John's has a puzzled reaction. Victoria gets up from the table, grabs her purse, and runs out of John's home. After running from John's apartment Victoria continues crying, gets into her car, and starts driving. She turns on the radio and No Air by Jordan Sparks starts playing.

"What the hell did I just do?" says Victoria aloud to herself.

John stands in front of his mantel staring at a picture of him and Victoria. He turns on his radio and No Air by Jordan Sparks begins to play.

John is speaking aloud to himself. "Where did I go wrong? I can't marry..."

"Him. What if it happens again? It wouldn't happen again, I'm talking to myself...it's unforgivable. Nevertheless we really have to..."

John is speaking as if his love is still present. "...try to talk this out. Okay Victoria, you really hurt me; I poured my heart out to you. You rejected me and it hurts. I love you and you don't want to be with me..."

"...Wait it's not like that. It has absolutely nothing to do with you and everything to do me and my family."

"What do you think I'm talking about here? I am talking about us, Victoria."

"You don't understand John ...listen to what I am saying. I can't say yes to you because of ..."

"...of what Victoria, you don't want us to be together and you don't want to be my wife?"

Victoria arrives at her mother's home for a family dinner. She is thinking about an excuse for arriving because she wasn't supposed to be there at that night. Her nieces run out of the house to meet her at her car; John walks into his dining room and starts cleaning up the dinner he and Victoria just had.

The Morgan family which includes Victoria, Carrie Ann and her new husband David, Louis, Louis's wife, Melinda and their four daughters all around the dinner table.

"Mom, Victoria, we have some news," says Louis.

"Yes, my dear sweet boy, what is your news?"

"I'm pregnant," confesses Melinda.

"That is so wonderful."

Carrie Ann gets up from the table and hugs Melinda and Louis and then looks at Victoria.

"See cakes, that is what you are supposed to do, get married and have children. If you don't you are going to die alone, I won't always be around."

"What the hell kind of comment is that? That's what I am supposed to do? Get married and have babies? That's not the kind of life I want, that's just the life YOU want for me. I don't even know why I came to this stupid dinner just for you to bash my lifestyle while praising Louis. I'm out of here."

Victoria storms out of her mother's house and sits down on the porch. As she sits on the porch she thinks of her reoccurring dream.

On a Sunday night in a room in Florida lays a little girl Victoria Morgan who dreams of the fun she had shopping on Saturday.

Then she is awakened to the smell of pancakes on a beautiful Monday morning that wasn't so beautiful to Victoria. She rises to go down the hallway to her kitchen to find a monster standing there next to her mother; over her like a dark cloud hangs over at a park just before a huge rain storm.

The monster was tall, black, and furry with long sharp teeth. The monster saw her and chased her. She was running and running and then she fell.

Suddenly she heard her mother call to her "Victoria, Victoria."

Then she woke up screaming, and knew it was just a dream. Her mother said "You don't have to be afraid, it was just a dream. Don't run from the things you are afraid of, face them head on."

That day she went to school and everyone was being nice to her and she knew why. Her whole day was like that and she hated it; she wanted to yell at them, throw things at them, smash things and scream so loud that it would break glass.

But Victoria didn't want to cause her mother any more worries than what she knew she already had on her mind. So Victoria went on acting like she was happy and okay even though everyone knew she wasn't.

Here we are Monday night, that same little girl is sleeping. Tonight she dreams about a day with her father: him helping her do homework, going to the park and playing basketball, then shopping and playing video games in the mall.

She is in the toy store with her father and suddenly she can't find him, she screams "Daddy, Daddy!" then she starts running around the store but still no sign of her father.

Then over the intercom she hears "The store will be closing in five minutes," Then she feels a hand land on her shoulder, she is once again awakened from a nightmare by her mother.

The dreams continue Wednesday and Thursday till it is Friday night and Victoria doesn't want to go to sleep. She tries to stay up as long as she can but it doesn't work, she has fallen asleep once again.

She then awakens to a desert with no one in sight, nothing but cactus and weird looking animals. But there it is, that black, tall, furry monster with long sharp teeth.

Then she hears her mother "Victoria you have to face your fears."

Victoria says, "I'm not afraid any more, hear me again I am not afraid anymore. You're not real."

Then the monster turns into her father, "Victoria, you don't have to be afraid of death, it is a pleasant beautiful experience. Princess, don't be afraid to live either."

Saturday morning all of her family is in town; she went to the store with her mother and received a new toy as her mother picks up a new camera. Then they went to the cemetery to lay her father to rest because he had died on Sunday morning. This is how Dreams Mirror Life.

Louis stepped out of Carrie Ann's house and sat down next to Victoria, snapping her out of her flashback.

"How's it going?" Louis says.

"Are you kidding me?"

"Okay, that was a stupid thing to say."

The little sister tried to gain the upper hand with her older brother. "You think?"

"Let me try this again. She just wants the best for you."

"She wants what she thinks is best for me. Not what I know is best for me."

"Maybe you're right kid."

"I know I'm right."

"What happened in there?"

"Before I came here I met with John and he asked me to marry him."

"Great! My little sister is getting married!"

"No, I'm not."

"Why did you do that?

"I don't know ... Well."

"I know, and it's okay. Let's go back inside and finish dinner."

"Whatever. I need you to come over my house sometime this week and fix my master bathroom's sink."

"Sure, what are big brothers for; I already have a key to your house."

Louis and Victoria walk back into their mother's home and are greeted by their mother Carrie Ann.

"I am glad you blew off steam and dealt with the truth," says Carrie Ann.

"Blow off steam, mom...deal with the truth?"

"Yes, honey you needed to figure something out about your life."

Victoria begins laughing. "How the hell are you to tell me about my life or the truth? Yeah you're my mother. But that's all you are, the woman who gave me life. But did you tell me the truth? When I really needed it?

No. When I was having nightmares as a child did you help me get to the root of it? Shit, all you said was I can find somebody for you to talk to if you need it. Well I did need someone to talk to... you. But you were so consumed in your own life you didn't even notice my pain."

"I did the best I could."

"The best you could? Your best wasn't enough. When dad died you should have told me he wasn't coming back. I spent last sixteen years of my life hoping and praying my father would come back to me." Victoria's laughter has turned to tears and she beings to cry.

"It was your responsibility to tell me that he wasn't ever coming back. I just broke up with John did you know that? He asked me to marry him and I couldn't say yes because I was afraid he would die and leave me just like my father!"

"Victoria Ann--"

"No! Mom don't give me that shit about 'he was sick and it was his time to go.' I don't want to hear it. I gotta go, I have work in the morning. Thank you for dinner."

Victoria exits her mother's home, gets into her car, and drives away.

*** TO BE CONTINUED....***