Once Upon a Cloud

WNP: "She refused to open her eyes until she could remember every part of the dream."

She felt the soft warmth of the duvet and downy pillow enveloping her as if in a cloud. She refused to open her eyes until she could remember every part of her dream.  She had been wandering....through misty clouds in a castle made of flagstone and glass. The voice of Cosette singing of her castle on a cloud weaving in and out of the mists. Her dress had been like something out of an old photo, all layers and lace and floating streamers of ribbon dancing around her.  There was laughter and chattering and the most wonderful smell of biscuits and gravy wafting out from an invisible kitchen.  A table opened up in front of her filled with plates of crispy bacon, stacks of pancakes, platters of cheese filled omelettes, bowls filled with clementines, red pears, and so much more good food than she had ever imagined seeing on one place in the whole of her life. Enough food for a hundred hungry children.   It was so warm and cozy and welcoming here. She wanted to stay here forever. She reached out her hand to snitch a slice of bacon, only to find herself brought violently awake as icy air rushed in around her shivering too cold frame under the tattered remnants of her barely holding together blanket.  Unwanted reality pushed away the remnants of dreamland in the predawn light already filtering in through the barred window above her head.  With a depressed sigh she flopped back onto the stiff army cot.  Somewhere a door banged.  She jumped to her feet.  Time to get moving. Time to get back to work.