New York...Part 4...The End

When I got to the hotel room I got ready for bed. Even though I'd had had an amazing trip...I felt some relative of sadness hanging around. It was depression...and it wasn't entirely sadness. But something was there. I thought it was perhaps me feeling as if I'd betrayed my friend by going to NY alone...but no..that wasn't it...the trip had been an assertion of my independence, a good thing. And then I pieced it together. I was missing my uncle. He was my mother's baby brother and her favorite sibling. He loved me and I adored him...as did the rest of the family. I knew he would have been so proud of me to see me fly to the opposite end of the country alone and take on NY with unassuming courage. But he'd died...passed...and gone on. I got in bed, turned off the television, watched the sky from the 17th floor, and drifted off into dreamland.

....

I got to the hotel and went to the top floor to the lounge. Fela/Sahr was performing tonight. I found a seat near a corner in the front and sat down. Fela came over and sat beside me. "I'm glad you could make it man. We're going to have a good time tonight. I want you to enjoy yourself, get up and dance...have fun," he said. "Alright, I will...I'm ready," I said. He got up and went to the front of the lounge and began to play. The music engulfed the room...everyone moved, swayed, danced. I sat in the chair... which was now a couch...and took it all in...grooving to the sounds of the session. I looked to my left...and there was my uncle. "I'm happy you made the trip. I'm proud of you," he said. Then a sad look crept onto his face. "What's wrong with you man?" I asked as I put my arm around his shoulder. "I don't want you to see me like this," he said. He started to thin. I placed a gold key on his chest. He got thinner. I looked away. I knew if I looked his way he'd be a pile bones...or ashes. But I looked again...and he was thinner. He got up and walked out the lounge. A few minutes passed. I got up and left. I went to the lobby to tell my mom that I'd seen my uncle. She was working behind a glass booth and couldn't hear me. So I used a keyboard to type to her on a screen that I'd see her when she got home and that I was going to run home. I left the hotel and started running. I noticed a short, white man with stringy gray hair was behind me. Then I noticed he was chasing me. I turned around and started running backward...facing him. He trip and fell face down. I stopped running. He didn't move. I felt I should use this advantage to run but I didn't. Then I realized. He was "fear" incarnated. He didn't move. I turned around and walked away. Then I woke up.
....

I lay in bed, still. Marveling at the dream I'd just had. Looked at the clock...3:14 am. I lay there for about 5 minutes before I realized I hadn't moved. When I found my hands I realized they'd been hold onto the opposite arm. I'd hugged myself in my sleep...and my uncle had embraced me.