In the gusts of these tropical winds, I'm sure, now, my smile must have be blowing sideways, the other way,  in her pictures.

I wish there was some late night boat to take me home!

I see houses . . . two, two-story houses floating in the water. Weird scenes like this,  that always make me stop me in my tracks!

I wake up. . . I am wearing the dress!. . . but somehow, the scarf is missing? " No scarf!?", I say out loud to myself. . .
Looking around, trying to search the night, I notice how the sun is brightly shining and I'm hearing this little boat captain sounding off,  “All Aboard?”
I'm running, passing my brothers’ double again. . . quickly, I hop onto the boat!

I’m going home! This place is very strange to me! Very strange! . . . How did I get this dress on, and where did I go last night? . . . "What did I do?" (I  just screamed! HA!)

Well, no matter, the boat is debarking the docks and I’m heading home! I was hungry and now, in physical need of another smoke. My family is wondering where I am and surely they will ask me about my new dress.

Not sure what just occurred, still digging into empty bank of memories for the slightest possible remembrance, floating by. . .

I see the mainland, Finally!. . . a sigh of relief!

Never again will I dream of leisure vacations in the tropics!

I was heading back to the real world . . . my real world, with a new dress!
When my foot sets aground on the still surface of my state, I will breathe that sigh. . . until . . . there. . . here, before me . . .

I can see this very angry black woman wearing the matching scarf! ...she's staring at my dress!

"Is this your dress?"
Was that really the same scarf I lifted? Should I get up and run,  or slyly slick my way out of this one? I freeze! ... and she comes face to face with me, saying,
"Where’s my brother, You. . . ?" . . . and, "Why are you wearing his wife’s dress?". . . and, "Where did you get that dress, lady?"
She continues . . . "See, but this is her scarf! . . .(she's ripping it off from around her veined-out neck)...

We found it hanging off the flagpole, off one of the floating two-story houses . . . off the coast of . . . "
"Off the coast of where . . . ? WHERE?" (I'm yelling back at her! LOL!)

She stops and wouldn’t continue . . . as if she realized her brother, his wife, nor the dress mattered as much as revealing the name of the place we all just were . . . She wanted me to answer but I didn’t know what to say . . . I really don't remember!

"Listen lady . . . ,” I started to say . . . ”NO! . . . "YOU listen here, lady Jane!” she torts! "
...that dress belongs to my sister-in-law! I don’t know how you have it on, and I don’t know where she is and I don’t know where my brother is either? You are the only possible person that might lead me to them!
My brother’s friend, Waldo, insinuates you might have disposed of them and stole his wife’s things! Is this true ? What did you do with them? Where are they? Please, it is very important!"

...She was crying now . . . she was desperate . . . she was thinking I had something to do with their disappearances. I tried to explain everything to her, but my truth. . . Yup, was her confirmation!

“Police! Police! ...I need a policeman!” Someone,  please help me!", she squeals. . .

Next thing I remember were these cold steel bars of this holding cell and voices outside my only window . . .
Sounds like my brother!
He was explaining to the authorities that I am unstable and in desperate need of a good mental health facility . . . I'm not believing my ears!

“Sir, a couple is missing and your sister has the woman’s dress on!” Wacko or not, she must be held here until we find the man and woman, the husband and his wife!". . . I hear the officer state.

So, here I sit! No money, no smokes! ...and now, wondering if this really is my brother. . . the voices I'm hearing, heard, hear . . . oh! thinking, possibly, maybe, my long lost crazy friend...could she be my alibi?
. . . the sideways smile in the wind? ...remembering the dress and scarf that were still in my hands! ...Nah , that won’t work!

I started to think some more . . . where were those two men . . . ? Before, when they were dripping wet. . . ?
Had they been swimming? How was it this woman’s dress and scarf were on their bed?
Did they see me take it, and find relief in knowing I would be entangled in their mess instead of them!?
My mind is racing . . . my brother? ...Had he something to do with it all?!
Was he an impostor?

Soon, I was allowed to call my husband and tell him where I was. He immediately began yelling, spitting out all those great superlatives at me, with all my bull shit shenanigans . . . but, calming himself the same, as he assured me he was on his way to bail me out!
What seemed like eternity, yes finally. . . I was allowed to go home with the understanding that I am to stay in the area, and keep from discussing the ongoing search for the missing couple with anyone.
We both agreed.

Home! ... home sweet home . . . and able to wash away the germs of God only knows what from that filthy jail cell! (The police kept that dress for evidence . . .)

Weeks go by, and every night I revisit that day, that night in my dreams . . . everytime, waking and wondering about the whereabouts of the missing couple and thinking, how could I have possibly even gotten the dress on?
Where are MY clothes?
Where was this place and why was my brother there? Where is he now? Was it even my brother?

Why was my unstable old friend there? Was SHE somehow involved? Was she getting back at me for dissing her years ago?
Or, am I really losing IT? Am I the one, and the only one, who could have done something to those people, without knowing?
Nothing still, isn't making sense!

Months pass by . . . and every dream I have ends with the same feeling . . . utter bewilderment!

According to the authorities, now, the couple is still missing . . . Duh!
Waldo is still insinuating I'm involved too!

They asked me to take a lie detector test, so, within what seemed like only seconds,  I found myself hooked up to all these multicolored wires with some Poindexter dude, eying me, asking me questions about that night . . . in the no name hotel, with no money, no smokes . . . NO WAY OUT!

“Where did you go?”
I said, . . . "On a boat to the tropics!"
“What did you do there?”. . . I tried to find a safe haven to stay and entered a room that I thought, was vacated. I was searching around in hopes for a cigarette, stub, anything . . . when I heard a voice!
“ Did you see anything in the room, besides the scarf and dress and the two dripping black men in white towels, half-smiling at you?”
No, just the two unmade beds.
“ Did you see two floating houses?”
Yes, the waves seemed to be crashing at their foundations and I was standing there thinking how strange it all was!"
“Then, what happened?”
I don’t know?. . . and his alarm sounded!
I was lying. . .
But, I'm NOT lying! I really don’t remember!

"But, ma’am, you DO remember! According to my machinery here, you are lying! I suggest you search your mind’s eye for the God’s honest truth and tell us what happened and where they are now!!"

“What happened after you notice the two houses floating in the surf!?”
I don’t know!. . .  AGAIN, BEEEEEEEEEEEP! The siren blares. . . !
At this point, I’m convinced, thinking I’m being framed!

The police, the strange angry black woman, my impostor brother, this Poindexter guy!
That’s it!
I want to know something!
What is the name of the place where, supposedly this all occurred?

Now, I’m back home . . . no one is here with me? (How do I come to be places and yet, have no memories of getting here?
Am I really that whacked!)

I had had enough! So, I woke up!
For real, this time. . .

I hear my brother’s voice at the door . . . “Hey Sis? ... You home?”

I walk to the door and there he stands,  nonchalantly
introducing me to these friends he just met in the tropics . . . He's carrying a present in his hands!

"Here, I just want to give you a little something I found while shopping on my vacation . . . I immediately thought of you and just had to get it!
I slowly opened up the pretty pink and yellow flowery wrapping paper, and there in the box . . .
Yup! . . . the same damn dress and scarf I've been dreaming about!

“Where did you say you went again?”, I'm asking . . . almost desperately now myself . . . “Where did you get this dress?”

I'm in the middle of the ocean on a floating house . . .no money, no smokes. . .

Copyright 2009
Kimmy Van Kooten