Author's Note: This is a 2 year old work of fiction.

Looking back upon my youth I could tell you that both my fathers were smart in their own ways. Joshua was book smart versus James who knew much of the world. I remember as a child I asked my dads where dreams come from. Josh told me that it had something to do with my brain and something about the firing of neurons during REM. To this day I have no idea what he was talking about. However, James told me before I went to bed one night—and I will never forget the story.

Long long ago, in the days when the world was new and we still knew what magic was, there was a storm that ravaged the entire world. One day the Great Storm touched the Great Ocean and a child was born. The storm vanished into the sea only leaving the clouds we have today. It was many years since the storm, when a stranger had come down on wings of light from where the stars kiss the clouds. He came down and spoke to us in our dreams. He said the Great Storm never really left and it brews deep within us and connects every one of us to each other and us to him. Every night when we sleep our soul becomes one with the Great Storm, and every once in a while one of us wanders into the Eye of the Great Storm where the stranger lives.

I asked my father if he’s ever met him—the stranger in everyone’s dreams. He said, “I’ve heard that if you ever meet him at the Eye of the Great Storm, your heart stops and your body dies. He tells your soul that it’s wandered too far from your body and if you wish, he will return it to its rightful place.” So I asked him again if he has ever met the stranger at the Eye of the Great Storm. That smile that he gave me makes me wonder to this day.