Dreams over Taxes

Welcome to The Spot Writers. The prompt for this cycle is to write a story that begins with: “And then it began to rain.” 

This week’s contribution comes from Chiara De Giorgi. Chiara is an Italian author and currently lives in Berlin, Germany. She writes fiction, with a focus on children’s literature and science fiction.

 

Dreams over Taxes

by Chiara De Giorgi

(an Elsa Mon story)

Created with Canva

And then it began to rain. And that was a problem, because rain was the element Elsa Mon relied on to distinguish dream from reality.

Elsa Mon, beloved paranormal romance writer, had difficulty separating dream from reality. Her habit to base her fantasy novels on her life had caused her some troubles, lately. A couple of innocent mishaps, like when she tried to fix the coffee machine with a flick of her wrist, convinced she was Penny the Witch from ‘The Kitchen Witch And The Zombie Bartender’, one of her first novels. Or when she complained to a bewildered sales assistant because she couldn’t find silver bullets to terminate Ron, the villain in her ‘A Silver Bullet For My Valentine’. Or when she posted an invitation for a summer party to Jenny the Banshee from ‘A Banshee’s Love Call’ and to Lili the Centuaress from ‘Hooves Are A Centauress’ Best Friends’. Others had been more problematic. On one occasion, she was convinced that her neighbor’s house was a vampires’ lair because he kept a bats’ nest in his garden and was often up at night. She tried to break in during the day and the neighbor called the police on her. Victor, Elsa’s dentist and boyfriend, apologized on her behalf, and convinced the neighbor not to press charges by claiming that Elsa was overworked and needed some rest. Once home, he suggested she found a way to distinguish dream from reality.

She checked a few websites and learned about lucid dreams.

“A lucid dream is when you are dreaming and become aware of that,” she explained to Victor. “Apparently, you can induce a lucid dream by deciding in advance that a certain detail belongs in a dream, so if you start looking around and find it, it means you’re dreaming.”

“This sounds interesting,” said Victor. “You can do the same, both when dreaming while sleeping and when daydreaming. Whenever you are in doubt, look for that detail to do a quick reality check.”

Elsa’s chosen detail was rain.

The trick initially worked. When Victor broke his foot by squashing a cockroach, for example. It seemed a bit extreme, so she wondered whether she might be dreaming. She thought about rain and sure enough, thunder roared and rain started to fall right away. She woke up and called Victor. He was fine. Worried because she was calling in the middle of the night, but currently in his bed and happy to hear that the trick had worked—and his foot was fine, of course.

“This episode isn’t linked to your stories, though,” the good dentist pointed out.

“It could be,” Elsa replied. And promptly wrote a scene where Dr. Toothpick the goblin dentist broke his foot by stepping on some candy in his fiancée Inés’ candy factory. Elsa had outlined a trilogy based on the character inspired by Victor. In the third and final volume, the brave dentist faced Cthulhean monsters coming out of a portal in the basement of the candy factory, and one monster cursed the candies by turning them into Goblin foot-breakers.

 

Now… she was facing Lord Darkfang and Lady Moonshadow in an alley at night and she knew that only Pixie the shapeshifter cat could help her. And it started to rain. But she had not summoned the rain, this time—or had she? She couldn’t be sure. She should have chosen a different detail, something a bit more unusual than rain. 

“Oh, how I wish Victor were here!” she said out loud.

And Victor appeared right away! At least, she though it was him at first. But his ears looked different: they were black, furry, and pointed. Like a cat’s ears.

“Pixie?” she said. She was starting to feel really confused.

Maybe that’s proof that I’m in the real world, she thought. Reality always leaves me confused…

She looked around, and she realized she wasn’t in the dark alley anymore. She was at the botanical garden. At night… She just couldn’t remember why.

She heard a rustling sound and Lord Darkfang and Lady Moonshadow were suddenly walking alongside her. Pixie the shapeshifting cat was with them.

“I don’t understand what’s going on anymore,” she said out loud. “Am I dreaming?”

“You are,” said Lady Moonshadow.

“And you aren’t,” said Lord Darkfang.

“Mew,” said Pixie.

She scoffed. “That’s not really helpful.”

“The problem is,” Lord Darkfang said, “that you haven’t done your taxes yet.”

Elsa wanted to reply but couldn’t find a single thing to say. She was too puzzled. What did her taxes have to do with anything?

“We represent all your characters,” Lord Darkfang explained. “We decided to infiltrate your daily life and remind you of your duties, but neither Penny the Witch nor Lili the Centauress nor the others succeeded. Probably because their novels were standalone. We three were featured in a series, so we thought we’d give it a try.”

Elsa was still confused. “You mean… you infiltrated reality to remind me that my taxes are due?”

“Mew!” said Pixie.

Elsa was more and more puzzled. She tried to wrap things up.

“So… If I do my taxes you will not infiltrate anymore?”

“We won’t,” Lord Darkfang confirmed.

 

Elsa woke up. She tried to conjure a storm, just to make sure, but nothing happened. So she was truly awake this time. She called Victor right away.

“Well, your characters are very nice creatures,” he said after Elsa had explained him everything. “They try to take care of you and remind you of important stuff.”

“Apparently.”

“Then… I guess you’ll be doing your taxes today, right? So you won’t see them in your real life anymore.”

“Well. Actually… My characters are nice, as you just pointed out. And taxes are anything but. This is not even a choice, really.”

“What?”

“And I suppose I could have one of them file a tax return.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yes,” said Elsa, but she wasn’t replying to Victor. She was acknowledging something in her head. “A shapeshifting dragon needs to do his taxes— dragons are hoarders and possess mountains of gold; taxes are something they are familiar with but are unwilling to pay. His name will be Arnold. Yes. Arnie the Dragon. And his accountant will be… Sibyl the fallen princess, who serves as a tax consultant to earn a living.”

“Elsa…”

“And they fall in love, of course, and…”

 

****

The Spot Writers:

Val Muller: http://www.valmuller.com/blog/

Catherine A. MacKenzie: https://writingwicket.wordpress.com/wicker-chitter/

Phil Yeats: https://alankemisterauthor.wordpress.com/

Chiara De Giorgi: https://chiaradegiorgi.blogspot.com/