Charles placed his cloth napkin neatly in his lap as I opened the oven to retrieve the lasagna. It was a gooey mess. He smiled as I sat down on the oak chair.
It was like old times. Before the world was baked under the simmering sun and the streets bubbled up like the cheese on our plates. Before the sky sank and the earth found new ground. Before we slid down the roots of the great Redwood trees.
“If you are a dreamer, come in,” the elves sang.
That night we stayed up with our crayons and a Mandala coloring book. There is something to be said about shapes and Shapeshifters, owls and eyes, spirals, and suns. But that is for another time. We finally finished coloring as Saturn spun into view. And we never discussed the summer of 2022. We never would.
Lillian hosts Prosery today at dVerse where we are challenged to write a prose piece of 144 words or less, including a line from a poem. She has chosen the line, “If you are a dreamer, come in,” from Shel Silverstein’s poem Invitation included in his book Where the Sidewalk Ends.
Tricia Sankey 
LOVE this fantastical tale! 🙂 That second paragraph is just magical! So glad you posted to the prompt. REALLY like this one! 🙂
Thanks so much! I had fun with your prompt. It fit well with my doomsday scenarios! 🤣
Love the fantasy here Tricia, well written. I think you might have meant 2020 — but I could be wrong? Great owl drawing.
Thanks, Rob! No, I imagine this piece as a future scenario where she is alluding to something horrific happening in the summer of 2022!! We’ll see if we all end up underground. 😱 (if not I’ll just edit the dates) 😁
I want to party like it’s the summer of 2022! I love the idea of us sliding down out of the redwood at the elves’ invitation.
Yes! Only of you’re a dreamer, of course! 💕
🙂 ❤
Lovely fantasy❣️Who’s to say where we’re headed. I could handle sharing with elves❤️🙏
Pleased you enjoyed it! At least the elves hand out coloring books! 🤣
Tricia – I was actually wondering if this was a true story until the very end – well done!
❤
David
Thanks, David! 💝
This sounds as though it could be prophetic, Tricia…wonderfully imagined!
Thanks, Ingrid! At least my dystopian world has lasagna! 😋
Thank goodness 😅 is it soylent green?
No! 😱 I had to look that one up. Nope, my pretend world will always have tasty, authentic lasagna! 💯
Phew 😅
I love the way the lasagne causes a shift in time, to ‘before the world was baked under the simmering sun and the streets bubbled up like the cheese’. This is a wonderful mix of sci-fi and magical fantasy, Tricia! I have a colouring book like that and it does indeed contain a picture of an owl – which I haven’t coloured in yet. 😉
Thanks, Kim! I had a Mandala coloring book too and started noticing all the different shapes in the designs, almost subliminal. A lot of one eyes and spirals, suns, and owls. It is actually a pretty calming thing to color. 🖍
Incredible speculative flash! The details in the lasagna bringing out the cataclysmic events, really clever and so very unique. Great job, Tricia. Glad I finally got to your take on last night’s prompt.
Thanks for your comments! Good to hear you enjoyed it! ❤
I like the incorporation of lasagna references in the second stanza. So many ooey gooey visuals…and I think I felt the slivers sliding down those redwoods…haha. The ending was a beginning, leaving us dangling over the secrets past or future of 2022. Hmm….
Thanks, Mish! It would be fun to add to this later. 💖
I don’t think it’s truly dystopian if there is lasagna… (unless it’s soylent green)
I make the rules in my fantasy!! 😆 I think the elves are cooking up lasagna somewhere under the redwoods right now laughing at you!
A really great story Tricia. That lasagna sounded delicious. i love the way you took us back to a time before…
an interesting mysterious story.
Thanks! 💕