By: Luke Wang

It has been a while since William has left the city. William slouched on the seat of the cruising Greyhound’s MCI coach. Outside the window of the old MCI bus, amber pine trees of the autumn New England swooshed by like an old chronophotography.

The humming of the diesel engine from under the floorboard along with the dimming sunlight seeping into the coach was almost an hypnotic spell. William looked across the aisle to see the younger woman sitting opposite to him already drifting off to sleep. The scene reminded him of his nightmares during the peak of his depression. He froze still for a moment from the thought but quickly brushed it off as his eyes returned to his laptop on the seat counter.

William did not know when he fell asleep — he only started to realize that he was back in his dreams when the other passengers of the coach vanished. William gazed around the empty compartment as the coach screeched to a stop. Cautiously, William looked outside.

There was a battered crimson Honda Civic beater blocking the old coach’s path. William strolled over to the car, tilting his head as he examined the interior through the glass. The mess from the inside of the car proved it was his own vehicle. William yanked the door open.

As William slowly reorganized the mess inside his old civic, he dumped the trash and placed the documents and tools into the glovebox, that’s when he saw it, an old family photograph. He was on the shoulder of his brother while his parents were peeking from behind, smiling. William sighed, he then sat down at the driver’s seat, taking out his keys from the jacket pockets. With a tremble, the civic started up. William tried the accelerator before a loud horn blast woke him up. He looked around, he was back in the coach compartment. The amount of passengers had depleted during his sleep but he was ultimately back in the real world.

William did not feel the feeling he had before, the helplessness, the loneliness. He wasn’t submerged by the feeling anymore. Maybe in the future, the feeling would return, but it would be a different scenario. He knew hat he would be ready when the feeling strikes back. Life would not be perfect, and sometimes our environment plummets into a deep hole sucking us in. However, William was prepared as the coach sped towards the rising morning sun.