An Ava & Mimi collaboration
Early Wednesday morning I was being chased by creepy men in a nightmare. I’d been able to run away, along with some other women, until a large, blond, overweight man caught up to me. I looked at him and thought calling to my friends, who were somewhere in front of me, was my best chance of safety. I was terrified.
“Help,” I managed to squeak out, which was some kind of noise loud enough to wake David, who then woke me. Even awake the palem bloated face of the man in a short sleeve, patterned knit shirt stayed in front of me. I shook myself, got up to pee, then went back to sleep.
It wasn’t until later on Wednesday that I remembered the nightmares Eric had in the last year of his life. His whimpering and muffled cries would wake me. I’d sit up and shake him, and he’d rise from his dream to tell me about some ghoulish figure pursuing him. Months after Eric died I remembered those nightmares and wondered if they came from his body warning him that his cancer was back and blooming. There was a menace chasing him. The dreams started before we knew how sick Eric was, probably about the time the cancer got a foothold in his liver and bones.
Wednesday was Eric’s birthday. He would have been 67. A friend texted me early in the day to say she was going to eat a piece of candy in his memory — he had a pronounced sweet tooth. Candy was a way of life; Twizzlers and Peanut M&M’s were favorites.
I texted Adrienne and Sam about candy and Eric’s birthday and we all committed to Eric-inspired indulgences some time that day. Adrienne gave Emilio and Ava candy after dinner and told them it was to remember Grandpa Eric, who would have made sure they had access to sweets if he’d lived long enough to know them.
Ava said, as she ate her chocolate, “but we can’t call Grandpa Eric. He’s dead.” Emilio said, “we’re eating candy to remember Grandpa Eric because he loved candy. But can we not talk about him being dead. It’s almost my bedtime.”
Eric lives on, along with anxiety and pleasure and joy and connection and candy and dreams.
The night after the nightmare I had a long dream about Eric. He was just around. Being in life.
Grace Mattern 
About 20 years after my dad died I ran into him in a dreamland bowling alley… he looked good, had a new sweety, and ten-pin bowled in the afterlife…
Love it! Bowling in the afterlife. . .
What a sweet story! Eric remains in our lives in all ways possible that include our dreams at night. I think the details about the candies are interesting and I am prepared to add onto that. Since I did grow up with Eric and for several years we shared a bedroom on Cooke St in Waterbury (which I regularly dream about) I can confirm that my brother did indeed hide candy in a desk drawer in that bedroom. It would not surprise me if peanut M&Ms were one of the candies buried therein. My lips were sealed until now. (Mom always said to chew with our mouthes closed.).
Eric had an amazing capacity for candy!