A Core Memory Dream: An excerpt from my work in progress, untitled novel

 Looking through tree branches, the view from where she is perched is breathtaking. Flowering trees like the one she’s sitting atop stretch for what seems like miles. A bumble bee rests on her knee and gives a wink, “Hello there,” the bee buzzes, then lifts off to greet another apple blossom.

A hum of laughter draws her attention to the lake just beyond the orchard. There she sees a circle of people sitting on giant logs. There’s a fire spitting sparks as they poke at it with sticks.

“I’d like to join them,” she thinks, as she finds her footing to make her descent.

 In an instant, she’s behind the circle of friends, “Hey guys. Can I join you?” All of them turning their attention to her in unison exclaim, “Amber! Hi! You made it!”

She’s dumbfounded, “Who are these people? How do they know me?”

Taking a seat on the log, she searches their faces trying to remember their names but none of them seem familiar. “They’re all my age, but why don’t I know them? And how do they know me?”

“Amber, you want to roast a marshmallow?” One girl offers her stick with remnants of the last gooey marshmallow that met its fate over the campfire.

Amber watches the marshmallow slowly expand over the heat of the flames before it transforms from snow white to golden brown. She pulls the stick back, having tortured the marshmallow enough, and releases it from its death bed. Popping the toasted pillow into her mouth, soft, sticky sweetness consumes her. It’s so real she thinks, “There’s no way this is a dream.”

An eruption of laughter pulls her back to the moment. Two boys are taking their bows on the imaginary stage in front of the fire. The girls are clapping wildly and shaking off the remaining laughter in their bellies as one boy asks, “Who’s next?” 

Amber thinks, “Next for what?”