I dreamed a dream . . . and it was wonderful!

I have read several romance novels as well as watched several romantic movies this last week, so it could easily be said that I have that on my brain. (Although, the difference between this and other weeks I do not know!) So with that in mind I have to share this most wonderful dream of mine.

My best friend and I lived in a farming town. Her family owned this huge farm for generations and generations. My family moved to the town and helped work their farm, although we lived in a house down the road a bit. For as long as I could remember living there the daughter of the farm owners and myself were friends. Well every summer my friend's cousins would come over for a week to a month long vacation. It just depended on how long they could take off from work. My friend's grandpa had been wealthy man with several business ventures which he passed on to his children as they became old enough and mature enough to handle them. My friend's dad inherited the farm and one of her uncle's inherited a candy plantation. Back to the family vacations. My family was always invited to any parties that my friend's family held because we were friends as well as employees. Well ever since I was old enough to be love I was in love with my friend's cousin.

(I think perhaps I should assign names to the characters so that it will be easier to follow, although in my dream they had no names. My friend's name is Susan, her uncle's name who owns the candy plantation is Uncle Bob and her cousin that I'm in love with who's dad is Uncle Bob is Johnny. I think those are good names.)

So anyway for as long as I could remember I have been in love with Johnny. As I grew older I always anticipated summer with great excitement for it meant I would get to see Johnny. Johnny was a few years older than me, but not enough that I ever thought he was too old. Johnny always tolerated Susan and I hanging around him or spying on him during these vacations. He was never mean, but that didn't mean he didn't tease us just a little bit. But even his teasing was wonderful because it meant that he was giving me attention. One summer when I was in high school Susan's dad asked Johnny if he'd like to stay the year and help work the farm. Johnny had graduated high school by then and was not getting along with his dad, Uncle Bob. Johnny and his dad argued all the time over the candy plantation. Uncle Bob wanted him to take a bigger role in the business and Johnny didn't want to. He was the only son Uncle Bob had, so it was inevitable that he would inherit the candy plantation, but Johnny was not interested in it. So, he accepted this opportunity to work my friend's farm with alacrity. I was so excited. Now I would get to see him more and more! Although this was case, Johnny always had a girlfriend, so he never spent a lot of time with me and Susan during his time off. I need to add here that Johnny was a very attractive man. He was tall with dark curly hair. And since he's been working hard labor most of his life he was very muscular. Yeah, he was good looking.

The years passed by. Susan and I graduated high school and then college. During this time Johnny continued working on the farm and going from girlfriend to girlfriend. This began to irritate me more and more as the years went by because I couldn't understand why I was never chosen for the girlfriend position. Johnny teased, flirted, chatted, argued and even lectured me at times. He would always tell me how unsuitable my current boyfriend was for me and would nag me to break up with him. But even when I was free Johnny never asked me out. It was so frustrating!

The summer of Susan and my college graduation we decided to do something special. We were going to take a trip together. Some vacation that we could always look back on with fondness. Something that would symbolize our last adventure before we gave into our adult lives and after college adult jobs. While we were trying to decide where we wanted to go, Uncle Bob got sick and asked Johnny to come home. Johnny was not particularly keen to do so, but he had mellowed a lot in the years working on the farm. He knew he would have to go back some day, so he figured this was his dad's way of telling him it was time. When Susan and I were saying our goodbyes to Johnny he asked us if we'd like to spend our vacation at his candy plantation. He said that we might enjoy it and that we might take some of the attention away from him. Well, it took me about a millisecond to decide that's where I wanted to go. Susan, being the wonderful friend that she was, agreed almost as readily. She wanted to give me my chance and who wouldn't want to spend a summer eating candy she said.

A month or so later summer finally came around and Susan and I were off to Johnny's candy plantation. (It wasn't really Johnny's, at least not yet, but I couldn't help but think of it that way.) When we arrived Uncle Bob came and picked us up from the airport. He didn't look or sound as sick as he had led us or Johnny for that matter to believe. It seems Uncle Bob wanted to retire and could think of no better way to get Johnny home than to say he was sick. We stayed at Uncle Bob's house, where a reluctant Johnny was staying as well. That night at dinner I found out that Johnny had invited his most heinous girlfriend yet to stay for a few weeks. Miranda, Johnny's girlfriend, was horrible. No one liked her. She was self-centered, rude and very much the princess. For the life of us, Susan and I could not figure out why he was dating her. She was just so obnoxious. Well, Uncle Bob disliked her more than we did, so I guess Johnny was able to get back that way.

Johnny spent as little time with Uncle Bob in the office as possible and even less on the plantation. But he still spent a good portion of his day away from the house, so Susan and I had to babysit Miranda. We both agreed that Hell couldn't be much worse than a week, not make that a day with Miranda. A week or two after our arrival Miranda just up and packed her bags. She was mad, we could all tell, but she wouldn't tell us why. To be honest none of us pressed her much for a reason, we were just glad that she was leaving. Johnny was at the office when Miranda packed and left, so we couldn't ask him either. That night at dinner nothing was said about her leaving. No one wanted to talk about her. We'd spent enough time with her, why would we want to waste any more thinking about her?

The next day a group was coming to the plantation to tour it and Uncle Bob asked Johnny, Susan and me to go along and make sure there were no problems. He also thought it would be a fun excursion for us all. He even gave Johnny the day off to go. Susan and I had never been on the tour so we were totally excited. Johnny was less enthusiastic, but tried not to put a damper on our fun.

The next day dawned and after breakfast Johnny escorted us down to the fields where the tour would start. It had been so many years since Johnny had been on the tour or even to the plantation for that matter that no one even recognized who he was. He told us he was glad. It would mean that he had a day to just be himself. When the group showed up Johnny mingled in with them. Well, a couple of very forward girls pulled Johnny along with them. I was secretly irritated by this, but Susan wouldn't let me dwell on it for long. As the tour went along Susan and I politely listened to what our guide had to say, but in the in between times we ran through the fields and orchards playing all sorts of silly games. It was a lot of fun. I would have been very gratified if I had looked Johnny's way to see the envy there, but alas only Susan ever saw that look.

We entered one of the factories and because of our antics Susan and I were the last ones in, so we had to sit at the back. That was fine, but we could hardly hear what our guide was saying. So instead I watched Johnny. At first I was just irritated. What made those girls think that he was theirs for the taking. Then I got worried because they were just the sort of girls that Johnny chose for his girlfriends. Susan watched me getting angrier as the lecture continued. Finally she told me that she would intercept the girls on our way to the next building so that I could hurry up and catch Johnny. I didn't think it was much of a plan, but what else did I have? I couldn't sit and watch Johnny with those girls much longer.

Susan, master planner extraordinaire, was good to her word. She caught up to the girls and started asking them all sorts of questions. I didn't hear most of what she was saying, but I could tell that as soon as she said that the owner was her uncle they were hooked. I just barely caught up to Johnny before anyone else could intercept him. I grabbed his arm so quickly and hard that he looked down and started to pull me off. But when he saw who I was he grinned down at me and moved my hand down until I had a better grasp of his arm. I was elated. He hadn't been mad. He actually seemed to like having me there. While we were walking to the next building he thanked me for getting him away from those girls, actually he called them harpies. As we continued on he started telling me about the plantation and how they made the candy. He was a virtual fount of knowledge about the place. The more he talked the more I could see his love of the place. He couldn't hide it, even though he valiantly tried to remain aloof in his descriptions. I could tell it was just an act.

We arrived at the packaging building a few minutes before the rest of our group. In the building there were a couple of girls handing out an assortment of candy for us to try. I hardly noticed them, my attention was captivated by Johnny. He politely declined and took me to wait for the group by the candy store, inside the building. He pointed to some cinnamon candies and said he wished today had been cinnamon day because those were his favorite candies that they made. I looked at him and said, "you know, you almost own this place. You could probably ask for a sample." He just laughed and told me that he didn't want to fluster the sample girls. I thought that was kind. The rest of our group came in during this interlude and swarmed around the sample girls.

Johnny looked at me with a mischievous grin and asked if I would like to skip out on the rest of the tour. I thought "hmmm, listen to the rest of the tour or spend the rest of the afternoon with Johnny?" I readily agreed to his proposition. We wandered around the buildings. He told me bits and pieces about the plantation and factories interspersed with tidbits about growing up here. At one point we stopped at a double drinking fountain for a quick drink of water. How it started I don't remember, but our drink quickly turned into a water fight that ended with us chasing around the fields outside.

Johnny finally caught up to me in his mom's flower garden. And to my wonderment didn't let me go when he captured me. He just looked at me and looked at me. I was mesmerized. I didn't want to look away, but I couldn't fathom why he was staring at me. Then he whispered "Oh hell! I've been wanting to do this since I met you." Then to my delight and amazement he kissed me. All 6 foot something of handsomeness held me and kissed me the way I had always wanted him too. After a moment or two, or a century or two, I couldn't tell, he pulled back to look at me. He whispered "You have to know I've always wanted to do that." Mutely I shook my head from side to side. He continued with "Ever since I met you, I've wanted to do that. I thought you were too young and then I thought you thought me too old. And then you were always dating someone else or away at college. I never got my chance. Heck, I never thought I'd ever get my chance. So I dated girl after girl I didn't much care about, while waiting for my chance. How I hoped you'd come up here to stay. But then I thought I'd lost you again because of Miranda. She irritated everyone, even me. I thought you avoided me because you were mad at me. But here you are and . . . I don't want . . . no . . . I don't think I can let you go." Then he kissed me again. When we parted I whispered "I don't want you to Johnny." He kissed me again and then grabbed my hand and walked with me back to the house.

And then I woke up. I tried real hard to go back to that dream, but it was not to be.