Chapter 17:

Some months later.

Dan sat on the porch petting his aussies and watching the sunset over the Oregon coast. Seagulls hung suspended in midair as if they were tethered by an invisible string. The sun began to almost wobble as it dipped into the ocean. It's reflection shimmered upon the waves as multiple colors danced in front of him.

In the months since he'd moved here the evening skies were nowhere near to the technicolor scenes he had experienced during his year long sleep, but this one was darn close. He was comforted somewhat with his little place on the shore. It seemed to take him back to the good parts of his dream when he first found Ronnie in the surf. And since he had come out of the coma, he no longer had headaches as he had had in his 'fantasy world'.

His dogs were older now but they still loved a romp along the beach chasing a ball into the water and bringing it back to him. Dan rose from his chair and took a sip of ice tea and asked his boys if they wanted to go play. Of course they bounced around in excitement at the idea. All except Cooler. He didn't seem to care for the moving water today. It had become a regular ritual since they had moved here and his two youngest dogs could not be denied.

So off they went to feel the ocean breeze and the salt mist and the slow lapping of the waves upon their feet. As they approached the water Dan threw the ball into the surf and watched his dogs Chiller and Raider as they ran after it, barking with great joy and vigor. After a dozen times or so he decided it was getting too dark, as the sun had completely set, and it was time to get back home. 'Home' he thought. What was a home? It certainly wasn’t just a house. No. A home was much more than that. He hadn’t experienced a home since the day he woke from his coma.

As Dan started for the house he whistled for his canine friends but noticed that they weren't coming back right away. He looked down the beach and saw them near the surf. He called to them by name and they began to barrel back toward him. Again he turned in the direction of home. He didn't hear their footfalls yet so he looked back down the coastline. Wait. They were running the other way again. He didn't have their leashes and did not want to return to the house so he trotted along the shoreline to the point where they were curiously inspecting something in the sand right at the edge of the water.....

Deja vu swept over him and a cold sweat leaked from his temples. Slowly Dan approached the lump that was next to where his dogs had stopped and sat. As he drew nearer and nearer he couldn’t seem to breathe properly and his heart was not beating normally at all. His anxiety was at a crescendo of monumental proportions. He wasn’t sure he could take another episode of life in the ‘Twilight Zone’.

Dan knelt down to take a closer look. Whew! It was just a giant clump of seaweed. He stood back up and told his dogs it was OK, and that it was time to get back to their place. As he turned toward the house for a third time beckoning his boys to follow, he heard a wave sneak up behind them rustling the plant in an attempt to carry it back out to sea. And with that Dan and the aussies heard a very soft bubbling sound. He froze in his tracks.

They all returned their attention to the algae. The moon had finally escaped from the few clouds that had been hiding it. As the lunar glow reflected off the wet plant he could see quite clearly now. The moon’s rays caressed the smooth glistening curves of a woman’s nude shapely buttocks and all he could muster in his brain was ‘Not again!’ But this time, there was NO - accompanying - headache!

THE END

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