Dream Hero

From the journal of Edwin F. Fauk dated January 17th, 1967:

Eugene Gustaw was what most would call a normal everyday sort of person. He was born in the Midwest and moved to the big city after finishing four years of college. He kept to himself most of the time, he didn’t much care for confrontations and stayed away from them as best he could. Worked a standard nondescript nine to five desk-job. He was in his late twenties, had brown hair, brown eyes, stood five-foot ten-inches tall. Usually wore gray suits and packed his lunch every day. He lived in a small studio apartment off of 23rd street where the rent was high but still manageable on his pay. He didn’t go out much, didn’t have a girl or guy that he was interested in. I guess, one could say that Eugene was just plain old boring.

It was a boring that was so complete it would cause you to possibly stop and make note of it, well if it weren’t such a waste of time to do, and that’s the way Eugene wanted it. He had worked his entire life building up this identity. Making sure that he was a person for whom notice was never really taken. You see, underneath all the uninteresting layers Eugene was really and truly a super hero. Not your comic book has special powers, per se, type of super hero. And not your other comic book has loads of money and secret layers full of gadgets super hero. But the genuine kind, he was a person who saved lives and fought evil.

At night when everyone would go to sleep Eugene would go to work, he was a dream hero. He inherited the trade from his father. He had the ability to surf through other people’s dreams and assist them. At first this might not seem very interesting, but if there are people like Eugene on the side of good, then you know that there are people out there causing problems. Whenever you have a nightmare, one of these agents of evil is trying to kill you. You know the old adage dreams are as real as real life, get seriously hurt in one and the damage will carry over. Perhaps not physically, but not all scars show up on the outside of us.

I had the joy of meeting him once in person and once in my dreams, it’s how I know about him. I know he would never want the world to know of his existence so I waited till now, now that he is departed, to put any of this in my journal. And I’ve carried the scars for so long now. He is a hero and I wish more would have known him, known more about him. Truth is, I think I’m about to go, and it might not make much sense now, but they are out there. The Dream Heroes, just like Eugene. Saving us as best they can. They live among us, protect us, and most of us have no idea.

Here’s to you Eugene, thank you so much for keeping me alive. I really do wish they didn’t find you in the real world. At this point it doesn’t matter much if they find me, I’m ready now.

-V-