Aurora’s Dream

The Sun Will Shine Again

The sweet music drifting from her cell phone slowly wakes her up. It’s an oldy, but goody – Donna Summer’s “Heaven Knows”. Aurora, waking up from a Twilight sleep thought she was dreaming as she remembered her mother, dancing around the apartment getting dressed for the day.

Suddenly, Aurora is snapped back to reality as her alarm clock screams that it’s 7:30am. She only has an hour to get to work on time. “Oh, no,” she thinks to herself. She knows she has to get going; traffic will be awful as it’s just started raining. She jumps into the shower, thankful she picked her clothes out the night before. With a quick in-and-out, she’s rushes out the door, not noticing the text on her phone and message from her boss.

TEXT FROM BOSS:

Did you order the easel paper for the meeting today?

As Aurora jumps into the uber, she checks her messages. “No!”, she thinks to herself, “I forgot to order the easel paper… oh no this is not good”. She’s already running late and it’s now after 8:15am.

She doesn’t even bother responding to the text. She knows her boss hates her lateness, and she dreads the berating that’s about ensue. Between being late and forgetting the easel, Aurora gears herself because she knows she’s in a bad situation.

Aurora arrives late. Pulling in at 8:50am, she realizes she’s twenty minutes late. The important meeting with the Head VIPs is here. There’s no coffee set up, the guests have arrived, and the conference room isn’t even ready. Her boss, red in the face and clearly pissed (she’s tight lipped), gives her a stern look. Suddenly, she yells “Where’s the easel paper!?”

Aurora, shocked, stammers in reply, “I forgot it…”. Before she even finishes, her boss loses it, shouting at her, “You what? Do you know who’s here for this meeting?? How could be so irresponsible? What the hell is wrong with you?This is ridiculous!”

Her boss is livid, screaming right into Aurora’s face. Aurora, paralyzed with fear, tries to respond with an apology to no avail. Lost in anger, her boss looses it, yelling and cursing at Aurora as she fights back tears.

“Not to mention”, her boss continues, “Your goddamn ass is 20 minutes late! You will take no break today!” Trembling, Aurora shakes her head in agreement. Her boss then leaves to go and get the easel paper.

Back in her office, Aurora sinks into her desk, tears filing her eyes. Angry and disappointed in herself, she tries to figure out how she could have forgotten such a simple thing. And to have such chaos on a Friday! What a way to end the work week. Still, as Aurora is no stranger to her bosses tirades, she just deals with it and is thankful to keep her job.

Later, her boss returns, Looking at Aurora with disgust, wet from the rain after running to the nearby office supply store to get what she needed for the meeting. Her boss stares hard at her, as she tells Aurora, “This is why you get no raise. This incident will surely be on your review!” As her boss slams the paper on the desk, Aurora picks it up and takes it to the conference room.She greets everyone as they look at her, quickly placing the paper on the easel.

A sinking feeling comes over Aurora as she realizes how bad things have gotten for her. She wants so desperately to leave her job. Tears fall quietly down her face as the rain continues, a storm brewing. But the sun will also eventually shine!

After the long day, the rain comes down hard at night as Aurora cries. She thinks about what life would have been like if she had finished school. She could be like her friends, enjoying life, not working two jobs to stay afloat barely able to make her rent.

She thinks back to earlier in the day, during lunch, as she watched one of her coworkers with shopping bags from Tory Burch and Kate Spade. Aurora wished that was her, walking carefree and with a six-figure salary. Now, especially, she’s feeling so tired and just needs a break and a vacation....

Tears run down her cheeks. “Life has to get better”, she thinks to herself as she sobs, crying herself to sleep.

That night, Aurora dreams again of her mother dancing, looking so beautiful in her white dress. She smiles, taking her mother’s hand as they dance.Suddenly, her mother stops dancing, looks at Aurora and opens her purse. As she opens it, it releases a light so bright it blinds Aurora, waking her up to her alarm and a pounding sound on the door. It’s her cousin, Melisa, coming over for coffee. “Girl, wake up! Wake up, its 10:00am!” she tells Aurora.

“Yeah, I know”, says Aurora, “I have to rest up for my shift tonight!”

“Oh, yeah”, Melisa replies.

“What did you call your second job? Your husband is a second job, but one that takes care of you!” jokes Aurora.

Melisa laughs, “Hah! Cousin, you funny! But girl, you look so drained and tired.”

“I know,” says Aurora, “but I need the money. What am I to do?” Her cousin shrugs. In protest, Aurora says, “I’m not about to live in some infested apartment. I want a better living so I gotta find a way to pay for it.”

Melisa heads to the kitchen to make coffee as Aurora goes to brush her teeth. “Melisa, I had the strangest but most beautiful dream I dreamed about momma,” she says.

“Oh word, what aunty say?”, Melisa asks inquisitively.

“She did not say anything. We just danced and she looked at me and opened that old clutch bag,” Aurora tells her.

“Ooh the one you love so much,” Melissa yells from the kitchen.

“Yeah,” Aurora yells back from the bathroom, “

I don’t know, I think she was trying to tell me something! She just smiled then looked at me, but the bag- when she opened, it was so bright it damn near blinded me.”

Melisa pondered, “Hmm, girl, well from what? I know our ancestors be speaking. We got to listen! I know your momma loved you. She would have done anything for you and she just wanted to best for you. We’re hard working women in this here family.

Where did you keep the bag?”

“I kept it in the back of my closet, just looked at it, held it like momma. I never opened it, though, Aurora admits.

“Well, it’s time girl,” Melisa tells her.

Aurora and Melisa go to the back of the closet and pull out bins. Noting the mess, Melisa says, “Miss, you really need to do some serious cleaning!”

They finally get to the right bin and pull out a clear bin with photo albums, Ankara clothing, and jewelry. Aurora sees the clutch, and as she opens it, she moves her hand along the pink lining before quickly noticing a bulge that she had never paid attention to it before. She grabs a pair of scissors, cutting along the lining. Just as she does it, the thunder booms loudly and they both jumped. The lights flicker and the two run out of the closet with the clutch-purse.

Melisa tells Aurora, “Ok, girl, in times like this, we just need to be still!”

Calmly, Aurora replies, “It’s fine, we’re fine. It’s just thunder! I’m not afraid; it’s God’s way of talking and I’m listening. This is a sign.”

As Aurora tears the pink lining of her mother’s clutch, she sees a little black notebook with what looks like a honeybee on the cover. She had never seen her mother with this notebook. She opens it and realizes it contains family names, birthdates, personal notes, dates of weddings and family events. This was her momma’s personal journal. Aurora’s mother had written about places she wanted to travel with Aurora, like Paris and London.

She described the sunny Caribbean Countries, with beautiful beaches and clear water. This was her mother’s personal journal about her life and days of struggle. She had written how she did not want the same life for Aurora. She wanted better for Aurora, so she would write places she wanted to them to travel to and would add pictures of European cities.

Then, Aurora notices prayers of gratitude from her mother to God for Aurora’s life as well as prayers written with her name to protect her. Tears start to rundown her face. Aurora now realizes what her dream was about: Momma was-saying it’s time.

Aurora remembers her mother in her last days, talking about some mystery notebook. Aurora was never sure what she was talking about, because most times, when she saw her mother in the hospital, she was in so much pain that Aurora just wanted to comfort her. She never understood what that notebook was about until today.

So, here’s the black notebook that momma was talking about. As Aurora goes through the book, she finds a copy of her birth certificate and social security card, as well as her childhood passport. Why did momma have this? She continues looking through it and notices a bank statement with Aurora’s name in the second line. Her mother had an account for her that she never knew about. The notebook is a sign.

The next day, Aurora calls the bank, explaining that she found a statement with her mother’s name as well as her own. The bank tells her to come by, so Aurora makes an appointment. She decides she’s going to go during her lunch break on Tuesday. The rain was heavy all night and caused delays throughout the city, so much so that it caused a city-wide weather emergency.This gave her an excused two-hour delay!

As lunch time approaches, Aurora rushes out with her boss on her heels.“Where do you think you’re going?”, her boss yells, “What you can’t take break. There was a two-hour delay, no one gets a break today!”

Aurora looks at her, thinking to herself in the words of Samuel L Jackson, mutha#**#&$.... Quickly, Aurora comes back to herself, telling her boss, “You know, I have to go, as I am entitled to a break.

Her boss fires back, “I don’t give a damn what your entitled to! Get back to your desk!”

With tears in her eyes Aurora boldly, but quickly says, “No, I cannot. I’m going to go on my break. I’ll be back in forty-five minutes, and you can dock my pay. Thank you.” As the elevator dings she steps on, her manager standing there looking at her as the doors close.

Aurora hailed a cab, tears streaming down her face. She arrives at the bank and the manager, Ms. Grace, greets her warmly. She can see Aurora is upset and hands her a tissue. Ms. Grace smiles, looks at Aurora, and whispers,“Just breathe, it’s going to be okay. Please give me the documents we spoke about.”

Aurora pulls out a folder, handing her all the documents. Ms. Grace types in account, and exclaims, “Ooh! Oh my, you have a custodial trust from the time of your birth! Yes, its matured over the years quite a bit. You have $20,000in this account, and since your mother is deceased, you have full access to these funds! Just let me know if you would like me to transfer them to your bank account.”

Aurora looks at the woman in amazement and begins to cry, sobbing. Ms. Grace closes her office door to let Aurora have a moment. She grabs her hand and rubs her back, as Aurora says “Thank you, thank you, thank you momma, thank you! Ooh, thank you, ooh my God!”

Aurora knew how hard her mother struggled, working two jobs herself. She never wanted that for Aurora. Aurora goes back to her office, and finds her boss waiting. She has written Aurora up for insubordination. Quickly, Aurora grabs the papers, tears them up, and walks out. Then, loudly and in the famous words of Samuel L Jackson, she says, “Muthtafucka I quit,” grabbing her purse and walking out the door.

In the days to come, Aurora came up with a plan since she did not have to work. She decided it’s time to see the world! Not long after, she discovers there is hidden money everywhere. Though she had quit her job because of her bosses tirades, the HR department did not want a lawsuit. They heard the complaints of how her boss treated her, so they gave Aurora a very nice severance package to avoid a lawsuit and Aurora did not have to work for one whole year. She really could enjoy life, now!

In the months to come, Aurora’s life shifted. She planned to go to all the places her mother wrote about in her black notebook, but could not get to. Aurora’s first trip was to Europe, traveling to London and taking the train to Paris.As Aurora boarded the plane, she could see her mother dancing and smiling and as the plane took off Aurora looked at how bright the sky was and saw the sun shining, and, yes indeed, her life was bright and the Sun was shining once again.