Flash felt that picturesque carpet beneath his bare feet, still a little unsteady from the ride. The sphere rolled to him, brushing against his toes. He just took a deep breath, memories of the day flooding through him. How could this be? Or how could this not be? The pieces of his life fit so perfectly. He couldn’t imagine it any other way. Still, underneath it all, there seemed to lurk some nagging doubt. Some fear of disappointment. Some crack in the foundation that threatened to bring it all down. Perhaps it came through a dream, or from some other life. A vestige of something generations back.
He glanced around the room, which looked so much like that undersea suite.
The drapes were drawn, so no hologram rose from the bedding. The room was silent and still.
I forgive you, Flash whispered to no one. He said it again, louder. I forgive you, he said in a firm and determined voice. I FORGIVE YOU! He shouted to himself.
The sphere followed him to the bed.
Flash pulled the covers back, set the wine on the nightstand, and climbed into the bed.

Even as his body sank into the mattress, his mind sank into a dream.

He found himself surrounded by brick walls and peeling painted signs. Lights glowed softly from scattered windows. The sky was dark. Rusted metal stairways angled up to dark doorways. He just looked around to determine what kind of place he had traveled to this time. Much of his surroundings lay in black shadow, though an eerie glow burned high above him from the top of a light pole. Wire fragments dangled in that harsh, cold lamplight. It also illuminated him, and cast his shadow onto the alley. He looked to his right and saw a shattered window next to a blackened cavelike loading dock.
He walked, aware of fractured glass on the worn and cracked pavement, a mangled vent on the wall to his left. Where the light hit the walls, he saw illegible graffiti and plundered junction boxes. The painted designs made him think of the art his inner child had made on the cave walls, and the pictures embedded in the castle walls, patiently waiting for light to reveal them. He wondered about the artists, and the meaning behind these compositions. Other than discarded beverage cups and cigarette butts, there was no sign of life. There was no sound other than his footsteps. He came to a road and suddenly the black and white world burst into color. Half a block to his right, a streetlight cycled through green, amber and red. The color reflected off the brick buildings, windowpanes and pavement. Flash noticed it shining up from a broken bottle in the gutter, and he thought of the faceted jewels that paved Olo’s Great Plains. Looking down, he also noticed the colored beacon reflecting off his silver suit.
This abandoned city felt familiar. Like this lonely world, he was also past his prime. Still, he found beauty in these surroundings, and wondered what stories these streets could tell in the decay and fragments they held.
Ahead of him, a theater marquee towered above the street, clothed in broken lightbulbs and empty sockets. He remembered the drive in movie theater he had passed by in another dream, with its absurd cartoon.
Even in its defeated state, this place held a poignant allure, and Flash was confident that the closer he looked, the more he would see. Neon lights burned from shop windows, reflecting off the windows on the opposite side of the street. He passed vacant bars, and mysterious buildings filled with rubble and trappings from some unknown past.
He gazed upon the abandoned main Street, and tried to imagine what it might have been like in its golden age.
Thousands of lightbulbs chasing each other as they scrolled across the cinema awning, and then racing up the vertical sign to round the top and race back down the other side. He tried to picture the elegant and energetic crowd waiting to go in for the show, or a couple emerging from the jewelry store, arm in arm, anticipating a happy future together. There was a coffee shop on the corner. A pastry and coffee would be so nice. But the shop was vacant, dark and dusty. Flash imagined a thriving business district until he caught his own reflection in the cafe window. An old man looked back at him from the reverse empty street in the mirror.
Looking up, he saw the dancing rainbow of light that trickled in around the heavy drapes in his castle suite. He just lay still a while thinking about the abandoned city, and what it would have looked like on a sunny day with shoppers and business people strolling the sidewalks, automobiles filling the parking spaces.
He felt happy to travel like this, without ever leaving his bed.
Flash got up and put his robe on, still craving a roll and a hot beverage. He pulled the curtains back and went down the hall for breakfast.
He still had the image of that abandoned city in his mind. It had a rustic beauty, and the mystery surrounding it was compelling. He had traveled the universe looking for something. He wasn’t sure exactly what he was looking for. You’d think he could at least find a decent cup of coffee.
He remembered his first cup of coffee aboard the mother ship, when he was introduced to the table of elements. That coffee was so delicious and pure. The coffee in the castle was also delicious. Not better or worse than what the table of elements produced, but different. The beans were grown in the foothills beneath the reef like mountains, and the coffee was rich and frothy. It was creamy. Naturally sweet and subtly bitter. You didn’t need to add anything to it. What really set it apart from the mother ship coffee was that it tasted different depending on what season you drank it in, while the table of elements pieced the molecules together in a way that never varied. You could flavor it in any way you liked, but the basic composition or brew was consistent.
Flash fixed a tray and headed back down the corridor to his apartment. The beverage in his cup still bubbled and erupted with tantalizing steam. He had also selected Strawberries Arnaud and a slice of diamond fruitcake. The strawberries were garnished with a blue diamond ring. Once back in his suite, he slid the ring onto his finger and enjoyed his breakfast on the balcony.