Chapter 12:

Fragment 5: Well, That's exhausting (1)

Fragments of our Dreams

"Mr. Adi, please wake up."

Adi's head lifted slowly. His eyes opened halfway.

He stared at the man sitting across from him.

"Good morning," Adi mumbled.

The doctor blinked.
"…It's three in the afternoon."

"Oh."

Adi rubbed his eyes and looked around the small clinic. White walls. A desk. A clock. A medicine cabinet. The doctor sitting across from him with a file in his hand.

Adi stared at him for a few more seconds.
Then he suddenly sat up straight.

"Oh, hey, sorry. What's the number of your project?"

The doctor stopped writing.
"What?"

"Your project number. Or… client number?"

"I'm not a client."

Adi frowned.

The doctor pointed at himself.
"I'm your doctor."

Adi stared.
Then he slowly nodded.
"Oh. Yeah. Right. Right."

He looked around again.
"So… where were we?"

The doctor sighed.
"You were telling me about why you keep falling asleep."

"Ah."
Adi leaned back.
"Right."

The doctor glanced at his notes.
"You've already fallen asleep twice during this session."

"How long did I sleep?"

"Ten minutes the first time."

"Okay."

"Then another twenty."

Adi nodded thoughtfully.
"That's actually the least amount of time I sleep during boring conversations."

The doctor stared at him.
"That wasn't a compliment."

"I know."

The doctor closed his file.
"You gave me money for this session."

"Cruel."

"Continue."

Adi sighed.
"Fine."

Adi leaned forward and took a breath.

"My name is Adi. I'm a junior animator at Anipox Studios."

He paused.
"Technically, I'm a junior line-art animator."

The doctor raised an eyebrow.
"Is that important?"

"No. But it makes me sound slightly more employed."

The doctor said nothing.

Adi continued.
"My job pays decently. Not amazingly, but enough to keep me alive."
He pointed at his own eyes.
"Although my dark circles suggest otherwise."

His work was brutal. Panels arrived faster than he could finish them. Deadlines appeared out of nowhere. Every week somehow became worse than the last. Sixty panels a week had already become normal. Then came the emergency deadlines. Then the weekend work. Then the overtime. At some point, Adi stopped knowing whether he was working late or waking up early.

So when his crew announced they were going out of town for a weekend trip, Adi had only one question.

"Is there Wi-Fi?"

They told him it was supposed to be a break.
Adi didn't believe them.
He was right.

The trip was crowded, noisy, and full of people visiting a religious fair near an old temple town. Adi wasn't particularly interested in religious places. So while everyone else wandered around the fair, he wandered away from them.

"Touch grass," his friends had told him.
Adi decided that wandering into a damp forest counted.

Eventually he found himself walking through an overgrown path surrounded by enormous trees.
Then he saw it.

An old stone well.
It stood beneath a huge banyan tree, covered in moss and cracks.

Adi stopped and stared into the darkness.
"Well…"

A voice came from behind him.
"Beautiful, isn't it?"

Adi turned.

A man in expensive clothes and ridiculous sunglasses stood there, smiling. Adi thought he looked like a clown. Of course, a civilized person was supposed to keep thoughts like that inside their head. Adi understood that rule. He simply chose not to follow it.

Adi looked him up and down.
"You look like a clown."

The stranger's smile widened.
"Thanks."

"That wasn't a compliment."

"I like compliments anyway."

Adi blinked.
"Cool~."

The stranger walked closer to the well.
"This well changed my life."

Adi looked at the well, then at him.
"Do you have a business involving wells?"

"No."

"Then how did it change your life?"

The man removed his sunglasses dramatically.
"My name is Ayus."

Adi waited.
"…Okay."

"Ayus."

"Okay."

"Without H."

Adi stared.
"Why are you telling me that?"

"Because people always spell it wrong."

"Nobody asked."

Ayus ignored him.
"One day I came here and threw a coin into this well. I made a wish."

"What did you wish for?"

"Wealth."

Adi looked at the man's clothes, then his watch, then the expensive shoes.
"You're serious?"

"Very."

"And you're saying the well made you rich?"

"Extremely rich."

Adi snorted.
"You're trying to scam me."

Ayus looked offended.
"I don't scam peasants."

Adi's expression dropped.
"Excuse me?"

Ayus pointed at him.
"You look like an idiot born by birth."

"That's not even an insult that makes sense."

"It worked."

Adi looked at the well, then back at Ayus.
"So what? I throw a coin in and become rich?"

"Maybe."

"Maybe?"

"The well grants wishes."

"That's convenient."

Ayus reached into his pocket and pulled out a coin.
"Try it."

Adi stared at the coin.
"You really believe this?"

"I've seen the results."

"Okay."

Ayus tossed the coin. Adi caught it.
"One coin costs you nothing."

Adi looked at the well again.
He had never believed in magic. He didn't believe in miracles. He didn't believe in wishes.
But he did believe in making fun of stupid things.

So he walked toward the well.
"Fine."

He held the coin between two fingers. Ayus watched.
Adi thought for a moment. He could ask for money. A better job. A house. Maybe a million dollars.

Instead, he sighed.
"Honestly…"
He looked exhausted just thinking about it.
"I want a restful life."

He dropped the coin.
It disappeared into the darkness.
No splash.

Adi frowned.
Then the ground trembled. The banyan leaves rustled. The stone beneath their feet gave a quiet rumble.
Then everything stopped.

Adi looked at Ayus.
Ayus looked at Adi.
Neither spoke.

Finally, Ayus scratched his cheek.
"That's… a strange wish."

Adi shrugged.
"Still better than being scammed."

Ayus pulled a sleek black business card from his pocket and handed it over.
"If you need me, call."

Adi looked at the nearly blank card.
"You're still a scammer."

"Probably."

Adi shoved the card into his pocket and walked away.
He never looked back at the well.
He should have.

Back at the clinic, Adi stopped talking.

The doctor had been writing the entire time.
"So," he said, "that is the story?"

Adi nodded.
"That is the story."

The doctor put down his pen.
"You're telling me a magical well granted your wish and gave you constant sleep?"

Adi looked offended.
"It is not constant sleep."

"You fell asleep twice during this session."

"That doesn't prove anything."

"You were asleep while telling me the story."

"I can multitask."

The doctor rubbed his forehead.
"Mr. Adi, I am a doctor, not an author. You cannot come here and claim a magic well gave you a supernatural sleeping condition."

"It's true!"

"I still have to prescribe medicine."

The doctor wrote something down and handed him the paper.
"Take this. You will possibly feel better."

Adi accepted it.
"Fine. Tell me the money."

The doctor handed him the bill.
Adi stared at it, then looked up.
"That's double the amount!"

"You slept for thirty minutes during a forty-five-minute session."

"So?"

"We charge for sessions, not for the amount of time you remain conscious."

Adi slowly folded the bill.
"Cruel."

"I hear that a lot."

Adi left the clinic.
The evening air felt good.

He pulled out his phone.
One name caught his attention: Hannah.

Adi smiled.
At least his dating life was going well.
Well… it had been going well.

He opened their conversation from last night.
His smile disappeared.

Last night
Hannah: Hey, dinner at 9 PM?
Adi: Nooo…
Hannah: Why?
Adi: Because I can't.
Hannah: You got something more important than me?
Adi: Yeah.
Hannah: …What?
Adi: Sleep.
Hannah: Seriously?
Adi: Very seriously.
Hannah: Adi?
Adi: Good night.
Hannah: You are the worst.
Adi: ( ﾟヮﾟ) …ok
Hannah: I hate you.
Adi: Good night, Hannah.
Hannah: THAT'S NOT AN APOLOGY.
Adi: I'm sleepy.
Hannah: I KNOW.
Adi: ( ﾟヮﾟ) …ok