Come Whatever May by Stone Sour

This story is written by my own son.

The Day-Dreamer

So I will begin this, let us call it a tale, with an introduction. I am Alex Pennway at the time I was seventeen, your average student. I was pretty indifferent about most but I do like to read and listen to the radio whenever I can. I have also had this great innate ability to day-dream quite well. This tale takes place in Bathe 1978, and on that day I would be a little later than normal arriving home.

This year so far had been fairly cold and yet all I had dressed in had been my school uniform. A light tan t-shirt with khaki pants, yet today had been warmer than most. Summer had been rearing its fiery head in spite of the closing winter. Anyways, I walked down the same path I had always taken, but today nothing was out of the ordinary except for one thing. There was a quaint bookstore on the side of the road that I never truly had the pleasure of visiting, but today it was different. There was a queer sign inscrutable to my eyes, and it was not in any common language that I knew. Perhaps some old ancient tongue for decoration? It didn’t matter to me I had a reason to enter the store for the first time.

The sign had been on my mind the entire time pacing back and forth questioning if I should enter the place. Finally I decided that I would ask about the sign and leave, when I entered I noticed a little desk with a collection of papers and books, so I had assumed it to be a front desk of sorts. As I approached the desk I noticed that the décor of the place was very calming and very eloquent. I figured the owner would be a fairly affluent older woman. I noticed something as I approached the desk there was no one there no customers and no owner as far as I could tell. So as I arrived at the desk, I rang the bell and it was almost as if a man just appeared out of thin air. He introduced himself as Mr. Raleigh, he looked rather young but he seemed much older. He spoke as if he were a grandfather conversing with his grandson. It was quite odd but I thought nothing of it. As he droned on about store I began to day dream.

I dreamt of the round table the great table of King Arthur and his knights, and I awoke to find Mr. Raleigh had disappeared.  I went to find him and apologize for falling asleep while he was speaking and being disrespectful. I found him in a small section and when I reached him he handed me a book. All he had said was take it nothing more, nothing less. I did not want to disrespect him further so I took the book without question. As I began to walk away I realized that I had completely forgotten about the sign, the entire reason I had entered the store in the first place. So I turned to Mr. Raleigh and asked about it after apologizing. He said that there was no sign in his window. I was curious so I asked him to follow me so that I could show him the sign, yet when I exited the shop the sign was gone. Mr. Raleigh told me to go home and get some rest and return when I had finished the book.

Arriving home, no one had really noticed my absence and it had suddenly occurred to me that it was almost time for dinner so I hurriedly went and washed up. Over dinner I didn’t speak of the sign or the bookstore. It just wouldn’t have fit in the conversation. After dinner I retired to my room to at last start reading the book that Mr. Raleigh had given me. As I began uncovering the book, I noticed that it was a fairly plane leather bound book with a title of The Legend Of King Arthur and his Knights. I found it almost ironic, that the book he had given me had been about the same topic of my day-dream. So I turned to the first page and to my dismay it had been written in the same language as the non-existent sign had been written in. I put the book down then told myself I would return to the bookstore tomorrow to tell Mr. Raleigh and watch as the words magically just turn into a common language and him thinking that I was crazy.

I ended up dozing off and it turned out that when I woke up, there was a great commotion around me. Not fully coherent I sat up and noticed a great pandemonium and for some reason I was in a tower not my house. It was all mostly a blur from what I remember but it seemed way too real to be a dream as I watched Sir Mordred cut down King Arthur and then Sir Galahad. Following suit each knight of the round table fell to Mordred’s blade in one desperate final mêlée. When I truly woke up in the real world just thinking it was a dream I carried out my normal daily routine, and later went to the bookstore.

Yet again the sign had been in the window yet I shown no attention to it. I began to approach Mr. Raleigh and tell him that I couldn’t read the book he had given me. He had told me that he knew that I would not be able to read the book because it had been in ancient Britannian. He had also told me that the sign I kept seeing was in the same language as well, that’s not even the craziest part he. He then confided in me that he was the great wizard Merlin. Then shortly after I was reawakened by Mr. Raleigh, realizing it had only been a dream I asked if he could read the book. He had said no but the story was about the portensious and traitorous Mordred, and that the only reason he knew was because that is what his father’s father had told him.