Splendor House ... Chapter Two ... the Cafe

This posting is suited for mature audiences only. It may contain a story line that could make you uncomfortable. I hope that won't dissuade you from continuing but if you are faint of heart, or lean toward the prudish, then please do not proceed.
                                                   

Chapter 2                                                          

Penny slowly opened her eyes, almost afraid to look around the room. This was the 4th time this week she had dreamed about these wild sexual, disjointed and disturbing things. And she was ever so glad to realize that she was still in her own safe little suburban house, alone. Each time the dreams became more real, more vivid, more intense and more depraved.

She might have been able to shirk off the last three, but she had a name and location now and after work today she would investigate and see what she could find out about this Dr. Firth and an urban brownstone boarding house. She hoped there would be a link to something and that she could do something to make these dreams depart.

Penny had never been what you would call afraid of sexual play but these dreams didn't have the playful, stuck on a deserted island with Johnny Depp or swept off her feet by Channing Tatum kind of feel. This was down and dirty, almost hurtful and hate filled sex. She never saw a face only the intense deep blue eyes of whoever or whatever she was having sex with. And she had never been involved with that kind of sex or for that matter had any interest in what, she felt was raw, brutal sex. This was unsettling and seemed more real that the sunlight that came into her kitchen window as she stood at the sink and rehashed last night's dream of debauchery in her mind. And what came to mind was those eyes. Not really human looking but not any other beast she had ever seen in real life. She shivered.

She was sure she needed to make a doctor's appointment and perhaps call her former therapist and see if she could make an appointment with her as well. There had to be some organic or some latent memory that was making her feel this way and dream of things she didn't have a clue about. And she must sit down at her computer and look into Dr. Firth whoever that was or if it was a real person. But for now Penny pushed these thoughts to the back of her mind, she had to get ready for another typical day at the cafe.

She and her best friend from college had opened a small but elegant cafe in the downtown area of their hometown after graduation. Gosh that seemed like ages ago. Well, you could say that 12 years was ages. In that time Penny had lost one religion, found a spiritual path, gotten married, divorced, moved 5 times, gotten a cat, lost her parents, and moved to the suburbs to distance herself from work. Yes, 12 years could be called ages.

She and Megan, her business partner and best friend had lived above the cafe briefly when they first opened the cafe but both had found partners of sorts and moved out leaving the space just as they had found it...a mess. Old crates that had never been unpacked from the former owner of the space were still stacked in the back room of the upstairs apartment number 3. The brick walls and original wood plank floor showed signs of the 150 year old history that it held. It was a crappy looking place now but when they had lived there, it had been at least in their minds, truly shabby and chic. Both she and Megan had thought about renting out the spaces after awhile but they had so much personal junk and stuff stored in number 3 that neither of them put the thought into action. Besides, they were also using numbers 1 & 2 for the storage of dry goods from the cafe, and the items left by the owner. Thought had never come to action.

But today, the cafe was closed as it was every Monday and Penny and  Megan had agreed that today was the dreaded start to clean out the mess day. Neither of them were "all in" on this task but they needed to address this mess sooner not later.

After all, it was their building and they could and should take advantage of this opportunity.