My Dream Glasses

I woke up from my dream, in which the sky was so blue and the water so clear, only to find that everything in my view had turned vague as normal. It was another day that began with the pale sunlight. What a disappointing day! How I wish I could get rid of my gloomy world! How I wish I could live in my dream forever and never wake up! And how I wish I could have a pair of eyeglasses of my own! If only everything could go back!

I couldn’t bear to think of the past. My dad passed away shortly after my birth. After that, my mom went away and never returned. I was left with my grandpa.

I spent my entire childhood in the village. Every day grandpa would take me to the broad green fields, herding crowds of sheep. The clouds chased each other across the sky on those blustery days.

However, at the age of nine, I caught such a severe fever that I narrowly missed meeting areal. When the fever was gone, my world became totally blurry. I was no longer able to enjoy viewing the beautiful scenery anymore.

Great changes had taken place in the village. People from the outside came here to build roads and various kinds of facilities were established as well, the glasses shop included.

With grandpa’s great effort, I went to school and made acquaintances of many new friends. One day, one of them told me about the magic of glasses, which fascinated me so much. As long as I passed by, I would stick around in the optician’s, absolutely attracted by the crystal glasses.

I couldn’t remember how many times I had even the same dream that I recover my eyesight and how many times I hesitated to express my wish to grandpa. When I saw my grandpa, his white hair and slight figure soon appeared in my mind. Even though I could not see that clearly, I did sense that. With the wish frozen in my throat, I sighed deeply instead.

From then on, I had been keeping faith in my mind that I was going to acquire the eyeglasses independent of grandpa. Wandering around the wayside or sometimes the garbage can, I would bend down to look for discarded bottles after the school was dismissed. Whenever I felt exhausted, the illusion in my dream would come to me. As if it had just been purred in the water, my world was shining attractive freshness and appealing brightness, which filled my heart with hope and encouraged me to hold on.

Perhaps grandpa wouldn’t discover my secret until he saw my glasses. Or perhaps he was never to get the chance to know that anymore.

Three months later, my efforts finally paid off. I still remember it was a Sunday afternoon that I eventually gained my dream glasses. I could hardly wait to try them on.

Unfamiliarly, the sky was tinged with grey, thick black smoke pouring out of the huge chimney in the distance. I was not fully discouraged until I got close to the bank. No clear water, no fish but floating plastic bags here and there in the stream. I stood there, silent, as the sun set slowly and the last ray of sunglow disappeared gradually from the horizon.