The man with the green uniform ❶

The painting was an old one, maybe she had seen it in a gallery but she wasn´t really sure. While Sarah was looking at the oil painting hanged in Jonathan's office, her mind started to wander in her childhood, when she visited her grandmother's house in the country. The smell of the daisies in the garden, the old oak next to the wooden house and the sunflowers sparkling under the heat of the summer… That's what the painting reminded her. But the painting in Jonathan's office was really different from the memory that Sarah hold in her head. Instead of a house in the middle of the forest there was a little house, which seemed like a cabin, settled near to a cliff, where the limitless ocean shattered its force in the shore. Most of the sky was gray like in winter, but at the end of the horizon, where the sun was still alive, the colors of the twilight kept the hope of a new day, a better one… That little light at the end of the ocean gave her an indescribable calm, making her smile even for a moment. 
The door opened while she was still looking at that unnamed painting that Jonathan had bought in an auction some years ago. He smiled, holding his favorite cup of coffee and before he had settled in the comfortable armchair and started to read the notes on his desk next to the computer, he closed the door slowly. It wasn't the first time that he had treated her, that he had started the conversation by asking with a typical but not annoying question about her day and routine and it wasn't the only time that Sarah had said that she felt desperate. Her eyes looked tired and her skin was paler than ever. Her brown hair wasn't alive anymore and Jonathan could tell that her treatment wasn't going any well.
- I have the same dream…- Sarah almost whispered while he was drinking the steaming cappuccino. Her voice was timid but she was so sure of what she had seen in the last dream. The dream wasn't a nightmare, but it was so vague and confusing that she couldn't even understand what all was about.  It started 5 days after her 26th birthday and became more regularly, appearing almost every week since the first dream. 
- The dream?-asked Jonathan calm. She gave a nod - The one that you were escaping from old man? Was it the same?
- Every time I ask myself what that man represents she seemed confused but wanted to explain how she felt. Jonathan was looking at her directly, hearing the words that came from that mouth - The last time we agreed that guy was my father… but it's strange because I've never met him in person and the pictures that my mom had of him were different. This man, the man who appears in my dreams is another person…
- So, you finally saw his face. - he smiled pleased. It had been months that Sarah tried to find that guy, but it wasn't possible until then- How he looked like?
-He was younger than he used to looked in the other dreams- she made a pause, trying to remember every detail, but it was so clear now that she would never forget him- I know that we have the same age…I felt like I've met him in somewhere else… he's always looking at me but I am not escaping- she started to move her hands showing exactly how everything that the saw two days ago was- He's taller and his skin is pale, his eyes are blue but they are sad… I was sad too… He wears a green uniform… maybe from the army or something but its old, like from other times… He wears gloves… gloves made from leather and he takes his hat off, like saying goodbye… its cold, I can feel like is raining or something  and I feel pain… he's going… I can't see more than that but the noise of the crowd, there so many people there going to somewhere else, and then I heard a train and he wasn't there anymore…- she smiled like she was telling no sense- Call me crazy but it was so real…
-So, you think this person is real- said Jonathan smiling too- Maybe you have seen him on TV or in a movie or you have heard about him. Dreams are emotions, images, sensations or ideas that our minds create at certain stages of sleep. But they are not real; maybe you saw him in the street or in the supermarket but that doesn't mean that you and him had a story, that's what your mind created while you were sleeping, Sarah.
-I know but…- she suddenly stopped. Jonathan drank all the coffee in his cup, waiting for an answer- Never mind… it doesn´t matter.
-Come on! You can tell me everything, that's my job- he encouraged her- And I promise, I am not going to laugh.
- Well…I've always thought that there is something more than this- she said moving her hands.  He frowned, wondering what was she talking about- You know… this, life… everything.
-Do you mean after life?- he asked. She gave another nod.
-Call me stupid or crazy or whatever… but I feel that when we die, we go to somewhere else, but it's not like heaven or hell, it's more like another life, maybe parallel with this one- she smiled again- and maybe every dream that we dreamt it made by our earlier …life.

It wasn't the first time that a patient named the same topic, but for him anything could be possible even though he wasn't really sure about it. In his 8 years as a psychologist he had seen everything, including the interest of people on life after death. For Sarah, it was the first time that she shared with someone else with particular opinion; she had read many books and pages about dreams and there was nothing that could satisfy her curiosity. Sure she had dreams all her life since she was a little girl, but lately the dreams where different from those childish memories. And she knew they meant something.
-So what you are saying is that, you knew this man in other life, maybe he was a relative, a friend, your boyfriend, but you die and you seem  in a new life, where you have just few memories of that old episode of your earlier life…
-Exactly- she smiled- do you think is possible?
- There are many things we will never know and this one, is one of them, Sarah- she started to looking at the window, where the raindrops fell- But it's important what you believe and if it makes you happy it's alright, but the past should not be worrying you. What does really matters is now, what you are doing with your life…
-I know it's just a dream… but it seemed so real- she could still see the man with the green uniform- You are right… it's just my imagination, nothing more than that.
-So, how is work going?- Jonathan asked starting to taking notes. She said everything was alright but Sarah couldn't take her mind off that young man, standing in front of her, saying goodbye like in an old movie. His sad eyes, the cold winter, the crowd around them, the noise of the train and the pain in her heart of the man who was leaving.