Notopia

  Once again, Bradley was fishing in Gwen’s painting, and it took Rick a moment to comprehend what he was seeing. “Are you trying to catch fish?” he asked the boy.

  “Hi, Mister Rick. Nah, I am just talking with the fish again,” Bradley said.

  Rick moved up next to Bradley and said, “Well, what are they telling you today?”

  “They said to put the reel up to your ear so that you can hear.”

  Bradley lifted the pole up to Rick’s ear. “This is your dream, Rick. Time for you and the boy to go.”

  “Well, damn,” Rick said. “And all this time I thought I was the little boy.”

  Roger walked up behind Rick and relieved him of his broom. “Who says you ain’t? We can take care of the place now.”

  “We?”

  Dharma stepped out from behind Roger and set a small three-legged stool on the floor. Gone were most of the red streaks across her face, and the burns from the green ooze were nearly completely healed. Her hair was much shorter, and nothing was menacing about her anymore.

  “This is our home now, Rick. Roger and I are nobody’s dreams, and we are not human. Notopia has granted us a place to exist. Thanks to Gwen, we have gone from mortal enemies to Notopians that co-exist. Roger rather likes my simple rustic cottage, and he is quite handy to have around,” Dharma said.

  “Mister Rick, if you are done yammering, I think you better bring that stool, because we got some serious fishing to do.”

  Rick said smiling, “Yes, Bradley, I’m done yammering, and we got some fishing to do.”