Normal Instructor

My friend and, for quite some time, coworker, Kenny, perished after a fairly long bout with cancer. But that did not keep him from appearing in a dream I had last night. In the dream, I found myself walking down the street of an unknown city. I was a little uneasy because I had lost my cellphone. Just as I turned a corner on a sidewalk in a residential part of the city, I saw my friend Kenny walking partway down the street on the opposite side. Naturally, I called to him and waved.

He stopped and allowed me to approach. “Kenny! I have not seen you for ages. How are you?” 

“Doing great,” Kenny answered, smiling.

“I’m having a bad day,” I admitted. “I lost my cellphone. But you look fantastic. Really good!” I found myself amazed by how fit he looked. He had a notable glow of health about him. Kenny is not the hugging type, so I gave him a playful punch to the shoulder. “What have you been up to?”

“I started two trucking companies,” he said without hesitation. “I threw in with a partner on one of the companies, and we are in the process of selling it.”

“That’s good. Who is your business partner?”

“Normal Instructor.”

I paused, squinting a little, as if the meaning might come into focus if I adjusted my eyes. “Your business partner’s name is Normal Instructor?”

“Yes. Normal Instructor.”

I cannot quite decide if it was good fortune or bad timing, but that is the precise moment I woke up, left standing there with him, and with that name, like a door that had just begun to open. 

—Mitchell Hegman