Do you look the same in your dreams as you do in real life? Tomas turned his face from side to side, and looked disapprovingly at his skin in the mirror. Did Sky see him like this? She’d never grimaced, but maybe she was just being polite. Did her face look the same? He’d spent the previous night searching online. After eating a hot curry, his stomach wasn’t going to let him get to sleep, so he felt he might as well fill his time productively. To his surprise, it took only an hour to find a girl that could be Sky. She lived in Chicago and although the photo was a bit fuzzy, she looked a close match. He’d sent a request to be her friend, with a quick message about whether she shared his dreams.

The blanket of snow that had transformed his rundown neighborhood into a fairytale, had almost gone, revealing the dreary reality that lay beneath. Tomas pulled up his collar and entered the grey world. The crisp, still air had been forced aside by a raw easterly wind, coming up from the estuary. It seemed much colder. Granddad called it a lazy wind, because it went straight through you, instead of going around. Everything looked grimy and miserable - even the red buses struggled to bring color to the morning. Dirty, slushy lines on the road, served as tramlines, marking out the route for the passing traffic; once on the track, you could not escape your destiny.

Tomas turned the corner and mingled with the morning crowd, grudgingly making their way to places they’d rather not be. He decided to join the few brave souls taking the bridge, rather than chancing his luck with the traffic and sludge. He paused in the middle and glanced down the road. He tried to imagine what it had looked like on the night of his walk, but that world had gone, and he wondered whether it had also been a dream. He walked past the spot where the dark figure had watched him, without another thought and descended the steps.

The houses on this side had small, front gardens. Tomas looked at the few hardy snowmen, clinging desperately onto life with their heads slumped forward, surrounded by their fallen body parts. They resembled crumbling statues, built in an era of hope, by a once great race. Now they served only as a reminder of a better time, long gone.

Tomas stopped suddenly in the middle of the pavement, and beamed. A vision of Sky in her summer dress, filled his mind. A passing woman wondered briefly about the cause of his joy, before slipping back into her own world. Tomas clenched his jaw; she had to be real, and he would find her!