Marty changed courses jumping into a computer programming course. He admitted being fascinated with computer since the Atari age. They stayed roommates and were suppose to cross the stage on the same day they found out their senior year in college.

A trip is planned for all seniors only., the beginning of the year. They had many options to choose from. Earlier classes chose party spots like Daytona or Myrtle Beach where all parties were at.

Soni had never paid the trips any attention until Marty burst into the room waking him up about the overseas trip that was added. He tossed Soni several pamphlets of the locations and left the room to tell others. Soni glance at them through sleepy eyes mumbling out some locations. Hawaii, Egypt, Kenya, Germany, Paris, London, Asia, and other spots somebody orchestrated for the seniors. He glanced at some Of the prices and fell asleep thinking that Marty should know better. Soni doesn't go on a trip or to parties.

When the last semester began for the year, Marty and Eric Blight came into the room talking about trips the seniors had voted on. "Some people just don't know how to have fun," Marty said falling back on his bed pouting.

Eric grabbed the chair from the desk, spinning it around, sitting on it backward. Eric Blight and Marty knew each other from their childhood days before Marty left to go stay with his uncle. Eric transferred from a college in California to Nevada in his sophomore year.

Soni thought that Eric was as laid-back as Marty. And when the two were together they had jokes for days about each other and whoever else was around. Eric's brown skin and short Afro attracted a lot of attention from the girls when he first arrived. Girls were attacking him left and right trying to be his steady mate before the other.

White people outnumbered the blacks twelve to one, and Eric found himself in heaven. He dressed impressively at all times knowing the advantage he had on campus.

Soni sat up, "what happened now?" He asked knowing that they wanted him to ask.

"Instead of a cruise or a good party location, the seniors broke it down to Europe or Asia."

"This isn't good," Eric tossed in with his deep voice.

Soni reached down, pulling the doors open to the bottom of his nightstand. He retrieved the stack of booklets that he had thrown down there months ago. He had planned to throw them away when the opportunity came but forgot about them completely. He searched through the stack for the brochures on Egypt and Asia. He found them, tossing the rest on the bed beside him. He didn't know why he was looking. He didn't plan on going anywhere anytime soon.

Marty and Eric continued to whine amongst each other. Soni tuned them out looking through Egypt's brochure first. It contained pictures of pyramids and the cities that the tour contained. It also had pictures of the hotel they would be staying in.

Not bad Soni thought looking closely at the picture. He could see exquisite rugs on the floor and ancient designs the room still possessed. He reached the end and flipped it over to the back to see the cost for the trip. Soni whistled, reading the five hundred dollars it was going to take to go.

Not bad. Still, it's not bad. Soni wasn't planning on going, but he thought that the price was reasonable for the seniors graduating. Most of their parents were probably funding the trip for them anyway. Soni tossed the pamphlet to Eric's outstretched hand and started on the Asia brochure.

The first thing he noticed when he opened the booklet was women. Beautiful Asian women. Soni smiled. They're advertising their women to get tourist, he thought to himself flipping through quickly. The brochure was thicker than Egypt's brochure. Soni didn't feel like taking his time so he rushed, quickly flipping through the pamphlet. He closed it tossing it also to Eric. 

"Looks like you're making plans Eric."

"Yep," he said nodding his head. "I only have one life. I'm trying to see the world and enjoy it before life gets rougher when we graduate away from school."

Soni laid back that night thinking about what Eric said. He had thought about his future and started searching for jobs in his field but nothing had come up. He had enough in the bank to live comfortably in an apartment for six months at the most. He made a decision.

"I'm going to Africa," he whispered to the silent room.

It was three in the morning and Marty found the position he snored his best in. Soni filled out forms and deposited five hundred from his savings account. He figured that he would wait until a few days before the trip and withdrawal spending cash for himself. He didn't plan on spending much anyway. Buy a few mementos and that's all. That night the dreams started. He hadn't had any dreams in so long, he felt disorientated.

He spoke with students who talked about their nightmares or odd dreams that always stuck with them. He didn't remember any of them when he woke up the next morning but he did remember seeing his grandmother walking with him when he was a child. Instead of walking down a ravine by the desert as they usually did, he found them walking down a street that was foreign to him. He would find himself closing the gap between them. He could hear their voices but couldn't understand.

Every time Soni got close enough to distinguish the sounds of their voices somebody would pop up out of thin air and yell something unintelligible. Soni's eyes would pop open instantly waking him. He knew there was a reason he was having the dreams, he just couldn't figure it out. He meditated hours on end trying to search for clues. Nothing made sense to him. He would shake in frustration when he was unable to figure them out.

One night he decided that he would try to wake himself up and in a dream. He hadn't tried dream control since he was a kid, and the thought of trying it after all of these years sounded childish to him considering the profession he had chosen.

He fell asleep with a plan in his mind. He had totally forgotten and was going through the same dream and waking up. He tried for weeks on end, never to succeed in dream control. On the night that he had given up and decided to focus on something else and then it happened.

The guy jumped up out of nowhere again, this time only startling Soni. Soni blinked rapidly moving his eyes around him, focusing on one object moves to another. He looked down at his hands then up to the man yelling at him. Soni frowned looking at the man closely. He recognized him. But he couldn't remember where from. Soni felt the dream fading to blackness and quickly started looking at the scenery again.

The streets were empty, and the apartments on both sides of him were vacant. All of the windows were open, he noticed. The picture around him regained composure. Soni held his hand up putting a finger to his lips. "Shhhh... shut the hell up!"

The man became silent by Soni's sudden outburst. Soni saw the old man's facial features rest realizing that he is Asian. He wore a brown button up shirt with dust blue jeans on. He stepped back from Soni and walked back to the curb where a booth with newspapers and magazines were being sold.

"That's odd,” Soni said staring at the booth he remembers the booth too. "But where?" Soni realized the reason he had been trying to perform lucid dreaming. 

"Grandma," he said turning quickly in the direction that he had dreamed of her walking with a young version of him. He caught a glimpse of them disappearing around the corner of a building and broke into a run please don't leave me again, Soni's mind screamed. Soni turned the corner and stopped completely. 

The scenery had changed. "No," he whispered. His eyes darted left and right over the crowded street.

People dressed in robes with the hoods pulled over their heads, were walking in all directions. Soni quickly realized that they weren't ordinary civilians but monks. He was taller than most of them and still couldn't spot his grandmother anywhere. She is taller than the monks, Soni thought searching only not to find her. 

He felt an emptiness in his heart that was unbearable. He looked around helplessly at the monks walking slowly by. He realizes that they weren't walking on a paved street but a sidewalk with grass on the sides that he ran up to. 

"...Oh my God," Soni said waking up instantly from his sleep. He sat up swinging his bare feet to the room's cool hardwood floor surfaces. He hit the light switch turning it on. He fumbled around searching for the brochure but he couldn't find them.

"Hey Soni," Marty said rolling over hiding under the blanket "do you mind cutting the lights off?"

"Just a second get Barry White, I'm looking for something."

Marty had a tendency of sounding like Barry White for thirty minutes after he woke up. "You're bugging, you know that? You've been acting strange lately Doc."

"Yeah yeah, whatever," Soni said becoming frustrated. "Hey, have you seen the brochures for the trip at the end of the year."

"I don't know. You gave them to Eric, remember?" Soni's eyes darted to the desk. He walked quickly over pulling out the drawers, rumbling through the papers. He exhaled when he found the brochure of Asia. "It couldn't be a coincidence," he said flipping slowly through the pages. He stopped and stared at a certain page. He looked into the eyes of the man he had seen in his dreams that continually tried to scare Soni into waking up. Soni stared at the background seeing the newspaper and magazine stand. Soni continued to flip through the pages and stopped when he saw the temples.

They had an odd design that interest Soni. He scanned his eyes over the monks that were walking up the steps toward the dark entrance.

"Soni!" startled, Soni looked to see Marty's red bloodshot eyes staring at him.

"Okay-Okay. I'm through," he said standing up to turn the light off. He sat the pamphlet on his nightstand and laid back on his bed staring at the ceiling. He thought about the name he has read. "Ludshom" he whispered. Soni had made a new decision. He would change his plans and go to Asia instead of Egypt.

Soni went to meet Marty and Eric at the campus gym the next day for their twice a week workout. Marty convinced Soni after they had an arm wrestling bet. Soni stayed faithful, even after the first week of pain that he underwent.

Soni was impressed with the results after a year. His body had toned drastically and his face took on an angular shape. One of his professors commented that Soni's head looked similar to eagles.

Marty was right about one thing, "the girls will notice you." Soni had women approach him that wondered if he was transferred there.

What really shocked him was comments he got when people thought he played a sport. Soni, in the beginning, wasn't on Marty's workout plan. He had to start with seventy-five pounds. He couldn't believe that he was that weak now that he looked back on that part of his life.

Marty was benching three hundred easy. Soni was impressed. Soni stepped into the weight room looking around and spotting them in the corner by the mirrors. Soni joined them, and the workout began. In the process of benching, Soni spotted Eric, standing over the bar watching for any sudden loss of strength or struggles he might have.

He broke the news to them about switching his trip. "Why'd you change your mind?" Marty asked confused by Soni's decision.

"I don't know really,” he said avoiding the truth. He didn't feel like hearing any of their wisecracks about a dream he had last night. "I feel as though I've seen everything about Africa. I feel as if I've lived there a part of my life already."

"He's talking crazy again," Eric said sitting up on the benches cushioned seat.

"You should've seen the crazy move he pulled last night," Marty said stretching, then taking Eric's place on the bench positioning himself under the bar.

"I don't wanna know," Eric said walking to Soni's spot behind the bench. He glanced at Soni, "I thought we all chose Egypt? Are you going to Asia by yourself Soni? You don't want to be around us no more." Eric sniffed under his right arm in a joking matter. "Wait," he said sniffing under the other arm. "Do we stick to you?"

Marty lost his concentration and started laughing. The bar slammed to his chest causing a grunt mixed with a yelp to escape him. Eric helped lift the bar off his chest. Soni laughs at them as they struggled.

"Jesus," Marty said grabbing his chest.