Scultore di Sogni Dream Sculptor Ch. 01

I was eleven, a year before puberty hit when my paternal grandfather died. The thing I remember most about my grandfather was he had a thick head of silver hair that really contrasted with his deep black skin. He chewed tobacco using a clay spittoon next to his easy chair when inside the house and ended up dying of throat cancer. Grandpa had served in Italy in WW II where he had met and married my Sicilian grandmother.

After he died my father and uncle each received some keepsakes from his second wife who remained in the house as legal inheritor of his entire estate as he had no will. My dad passed on to me a silver signet ring with an ceramic Italian flag inlay that I wore on my thumb for a few months in memory of my grandpa. After a bully tried to steal it at school I stuck it in a keepsake ring box and pretty much forgot all about it.

Many years later when I was 45 my father passed away and I was the executor of his estate. After taking care of all his final bills and selling the house and farm I grew up in, as I had long since moved into my own house, things were finally settled. My brother and I inherited a grand total of twelve million dollars after selling the farm which we split evenly.

Going back to Wasilla and jumping through all the legal hoops to settle my father's estate reminded me that I had my own family heirloom in a ring box in the bottom of my safe. I pulled it out and was surprised that it was just as shiny as I remembered it being. I vaguely recalled it had a strange inscription on the inside so I looked and sure enough it read SCULTORI DI SOGNI in clear block letters on the inside surface of the band.

This being the 21st century I pulled up a translation app which confirmed it was Italian and the meaning was Dream Sculptor which I assumed was the company name for the jeweler who had made it. The ring was quite attractive and at 45 it fit perfectly on my right hand ring finger as if it had been sized for me.

The ring felt a little odd because it was heavier than I expected but once it reached my body temperature it actually felt warm, almost like it was alive. I put that off as my over active imagination competing with my grief to make me feel comforted by the ring so I left it on and didn't think about it much. To be honest I had completely forgotten about it until my wife Tina got home from the hospital where she was a doctor.

I guess this is where I should tell you about my self and family. I have been told many times that I look a lot like the actor Danny Glover. Regular features, dark skin and an imposing figure with a rather mellow voice. My wife Tina on the other hand most resembles Lucy Liu, a petite, beautiful Chinese woman. Tina grew up in Hong Kong. We met at university of Alaska and fell in love finally marrying two decades ago.

Mostly we have had a successful marriage but we both wanted kids and as it turned out Tina had fertility problems. Our solution was to adopt Zelda and Rose, twin girls whose parents were dear friends from Romania. We had met Andrei and Crina at university and we did a lot of couples activities together. I was Andrei's best man when they married and Tina had been a brides maid for Crina. They had died in a car accident, hit by a drunk driver when the girls were five going home from our New Years Eve party.

The sad thing is with no relatives in the USA the foster system would have almost certainly kept the girls circulating through different host families until they were eighteen because children over the age of three are only rarely adopted. We could not let that happen and started adoption procedures only a week after their parents had died.

Zelda and Rose were fraternal twins and as alike as any two sisters. Both girls were dark eyed and slender like Crina their biological mother. Zelda was a red headed cross country runner while Rose had very light brunette hair and was a martial artist. They were currently living in the dorm at University of Alaska as sophomores aged twenty.

We lived in Fairbanks, Alaska and were a generally happy family. Like most couples our sex life had faded away to a routine once a week event that had become more habit than passion. Tina had recently become chief radiation oncologist at the hospital while I had spent twenty years working my way up through a well respected financial planning company advising people how to invest so they could retire comfortably.

I was senior enough that when Covid broke out I had transitioned to doing my planning sessions over Skype from my home office and worked by appointment only. Typically Tuesday through Friday I worked with six clients a day between the hours of nine and two and the rest of my time was my own. Every Monday I did have to go into the office but that was as much for appearances as any other reason. Tina unfortunately as an administrating doctor was at the hospital fifty hours a week which was tiring. Tina was so happy every time she saved a patient I couldn't complain without feeling like a total ass.

"What's that?" Tina asked pointing to the ring.

"Family heirloom, I had completely forgotten I had it until I was settling my father's estate."

I noticed for the first time in ages during dinner just how hot I still found my wife. Her delicate Chinese features were such a contrast to the women in my own family tree and I found myself smiling as we sat down to eat dinner. I had thrown together a bag salad and grilled fish, nothing fancy but fulfilling.

"Want to fool around?" I asked putting the dishes in the washer with a wink.

"Sorry Fred, I am just not in the mood. Losing a patient always dims my spirits." She said.

I tried not to resent it but the answer was pretty typical. Not in the mood, needed to finish up some paperwork, too tired, wrong time of the month. Maybe she really was tired because after snuggling up on the couch she drifted off while we were watching TV. The next thing I knew time seemed to slow down to a crawl. There was an antique mantel clock just below the wall mounted TV and the second hand seemed to be taking longer and longer as it clicked to each mark on the dial. I was thinking it was broken and would need to be fixed when I noticed the TV commercial was also slowing down as if it were the game winning catch being shown on instant replay.

I looked at Tina and as I did the strangest thing yet happened. As I focused on my wife it was as if I was drawn inside her dream. She was at work talking to the son of the patient she had lost today to cancer. While things looked mostly normal to my perception the colors in the dream were noticeably odd, like looking at a reflection in a gold backed mirror. Also the man she was talking to had a vertical series of gauges hovering to the left side of his figure. I looked more closely and read the labels on each. They showed an image like a gas gauge in a car with a knob in the center bottom and a needle pointing somewhere from all the way left to all the way right. The top gauge said Hate on the left and Love on the right. Its needle pointed straight up half way between the two emotions. Next was Lust and Chastity which I was happy to see tipped most of the way to Chastity. Then came Envy and Sympathy, also tipped significantly right to Sympathy. Next was Lead and Follow tipped hard left to Lead as she was explaining the hard realities of death gently to the son. More gauges were visible the harder I looked. Greed and Charity, Wrath and Serenity, Sloth and Ambition, Pride and Humility, Fear and Hope, Doubt and Faith mostly pointing to the middle of each emotional range.

After she finished with the son her next dream was a young mother with a boy who had a rare form of bone cancer that was responding well to treatment. The surprising thing was this time the Lust and Chastity pointer was a little bit tipped towards Lust rather than being hard over on Chastity as it had been for the first dream.

While I was pondering the significance of this the house phone range waking Tina and suddenly everything was moving at normal speed again. Answering I was disgusted to have to deal with a telemarketer and by the time I was done Tina had gotten up and taken herself to bed.

I locked the house up and brushed my teeth in preparation for my own rest finding Tina once again sound asleep as I turned out the lights and climbed into bed. As I was starting to drift off I snuggled up to Tina as the big spoon and suddenly I was drawn into another dream. This time however the dream was of our recent dinnertime conversation and I saw Tina's readings for myself. I was saddened to see that of the ten gauges six were pretty vertical readings with Hate--Love and Lead--Follow being about halfway to the right side. Unfortunately Lust--Chastity was significantly tilted to the right while Doubt--Faith and Envy--Sympathy were significantly tilted left to what I perceived as negative values. Figuring it was just a dream I focused on the Doubt--Faith setting and turned the knob shifting it from half doubtful to significant levels of Faith. Slowly the needle shifted with each twist of the knob like a battery gauge slowly filling from a quarter charge to three quarters full. Turning the knob seemed to take a lot of effort and as soon as I let go of it I sank into a deep exhausted slumber of my own.

The next morning when I woke up Tina was already gone to work. I made myself an omelet for breakfast and then went about my day working my clients through their portfolios one by one until my official workday was done. Once I was finished I changed into workout clothes and spent an hour on the elliptical to keep myself in shape. Heading to the shower I looked out the window which let me see over to the neighbors into their solarium enclosure where Mrs. Neal was sunbathing in her skimpy bikini. Shirley was a well preserved 35, with long Nordic blond hair and piercing blue eyes. We were good neighbors but nothing more than a casual flirtation had ever happened between us. However as I looked down I was drawn into her dreams. I was starting to get used to this feeling of time slowing to a crawl and colors changing while I went inside a sleepers head.

This dream was kind of a shock when I dropped in. Shirley was kneeling on the floor looking up at me and my gauges had some intriguing readings on them. I looked more closely at the gauges and they were numbered with zero at the center point on top and one to ten at marks going each way from center with ten being full out for whatever the gauge was reading. Most of Shirley's gauges for me were within two points of zero but the Lust--Chastity gauge read eight on the Lust scale and the Doubt--Faith gauge was a five on the Faith end of the scale. The Doubt--Faith scale was the one I had adjusted on Tina before I passed into deep sleep last night and I wondered what difference if any that change made so I decided this was the perfect chance to try it again and see.

Mentally reaching out I had just grasped the knob when the dream me said, "Do you trust me slave?" and the Shirley figure shivered. I twisted the knob as hard as I could and it shifted to ten on the Faith side of the scale before Shirley could respond.

"Master, I trust you with my heart, body and soul!" Shirley whispered like a prayer.

"Present." The dream me commanded and Shirley stripped her bikini off and knelt in the classic BDSM slave pose. Back arched to thrust out her breasts, knees spread with hands open palm up on her thighs, face and eyes staring down at my dream self's feet.

While I had never myself been into the whole BDSM scene I freely admit the pose was very stimulating, with Shirley displaying herself as a fully vulnerable willing participant in whatever fantasy dream she was having here. However I was experimenting here to see what if any effect I was having on the real Shirley, not the dream woman whose figure was somewhat better than the real thing in her dream. In real life she was a very well preserved attractive 35 year old mother of two grade school boys seven and nine years old. With a bit of sag and a few minor wrinkles here and there. Her dream self however was the flower of ripe adult femininity, early twenties with a taunt flat stomach and perky breasts that had not nursed two babies for a year each.

I willed myself free of her dream, showered and dressed in casual clothes. After dressing I went into our back yard and puttered around where I was sure Shirley could see me if she happened to be looking. Less than ten minutes later came a knock on our open fence gate.

"Oh, hello there Shirley how are you doing?" I said looking up and seeing her there wearing a beach wrap around her still bikini clad body.

"I am doing alright, I was just getting up from a nap and was wondering what your family is doing for the Fourth of July?" She asked.

The question was a little odd as an excuse to come over and talk as I was sure she had already talked over the block party plans with Tina earlier. I decided a little test was in order if I were going to learn anything.

"Trust me, I will give anything you wish to present serious consideration." I said firmly.

The effect was immediate and interesting as Shirley trembled slightly and flushed red over her whole body gasping for breath. For a second I thought she was going to fall to her knees but she grasped the gate more firmly and stayed on her feet with an obvious effort.

"Thank you Sir, uhm Fred I really appreciate that." She finally managed to say after a long pause between my statement and her answer.

I took a few steps closer and heard her inhale sharply puffing out her chest as if seeking my approval. From this distance I could smell her arousal, there is no mistaking the scent of a woman who is fully excited. Her nipples were also so hard they were like beacons showing through her bikini and wrap as hard nubs.

"Unfortunately this isn't a good time for me, perhaps if you come back Saturday at six we can sit down with Tina and work things out in detail, however you wish to Present yourself." I said carefully emphasizing the word Present once again.

She gave a little shiver of excitement and responded softly, "Yes Sir, whatever works best for you." Blushing even harder she backed up a step and practically fled back to her home.