The First Dream

"I wish you to know that you have been the last dream of my soul...
A dream, all a dream, that ends in nothing,
and leaves the sleeper where he lay down,
but I wish you to know that you inspired it."
-Sidney Carton to Lucie Manette, later Darnay

December 1816

The sky was heavy with clouds,                       

And the icy wind was blowing                                 

Gusts of rain against the windowpanes.                  

Sydney Carton Darnay was on his back,                        

Half-buried under a mass of blankets.                              

That Miss Pross had insisted on                                     

The day was cold, but not enough to snow,                   

And Sydney barely noticed the chill.                                

Soph, Sophie, Sophia—

To think her name made his heart ring like a bell.           

It was a strange thing to imagine—

A heart ringing— but that's what it was like.                     

And when she spoke his name, his heart would ring,     

And the vibrations would shudder down his spine                    

And shatter his bones with joy.                                        

He wondered what it would be like                                   

If, instead of Sophie, she had been named                      

Something horrible, like “Gertrude”.                                          

He could not imagine lying awake                                    

At night while unseen voices

Whispered “Gertrude” in his ear.

But Sophie—it had an

Inexplicable resonance to it.

This was Sydney Carton Darnay’s first love,

The first girl to ever catch his eye.

She was the first dream of his soul,

But she would not be the last.

She was the first dream of his soul,

And from that dream would come many others—

An entire lifetime’s worth.