Time for some Solitaire

Without much else to do with the rest of the day, you turn your attention to that time-honored killer of office productivity, Solitaire. You close the office door, set the status on your office messaging app to "Do not disturb," and settle in for some good, old-fashioned time-wasting. Having an office pretty far-removed from the rest of the company and without any windows has its advantages.

You're a few games in when you start debating the merits of "Draw 3" vs. "Draw 1" games and your mind starts to wander. Maybe following a slow workday with a slow game wasn't the smartest idea. You stifle a yawn. That coffee from this morning definitely isn't doing its job any more. You briefly consider heading to the break room to grab another cup, but you aren't so sure it's worth walking halfway across the building. A few more games later, you find yourself leaning back in your chair, drifting off to a boredom nap.

As you sleep at your desk, you once again begin to dream. You are standing in an expansive, empty field, grass growing all around you, underneath a silver sun. The whole world is bathed in a pale gray light. A short distance away you see a small desk, similar to the ones in your office. Behind it sits a man in what can best be described as a cowboy outfit.

In a dreamlike stupor you drift over to the desk and recognize the seated man as Johan, your office mate. He shuffles a deck of playing cards, then deals them out. It looks like he's playing Solitaire. He makes a few introductory moves, then picks up the draw pile and looks at you expectantly.

"Draw," you say, not seeing any other moves. You have a momentary flash that in most cases saying that word to a man in full Western attire is more likely the start of a shootout than a play in a card game.

Johan turns over the next three cards, the Ace of Spades, the King of Clubs, and the Queen of Diamonds. The ace is a good start, and clearing it away leaves you with the Queen and King.

"Don't you draw the Queen of Diamonds, boy," Johan says with a drawl completely absent from his natural speaking voice. Dream-Johan is clearly committed to the role that comes with the outfit.

Before your eyes, the generic image on the Queen of Diamonds swirls, shifts and changes. Within seconds it has transformed into an image of Tara, your friend and the office receptionist. She's in her normal office attire, a nicely-fitting grey top with a low neckline that accentuates her ample cleavage, and a generic, professional-looking black skirt. As you look closer at the King of Clubs, you realize it is a smirking picture of Ben. Card-Ben pulls his lengthy penis from his pants and begins to stroke it as he stares over at card-Tara. Meanwhile, on the Queen of Diamonds card, card-Tara pulls down the neckline of her top, revealing her perfectly-formed, round breasts just as a blast of cum launches from the King card onto her chest.

"See, she'll beat you if she's able," Johan continues. Not seeing any additional moves to make with the indecent Queen card, you gesture him to draw again. He turns over two more aces, followed by the Queen of Hearts. "No, the Queen of Hearts is always your best bet."

Johan clears the two aces, leaving just the Queen of Hearts. You can hear the King of Clubs and Queen of Diamonds moaning and grunting lustily from deeper into the card pile.

You understand why you're dreaming about Solitaire and cards, given the way you passed some of this afternoon. You don't even find the sexual elements involving your friends and coworkers out of the ordinary. You are a little stuck on why cowboy-Johan is here quoting Eagles lyrics at you, though. As you ponder this for a moment, you look down and see that the Queen of Hearts is now also changing around. In an instant, you are now looking at an image of the beautiful, white city from last night's dream.

"The Queen of Hearts needs her king," a sweet, familiar, distant voice calls to you from within the card. "The city needs you. When will you reach us, Henry Dunsany?"

In that moment, all you want to do is answer her pleading and say you will reach her soon, that you will come to the beautiful city as soon as you are able. However, even in this dream you know that reaching the city through a playing card is unlikely. You absently reach forward and touch your fingers to the card. This doesn't elicit the response you were expecting, though.

Suddenly, all the cards fly off the table, like the ending of a winning Solitaire game on the computer. Tiny fireworks start to go off all around you, nearly blinding you, but seemingly having no effect on Johan.

"Now it seems to me some fine things have been laid upon your table," Johan drawls. "But you only want the things you can't get."

The misplaced lyric is that last bit of the dream you hear as you are awakened by a loud knocking on your office door.