Chris had always loved garage sales. Especially on Saturday mornings before the good stuff had been looted.

When he was really young, his grandfather Curtis had taken him to his first garage sale. This trip became one of many as they explored one garage sale after another for the next 20 years.

It was at those early garage sales that Chris discovered the magic of secondhand things. Things that have been previously loved but now needed a new home.

As Chris wandered around on this particular Saturday morning, he realized that most of the stuff in this particular garage sale was junk, as was often the case. But this one seem particularly disappointing.

As he walked towards the back of the garage, he noticed a few pieces of furniture, a few odd and old worn pillows here and a blanket there. But as he walked around, he couldn’t really find anything that caught his eye that he had to have.

As he walked around the back of the garage, he bumped into an older woman who was clearly the owner of the house. She was clearly just making small talk, asking if she could help him find anything, and how was he doing today?

Chris told her he was fine, and was just trying to see what was around. He asked how she was doing, and she said she was doing okay but was having a really hard time since she had lost her husband the month before.

A little shaken up with that response, Chris didn’t immediately know what to say. But he could sympathize, having lost his grandfather just three months earlier.

He said “I know it’s really tough when we lose someone we love…” She smiled at him and said, “It sure is; all we can do then is hang onto the memories.”

That really resonated with Chris… “All we can do then is hang onto the memories…”

He went around the corner in the garage and found a few more odds and ends, but nothing significant or worth his time.

As he wandered, the woman re-approached him with a pillow in her hands, and said “I don’t know why, but I think you might like this.”

“It was my husband‘s favorite pillow, and in particular he loved to take naps on it. I swear it must’ve been so comfortable he would wake up after his naps with this huge smile on his face most of the time.” She paused, and said, “Once in a while he would wake up with some tears, but he always went back to take his naps with this pillow again the next day.”

Chris was not particularly in love with the design of the pillow. It looked like it was from the 1920s and hadn’t been recovered, nor had it been taken particularly good care of. In fact it looked a whole lot like people had slept on it for most of the last century.

He asked the woman how much she wanted for it. With no hesitation, she said, “You know what, it’s your lucky day. Take it home and I hope you enjoy it as much as my husband did.”

Chris smiled and looked around for some trinket or something he could grab so he could leave a little money for her. He found the kind of old bookshelf game he loved since he was a kid, and he paid her the five dollars for the box.

As he headed out, he wished her a good day. She wished him farewell, and he was on his way.

The week rolled by, and it been pretty boring. He hadn’t tried using the pillow the woman had given him the Saturday before, thinking he would give it a try on one of his favorites, a good mid-afternoon Saturday nap the next week.

He hadn’t slept very well the night before, so Chris pushed through until 2 in the afternoon and decided to take his much needed nap. He headed up to his room, turned out the lights, and rested on his bed.

Chris closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep. He was so tired it didn’t take very long. As he drifted off into a dream, Chris’s brain felt distinctly clear. His whole vantage point was like he was in some sort of room, but it wasn’t a room he recognized.

Oddly, on a table in the center of the room, he saw the very pillow that he had laid down on just a few minutes prior. As he looked around the room, he realized he could see into the room, and could actually see his own hands as well. It was almost as if the view was through his own eyes, or he was wearing some sort of strange augmented reality glasses.

Suddenly someone Chris didn’t know walked in front of him in the room. It was a little jarring, but Chris didn’t wake up. After all, the man looked friendly enough.

After a moment of hesitation, the man started speaking. He said to Chris, “Hi my name is Jim. I’ve passed away. Because if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t be here…” Jim paused for a second and added, “…but that’s not going to make sense just yet so let’s go back to the beginning. When I was in my 20s. My grandfather gave me this pillow.” Jim lifted the pillow up off the table – it looked exactly like the one Chris had just put his head down on.

Jim added, “… and my grandfather said his dad had originally given it to him. We don’t know much before that. Sure, it looks like a regular beat up old pillow. In fact, it looks kind of shoddy, but the looks aren’t what’s important.”

Jim tried tidying up his train of thought, and started speaking again, “So like I said, my name is Jim, and my wife Chloe is probably who you got this pillow from, because I’d recognize her if she were here… so I imagine it’s been handed off to someone that Chloe thought would appreciate the unique gift of perspective it offers.”

With a bit of a pause, Jim shifted from a casual conversational style to more that of a teacher. “So here’s the deal. Before you lay down for a nap, think about someone you love. Someone who isn’t with us anymore, or I guess I should say isn’t with you anymore. Because I’m not with you anymore after all either.” Jim chuckled subtly to himself at his deadpan humor.

“So when you think of that person who is no longer with you, try to think of them as you fall asleep, and what should happen is when you get into your dream state it won’t be a regular dream. As long as you’re sleeping on this pillow after you’ve thought about that relative or friend or acquaintance, they’ll be here with you, and you can talk as if they’d never left. They’ll know everything that they had seen in their lives, and will keep anything that you share with them while you’re using the pillow.”

Jim added, “And I should say, they’ll be here. Not a vision, not something out of your imagination, really in this room like I am now. I guess I should emphasize this is not a pre-recorded message.” Jim laughed a little louder this time. “I’m actually here talking to you right now, as my grandfather was the first time I saw him after he passed. We can talk again anytime you want; like I said it works for acquaintances, and you’re welcome to ask me questions.”

Chris realized he’d been listening the whole time, but hadn’t said anything. He tried to think of what to ask Jim. He asked, “So it works with anyone I could think of? I could think of President Nixon and meet him in the room?”

Jim paused for a moment and said, “Well I never thought about that, but I guess you could… that might be kind of weird. Also, you might wind up with Secret Service in the room with you.” Jim laughed harder still.

Chris told Jim thank you for explaining how it worked, and asked if he had any advice for who he should think about.

Jim said it’s best to start with someone that you miss and who left you, and someone that loved you and would miss you. For me that was always my grandfather. But sometimes I would talk to my grandmother, or my mom too, after she passed. So really it comes down to who you want to see, and the deal is you can see anyone you want to see as long as you want to see them as long as you’re asleep.”

Jim noted that was the important part; “You can’t take it with you… Just like in life. When you’re gone, the opportunity is gone too. But you can ask them anything. You can give them a hug. You can just be here, and listen to a relative read their newspaper to you.”

It felt like it had been only a few minutes, but after Chris thanked Jim one last time he drifted for a moment And realized he was waking up. It had been over an hour.

Chris guessed this is what Chloe must’ve meant when she handed Chris the pillow. Jim was always happy after naps because he got to see people he loved and missed.

Chris gently placed the pillow back on his bed and went downstairs to make himself some dinner.

He decided he would stay up a little late and try to think of who he wanted to see that night while he was asleep.

Of course in the end, he decided it would be his grandfather, but Chris wanted to also come up with a list of things to try to ask him, and tell him.

He hadn’t thought about the fact that Jim didn’t say how to take things in with you. Like, how to bring in a question or a list of news. But that wasn’t important because Chris imagined he would be able to access anything in his brain while he was in there. So he just had to think about it a little beforehand, build a little mental to do list, and he could talk to whoever it was about whatever he wanted.

Chris made his dinner, stayed up, and watched a few shows. Eventually at around midnight, he headed off to bed.

He tried to think about the last time he done anything with his grandfather before his grandfather’s accident. Unfortunately he had been stuck in a home for six months before he died, but before that he’d been incredibly durable. Chris had also always gone everywhere with him, and they’d done all sorts of things together.

Chris decided he would focus on ask his grandfather how he was, and tell him he missed him. Chris thought about his grandfather, and even though Jim hadn’t said anything about, it Chris gently hugged the pillow before he laid down to go to sleep while he thought about his grandfather.

Chris went to lie down on his bed, drifted off to his nighttime sleep, and held in his head the idea of talking to his grandfather.

Chris was usually fussy about the pillow he slept on, but something about this scruffy old pillow made it comfortable, even though it should’ve been incredibly uncomfortable.

It was probably just the idea of seeing loved ones again. He drifted off to sleep even faster than earlier that day, and “woke up” in his dream in that same room again. As before, no one was there at first, but he remembered that had been the deal with Jim too.

So Chris just waited and after a little bit of time, maybe a few minutes he saw someone come in from the side. They sat down And it seemed they were probably as confused as Chris was when he had first seen Jim earlier that day.

Suddenly the man made eye contact as he had sat down and looked across the room and obviously saw Chris sitting there looking at him, and suddenly the man burst into tears.

Chris said, “It’s good to see you too, grandpa, I’ve missed you.“ They talked for a while, and Curtis asked Chris what he’d been up to, where he’d been, and if he found anything interesting at any good garage sales since he had passed.

Pausing for a moment, Chris said, “You know, it’s funny you’d ask that… you’re never gonna believe this…”