Dreams

P. had a box full of trading cards. The box was always in the back of his first drawer next to his bed. Even when he had grown up and moved out, he told his mother, to keep them in the drawer and not to throw them out. "They are my dreams", he said.

He got married and had children, and his daughter brought trading cards home sometimes. P. remembered his old trading cards and picked them up from his mother. They were still in the box at the back of his drawer next to his old bed. "They are my dreams", he said again. P. showed them to his daughter, but she did not seem to be very interested. "They are my dreams" he sighed.

After Christmas, he wanted to have a look at his trading cards again. He could not find them. He asked his wife, and she said she had thrown them away. He got very angry and cried at her: "I lost my dreams." She said she could not understand why he was making such a fuss about them now. She pointed out that he left them at his parent's place and had never thought about them for years.

This is when he realized that he not only lost his dreams, he had never had them.