by JB Dutton
Chapter 8
Dream #42 : I’m at a circus show. It’s like all the performers are in the ring at once – a lion tamer cracking his whip, acrobats making a human pyramid, sequined riders jumping from one galloping bareback horse to another, trapeze artists flying and spinning overhead, clowns running after a crazy little car... and above all of them a tightrope. And the person holding the balance pole, wobbling in the middle of it, is Mom. She slips but regains her balance and I turn in fear to the person next to me. It’s my dad. I point up at Mom as she inches across the rope with no net to catch her underneath. When I turn back to Dad, he’s gone.
A stretch limo drove us back from New Jersey through the Lincoln Tunnel to the slushy streets of Chelsea. It was super plush, pimped out with computers, a mini bar, and even wi-fi. I guess when you’re an alien, money is no object.
I sat beside Noon, biting my nails the whole way. I’d called the apartment and there was no answer, so I didn’t really have my hopes up that Mom would be there.
Okihiko and Elle said nothing the entire time. Both were imposing and beautiful in their different ways. And yet there was something similar about them that I couldn’t quite figure out. Noon too. And the rest of the Temple of Truth members. If I thought about it, even Cilic had it, no matter how sullen and threatening he behaved. I asked Noon what had happened to Cilic, how come an elbow in the chest from a teenage girl had knocked him cold? But he was evasive.
When we pulled up outside the Warrington, I rushed in with Noon right behind me. After an excruciatingly slow elevator ride, I burst through the front door of the apartment. No one was there and nothing was out of place. Mom’s toiletries were gone from the bathroom, her suitcase was missing from her room.
I sat on the edge of her bed and began to cry. Noon appeared in the doorway, his voice filling my head.
“I apologize, Kari. This is my fault.”
I blinked at him through my tears.
“What do you mean? Why are you in my head?”
He just looked at me. Here was a man who made me feel like no other. A man who was somehow inside my mind, connected to my soul. A man who had just saved me from the clutches of a... a what?
“I need some answers, Noon. I really, really need to know what’s going on and if you care about me at all, you have to tell me.”
He closed his eyes. The voice I heard was almost a whisper.
“You’re right. Come with me.”
