The Dream Jumper's Promise

by Kim Hornsby

  Again.

  Chapter 12

  It was only 8 a.m. when Dave and Sally quit their jobs with Tina’s Dive Shop. They’d decided to move back to the mainland. “Thanks for giving me one day’s notice, Diver Dave.” He’d come into the shop only to collect dive gear. They were leaving in thirty hours.

  “I’m sorry, but Sally is sick, Tina.” Dave hung his head. “I didn’t want you to worry, but ...she has a lump in her breast and needs treatment. We’re going to California to be near her family.”

  Tina grabbed Dave’s arm and pulled him into a hug. “Oh, God, I’m so sorry.” And she’d been ready to yell about his lack of consideration. “Is there anything I can do?”

  Dave shook his head. “Just pray.”

  Tina wasn’t much for religion, but it was worth a try. Her problems seemed small compared to a malignant lump. At least she wasn’t fighting for physical health. Sally and Dave’s bad news made her feel selfish, too self-absorbed. She should be more grateful. At least she was alive and healthy. Somehow Tina needed to find that version of herself who arrived on Maui eleven years earlier, after a horrendous fight with her parents about needing to find her own place in the world. The pain of defying her heartbroken mother and father was left in Seattle, along with the fear of disappointing them.

  Driven by the need to prove them wrong, she’d eventually opened a dive shop, against all odds, and shown a profit. She had to get the shop back to that point. Focus on the business. Her pressing problem besides Sally’s health was finding a new dive instructor. Or two.

  Staring at the phone wondering who to call, she thought about how the Maui dive community must be talking about her. And now, she owned a dive shop with no instructors. Her friend Pepper had a captain’s license and was a dive master, able to lead certified divers. Although she might be able to fill in for emergencies in the next two weeks, rising early was difficult for Pepper. She had a night job and needed to sleep in. And she was getting ready to go on tour with the world’s most beloved rock icon. She’d try not to call on Pepper. Tina had the instructor’s certification and captain’s license. She needed someone like her, but who could be trusted with divers.

  Her ninth call was fruitful. “Let me know if anyone over there on Kauai wants to come over to Maui to work, will you?” Tina’s voice squeaked in desperation and she silently reminded herself to sound more casual.

  “Aren’t you selling the business?”

  “No, I’m not selling.” How to dispel the rumors? Start diving again. “Is that what people think?”

  “I’d just heard something. Well, if you’re serious, I have someone right here who’s interested in moving to Maui. She just got here from Honolulu and Kauai is too ka-quiet for her.”

  “Put her on. Thanks.”

  After promising the instructor that Maui would be a great place, and securing a promise from her to fly over the next day, Tina stepped into the back alley to check the weather. A man in business casual clothes hammered a ‘For Sale’ sign on Mr. Takeshimi’s tiny manicured lawn and Tina swallowed a lump in her throat. He was finally selling the house. He’d fought long and hard, hanging on to his Maui life. Mr. T shuffled across the laneway towards her wearing his house slippers. “Going to live with my daughter in Honolulu,” he said.

  Tina attempted a smile. “It’s better to travel hopefully than to arrive disenchanted.” She’d looked that one up for him, just in case. “Thank you, Tina.” His smile was genuine.

  ***

  The traffic was backed up on Papalaua and Tina abstained from honking only because the truck had her name on the side. And phone number. But she could have walked faster than driven. Should have.

  When she first arrived on Maui, years before, she’d bought an old bike and rode it everywhere. Maybe she’d resurrect that old thing from the garage. Only trouble was Obi, but with summer coming up, he was better off left at the shop in air conditioning than going around Lahaina with her in a hot truck. She was five minutes late for the appointment and arrived frustrated. She really needed every second with the doctor if she was going to survive the day. Plunking down in the chair, she recounted to Dr. Chan how Jamey was a dream expert. He’d told her not to mention he was also a soldier. Apparently there was some secret there. The psychiatrist was intrigued by the offer to read Tina’s dreams and advised her to be careful with this process. “Putting your trust in someone else is risky, especially if you don’t know them well,” the doctor said. “I’ve known Jamey for ten years and I trust him,” Tina fibbed, knowing the trust issue was up for debate.

  “Just keep in mind that his interpretations might not be accurate, Tina.” Emily Chan’s brows knit together.

  “What if this moment, right now, right here, is a dream, Doc? Maybe I’ll wake up to discover Sally isn’t sick.”

  “Let’s try some of the triggers to wake up, then.” Doc Chan patiently watched as Tina jolted and pinched and blinked. Nothing shot her into another dimension. When the appointment ended, she promised to take Jamey’s interpretations with a grain of salt.

  Back in the sunshine, Tina whistled for Obi to come out from the shade of the clinic’s bushes and then let him into the truck. It would be a sad day when the island became so populated that rules about dogs dictated Obi’s freedom. Already with the new Kahului airport, you couldn’t walk your dog through the building to greet an incoming passenger. No one trusted that you knew your dog wouldn’t pee inappropriately or jump up on people. When Tina had first arrived on Maui, the airport was small and homey. Not now with international flights coming in on the hour. She called Jamey’s number.

  “What’s up?” He sounded winded.

  “You okay?”

  “I’m on a run in the pineapple fields,” he explained.

  “Can you meet me when you’re done? I need to talk to you.”

  “Is five o’clock okay?”

  “Perfect.”

  The memory of what he looked like all sweaty caused a shot of electricity to ignite inside her and she quickly hung up. Her cheeks heated and she chided herself for thinking of Jamey in this way. It had been so long and a lot had happened since he’d been hers. Or, she’d thought he was hers at the time. He was still handsome. Still very sexy.

  The day before, she’d been sitting at her desk when a friend called to ask the name of the guy in the passenger seat of her truck earlier. “Which guy was it?” she’d asked. “The one with ratty white blonde hair or the short-haired hunk?” She’d surprised herself describing Jamey this way. When her friend verified it had been Jamey, Tina found herself saying, “You don’t want to get messed up with him.”

  “Getting messed up is exactly what I was thinking about.”

  Tina laughed, but after saying he was leaving Maui soon, she hung up, annoyed.

  After picking up a prescription and some mouse traps at the drug store, Tina drove into the McDonald’s drive-through and got herself a burger and fries. The sauce dripped on to her shorts and she reached for a napkin.

  Pulling into her parking space at the shop, she shut off the car, and then turned to look at Obi. The ribbon was still tied to his collar. She’d forgotten to remove it that morning. Or had she removed it and this was the dream? Oh God. Doc Chan mentioned trying to stick her hand through her body as a test for dreaming. If the hand sank into her form, it was not reality. When she tried, her efforts were met with a solid abdomen. “Great.” She heaved a frustrated sigh that her life had come to these reality checks.

  At her desk, the bills were piling up and Tina threw a towel on top so she wouldn’t have to look at them. At least, not until she finished her fries.

  “Hey Obi, get away from that thing!” Jamey’s voice floated in through the back door.

  It was five o’clock on the button and Tina smiled to remember how punctual he had always been.

  Looking freshly showered, Jamey walked into the back room and sat down by Tina’s desk. “Your pet was eating something unidentifiable by the dumpster.” He l
ooked reproachfully at the brindle-striped dog.

  “Obi. Lie down.” Tina made a face and pointed to a dog bed near her desk. “Thanks for meeting with me.” Her smile didn’t feel real but she hoped it looked convincing. “I want to talk to you about my dreams and some other stuff.” After talking to Doc Chan, Tina knew she had to get some answers from Jamey, address the elephant in the room. Jamey nodded. “Okay.” He lowered to the chair near hers.

  “Dreams are very personal, I’m sure you know this.” She took a deep breath. “It’s hard for me to trust you enough to tell you what I dream about. I’d like to get past that.”

  “Trust is difficult.” He sat forward in the chair, a crease between his eyebrows.

  How would she say he’d used her to cheat on Carrie when she was pregnant? “When I met you and we had what I thought was a real connection, I gave you my heart.” It hurt to admit this to his face.

  He waited.

  “But now I know that you had twins at the time you were with me.” Jamey’s eyes widened slightly.

  “This is where the trust issue comes in.” She looked him hard in the eyes. “You were having this fling with me while your wife, or girlfriend, it doesn’t matter which, was back in Seattle with newborn twins.”

  An expression of relief crawled across Jamey’s face that horrified Tina. He sat back in the chair. “You think I was married when we met?”

  “Maybe not married, but I know Carrie was very pregnant. I did the math, Jamey. Your girls are ten.” Tina sat back in her chair, matching his pose, feeling slightly smug.

  “You’re almost right.” Jamey nodded. “They’ll be ten in a few weeks. And they were premature, like most twins. Firstly, I wasn’t married when I met you, Tina. I’d broken up with Carrie. Remember I told you we split up about a month before I came to Maui.” His eyes searched Tina’s face. “What I didn’t know, and what Carrie didn’t know at that time, was that she was pregnant. When I came home from Maui, all crazy in love with a dive instructor in Lahaina, Carrie told me that we were having a baby.” He nodded. “We had a history of splitting up and reconciling. Our relationship was never solid. I decided I had to step up and marry her. That’s what she wanted. When we found out it was twins, there was no way we could do it if we weren’t together. Two babies are a hell of a lot of work.” He smiled at the thought. “We formed a solidified front. ’Course now, we see the mistakes we made, but we still pat ourselves on the backs for our motives.”

  He looked at her, his eyes soft. “I wanted those babies with all my heart. I’d always wanted to be a dad. I was mid-thirties. So, we got married.” He shrugged. “I had to think of it as a happy day, given what was in store.”

  Jamey took a deep breath and changed tacks. “We stuck it out until the girls were five, then Carrie asked for a divorce.”

  Tina swallowed. “I thought you were cheating on Carrie with me.”

  He shook his head. “No. Do you trust me now?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe.”

  “Did your shrink think I was wacky, asking you to tell me your dreams?” “She wants to hear what you say.” She wouldn’t tell him that Dr. Chan had advised her to tread carefully.

  Jamey wheeled his chair across the small expanse between them, took Tina’s hand in his two and looked into her eyes. “So, thinking I was married or at least had a pregnant girlfriend when I met you…that’s what I’ve been feeling from you—this dislike?”

  “Pretty much.” Tina winced.

  He laughed, the smile lines at his mouth and eyes looking sexy as hell. “You mean there’s more?”

  She withdrew her hand from his. “Isn’t that enough? Katie said your girls were ten and that made them either born or on their way when I met you. When I remember our last day together, something was different about you.”

  “I was upset to leave you. I loved you.”

  She gulped. “You didn’t answer my calls.”

  “Carrie picked me up at the airport and told me about being pregnant. I had to think about what to do, Tina. Then I thought it was the best way to make you hate me and move on.”

  “You should have told me the truth. All these years.”

  Jamey let out a sigh. “I’m sorry for the way I handled it. You have no idea how much I regret doing that.”

  “Me too.”

  He let go of her hands, pushed his rolling chair away. “Can we move on now?”

  She nodded.

  “Let’s hear about your dream then.”

  “It was different this time. I followed Hank from the other side of the wall and we approached the cave from the back. But a wave carried us out to the sand before we could go inside the cavern. Then Hank dispersed into a million particles and disappeared.”

  She might have said that as she reached for Hank’s hand, he held out the only solid thing left—a tiger cowry shell. It fell from what had been his hand. Tina lunged for the shell and woke. The cowry had disappeared and that was how she knew she was truly awake. Thank God. Along with a precise arrangement of M&M’s on her bedside table, Tina knew she was not still asleep. She’d formed the letter H with the candies just before turning out the light, and then admonished herself for eating candy in bed without brushing her teeth.

  Jamey stroked his chin’s stubble with one hand while conversation drifted in from the next room. Katie’s friend Megan was training to be the second shop girl and the two talked about great snorkel spots. “Honolua...Mile Thirteen...Slaughterhouse Beach.”

  Finally Jamey spoke. “Here’s what I think.” He held his arms out, like he was wide open. “What I’m going to tell you is strange and falls in that area of weirdness that most people don’t subscribe to because there’s not enough tangible evidence.”

  Tina sat forward, their knees almost touching, her eyes narrowing.

  “Keep in mind that I’m not guessing on some of this stuff and making extremely educated guesses on the rest. This is my talent and I know a lot about this shit.” He squinted at her. “And it would help if you believed, either in the fact that there are things we don’t know about in this world, or in me.” He smiled. “I hope it’s me. Actually I hope it’s both, for your sake.”

  Tina wasn’t sure what she believed in, but she nodded because she wanted to hear his explanation.

  “Okay, here’s what I am very sure to be true.” He took a deep breath. “Hank definitely is not alive in this world. I know you’re still hoping, but I feel the closure of his human life. Hank no longer exists here.” He waited.

  She covered her mouth to keep a sob from escaping. “I’m sorry, honey. I am. It’s my guess he’s lingering between worlds, unable to cross over. Maybe your hope is keeping him here.

  I’m not sure.”

  She waited for him to tell her how he knew this for a fact.

  “Or, because his body hasn’t been recovered. I don’t know. A lot of what I get is just a feeling, but it’s pretty concrete.”

  Tina’s eyes filled with tears.

  Jamey pulled her chair closer.

  “I think I always knew he was gone,” she said.

  He nodded. “We need to find his body, in case that’s how we can help him, Tina. I think that’s what he wants.” He pulled her to stand with him, took her in his arms and whispered into her hair. “We have to keep looking.”

  Tears dripped onto the shoulder of his T-shirt. “But the cave isn’t familiar. Or the coastline, or anything about the dream.” “Let’s not give up yet. That’s all I’m saying. We need another clue to find this place.”

  She didn’t want to give up. They’d continue. Jamey hugged her tightly and she had to admit, it felt good to be touched. By him. Even at such a lonely moment in her life with Hank, she wanted to turn to Jamey. He was right. Hank was gone. They had to find that cave. “If it even exists,” she said into his shoulder.

  “It’s got to.” Jamey’s tone gave her hope, for the first time in months, and she buried her face in him, not worrying about how he’d interpret her n
eed for closeness.

  Chapter 13

  When the Armed Forces found James Dunn, and he completed weeks of testing to determine his exact abilities, they were impressed. Very. His country “needed him.” The offer to join the top secret division, Sixth Force, was laid out before Jamey like a contract with the New York Giants. The United States Army made it very hard to refuse. He didn’t.

  By this time, Carrie had remarried and the twins were almost seven years old, playing outside with other neighborhood kids, gaining their independence. Jamey convinced himself it might be a good thing if he left for a while. Going to war for his country would be one way to use his gift for the good guys. Big time.

  In Sixth Force, he never met the other members who used paranormal abilities to aid the military, only heard that there was a team. “Like X-Men,” he’d joked, “but no interaction.” The officers didn’t laugh.

  Jamey had his own posse of support people who surrounded his talent like it was the Hope Diamond, people who were also sworn to secrecy. He’d been told that he was the only dream jumper in the force. Maybe in the world. “Start growing your hair, Freud, and a full face of hair,” they said, giving him fake glasses. “Your identity has to be kept under lock and key.”

  For the first time in Jamey’s life, he was surrounded by people who knew more about the paranormal than he did. They’d all been recruited because of some talent, even if it was only knowledge about the sixth sense. Other suspicious characters came and went around the base but they never interacted, as ordered. The only thorn under his saddle was the plan to use his ability to extract information from prisoners of war, men whose fear and bravery he could feel when he entered their dreams.

  He’d plowed on, juggling the knowledge that the dreamers were the enemy, with the fact they had families who loved them, and that these men would ultimately betray their cause through their dreams. As Freud, Jamey was a human weapon for the American military in Afghanistan.