The Dream Jumper's Promise

by Kim Hornsby

  Chapter 15

  At 1:36 a.m., Jamey was still awake in Tina’s bed thanks to the coffee he’d had at nine. Thinking about Jade and Jasmine’s approaching birthday, he was pulled out of his thoughts when Tina started falling into a dream. He reached over and touched her balled up hand, and then matched her breathing, concentrating on the journey.

  He melted into her sleep pattern and fell. It was like sinking below the surface of reality when he entered a dream. Like being slowly sucked backwards. Uncle Don had named it jumping because leaving the dream required a jump. Sinking in, jumping out, unless the dreamer woke and that was a sucking sensation. Don had joked that ‘dream sucking’ didn’t sound quite right.

  And now it appeared that after several months of stagnation, he was able to jump again. Like rediscovering a favorite childhood toy, he was thankful, relieved almost. His body sank slowly into a sunlit ocean and the dream materialized as though a fan had cleared smoke to reveal a scene before him.

  Tina stood on the ocean’s bottom, below him, oblivious to his arrival. Her flimsy gown swirled around her body like a jellyfish membrane. He landed behind her, out of sight. She seemed distracted by something further along the rock wall. Next thing he realized was that they were breathing underwater.

  Jamey stayed close when she took off, swimming with purpose. How long could he keep his presence a secret? If he remained undetected, Tina never needed to know he’d been in her dream. He’d simply follow her until the dream ended, taking note of anything that might be a clue to the body’s location. But he’d have to hang around to exit the dream with her. Leaving before the dreamer woke would involve returning to the portal—the exact spot where he’d landed. This time it had been the surface of the ocean. Finding that portal would be impossible. When Tina popped out of the dream, he’d leave too. It had been years since he waited until the dreamer woke up.

  Tina navigated around a jutting rock, falling out of sight, and Jamey hurried to catch up, eager to not lose her. Rounding the turn, he stopped. She was right in front of him, waiting for him. The look of question and disbelief on her face was difficult to read. Jamey shrugged, unsure what she was thinking. Then he caught sight of something ahead of them, twenty feet away. Moving. A man.

  When he pointed, Tina spun around. Her hand flew to her heart. The look of sadness on her face told him it was Hank. Even if he hadn’t seen the pain in her eyes, he knew. It was embarrassing to invade Tina’s dream like this. Embarrassing and awkward. But this might be the dream that showed the location of the body. He had to persevere.

  As they approached Hank nodded at Jamey and the three of them continued along the wall until it curved into the shallows. Massive boulders lay strewn across an expanse of sand, like a giant’s board game. Closer to shore, the rocky outcrops were connected. In the middle of one large rock face, blackness indicated an entrance. Hank and Tina kicked towards it, Tina always fifteen feet behind him.

  The opening was black as tar, as big as a garage door, and revealed nothing of the interior. Jamey glanced towards the surface. Twenty-five feet deep, he’d guess. This was where the dream usually ended. If the pattern continued, he might have less than a minute to get a handle on where they were. Soon Tina would wake and it would all be over.

  One last look confirmed Hank had entered the cave and Tina was trying to follow him. As the swell then pulled her away from the mouth, its opposite force then pushed her closer. He saw her strategy in trying to use the movement to take her inside. She kicked when the force propelled her towards the cave.

  With time almost up, Jamey exhaled his way to the surface to reduce the possibility of an air embolism. Just as his head popped through to the air, the familiar pull of being drawn backwards took him. He opened his eyes wide to see more before blackness set in, but the sucking sensation won over and soon he was lying on a mattress.

  He was in Tina’s bedroom. In the dark. His heart was still beating and the pills he’d brought with him remained in his palm. No CPR necessary. Four months, two weeks and six days after the fiasco in Afghanistan, he was able to dream jump again.

  When he looked over at Tina, his happiness clouded. The dreamer was still dreaming in REM. What the hell? He could feel her dreaming. How did he manage to wake up? He hadn’t returned to the portal.

  First, he had to remember what he’d seen in the last few seconds of the dream. Then he’d question this new turn of events.

  When he got sucked out, he’d barely had time to break the surface, but he did see the expanse of ocean in front of him. He’d also noticed a tall shadow looming to his right. The sun was at his left, which could be important, or not. He hadn’t had time to see if

  Lanai or Molokai was behind him. That would’ve helped. Damn.

  Tina startled. Jamey jumped off the bed and her eyes fluttered open. She looked disoriented, and then focused on him sitting in the chair, staring at her. “I had the dream again, and you were in it.”

  ***

  Tina looked over at Jamey and felt the front of her body. She was soaking wet. “I had the diving dream. I’m soaked.” Tina licked her hand. “Salt. Did I sleepwalk to the ocean? Did you see?”

  “No. You didn’t leave the room.” He looked as scared as her.

  “I didn’t go anywhere? Were you watching me?” Jamey nodded.

  The good news was that someone else had been in the room to set things straight. The bad news was that Jamey verified she hadn’t left the room. But she was drenched. Last time she’d woken wet, it hadn’t been real. This time, Jamey Dunn was sitting on the edge of her bedroom chair, staring at her like he couldn’t figure out what happened.

  He stood, searched the floor for water and walked into the hall. “Nothing unusual out here,” he said. He sounded puzzled. That was good. Someone else had been let into the horror of what was happening.

  Tina got off the bed. The flimsy dress she’d worn to dinner with her parents was clinging to her shape, revealing more than she wanted to. She peeled off the dress and her underwear, letting it fall to the floor. As she reached for her robe she felt a presence and turned to see Jamey standing in the doorway, staring at her. At her naked body.

  He took a deep breath and crossed to her as though he expected something.

  She wrapped the robe around her shivering body. “You said I didn’t leave the bed, right?”

  The hunger in his eyes was disconcerting. “You got wet, just as you woke.”

  “This might still be the dream.” Tina lowered herself to sit on the edge of the bed. She looked up. “Where’s Obi?” She hadn’t seen her dog.

  Jamey sat down on the bed beside her, their legs touching, and spoke softly. “Not here. Let’s just lie back in the bed and wait…” He pushed her backwards, gently, but the look on his face was frightening. Predatory.

  Tina’s eyes flew open. She stared at the ceiling of her bedroom. It now looked different from seconds before. The fan whirred above her. She wasn’t wet. Obi lay at the bottom of the bed with the blue ribbon on his collar. What had just happened? She and Jamey had been sitting on the bed. And now she was waking again? Jamey stood beside the bed, looking at her expectantly.

  “I had the dream again and you were in it,” she said.

  ***

  Jamey moved towards her and Tina scooted back to avoid contact. She looked scared of him. Obi jumped off the bed and, when she called him over, she fingered the ribbon on his collar.

  “Tell me about the dream.” He wanted to hear her version. Her eyes were wild, her breathing erratic. “You okay?” He wasn’t sure. He sat on the side of the bed.

  “Yeah, I just dreamed that I woke up, and we were having this conversation, but Obi wasn’t here and you weren’t like this...you were strange. But this seems like reality now.” She held the ribbon on Obi’s collar.

  Tina methodically recounted the diving dream to Jamey, as if he’d had no knowledge of it. Good. They’d been underwater. Hank led them to a cave. Jamey surfaced while she followed Ha
nk. Once inside the cave, she couldn’t find Hank or see anything. No matter how far she swam, in any direction, she touched nothing. That was when she woke up. Or thought she did. “I was drenched in salt water. You were here. Obi was gone. You went into the hall to see if there was water on the floor. I got into a robe. We sat on the bed together. Then, I guess, I really did wake up. Obi was at the end of the bed.”

  That would account for the extra seconds Tina stayed in the dream. Jamey turned on the closet light and looked inside, not sure what he’d find.

  She pinched her arm so hard it would definitely leave a bruise. “This is reality, Tina. I assure you.”

  She didn’t seem convinced, and her haunted eyes frightened him. She scooted back in the bed, against the wall, hugging her knees. He was unsure which door to open in his explanation of what had just happened. “Lucid dreaming is when the dreamer recognizes they are in a dream. You are having lucid dreams, which is not unusual. As well as knowing you’re dreaming you’re also having a precognitive dream. Like when a person gets a weird feeling about boarding a plane and then it crashes. But your dreams are different.”

  Tina nodded for him to continue even though the expression on her face told him to stop.

  “Some theorists, Einstein included, introduced the idea that the past, present and future all exist together and that time is not linear.” Jamey shook his head. “It’s hard to conceive, but that was Einstein’s theory. Here’s what I think.” Tina’s eyes were wide.

  “I think you’re getting what I call a glimpse.” He’d present this carefully. “I still think maybe Hank hasn’t crossed over completely. He’s between.” Jamey took one of her hands, feeling her tension. He had to tell her. Had to. “I’m going to share a secret with you. And it’s a strange one.”

  She looked into his face, all innocence for another few seconds.

  “I hope you don’t think I’m crazy.” He said this more to himself.

  “I know you dreamed about the cave with Hank.” Jamey met her eyes. “I was there. I could see you in the dream and you saw me, right?”

  “You had the same dream? What? How did you do that?”

  “I’m not sure how I do it, exactly, but I can enter people’s dreams if I try, and sometimes I do it even if I don’t try. It’s beyond lucid dreaming. Way beyond.”

  “Oh, my God, Jamey. Is this part of your ESP thing?”

  “Yeah, you could say that. And lately, I haven’t been able to do it. That’s why I’m on leave. I’m no good to the army without this ability. But just now it worked and I was in your dream. That’s what I was trying to do tonight, to help you find the site. And it finally worked again.”

  Tina looked like he’d told her the moon was actually made of cheese. She took a deep breath. “Let’s say that’s all true. Aside from the obvious questions about how in hell you visit people’s dreams, did you see anything?” She squinted at him. “I didn’t surface this time.”

  “No, I did, but I didn’t see much. Just a shadow from the corner of my eye.”

  “Did you see Hank?” Her voice reminded him of the mistrust you feel on a foggy day for what you can’t see.

  He nodded. “I did.”

  “Tell me.”

  “Long black hair, dark shorts, short wetsuit. You looked concerned that I was in your dream. Hank looked like he’d been expecting me.” Jamey considered how much to reveal to a widow still grieving for her husband. “He looked like he knows I’m trying to help.”

  “Oh, Hank…” The words had the fragility of tissue paper.

  The closet light extinguished and Jamey looked over. “Hank?” His whisper hung in the air, waiting. The streetlight outside was the only illumination in the room. Jamey’s hand motioned for Tina to wait. “Hank? Are you here?”

  “Jamey, you’re scaring me!” The sound of Tina’s voice had Jamey beside her in one second.

  He put his arm around her shoulders and whispered, “The light went out just as you said his name, and I’m just wondering something. Don’t be scared.”

  Tina shivered. “Hank?” Her voice held such hope. “Honey?”

  Nothing perceptible happened. “If it’s him, I’m sure he wants to communicate, Tina, but from what I know about this, it’s very difficult to cross spectrums.”

  They waited. Finally Tina broke the silence. “His body is in that cave.”

  Jamey nodded and took her hand in both of his. “I think so too. And Hank is trying to show you where to look.”

  ***

  As outlandish as it sounded to enter someone else’s dream, it was comforting for Tina to think that Jamey had been there. But now it looked like he was paying the price. He sank his forehead into his hands and moaned. “Have you got any ibuprofen?” His body tensed with a spasm.

  “I’ll get two.”

  “Get six and some water.” He fell back on the bed.

  When she returned, Jamey had two small pills in his palm. He grabbed the water and downed the tablets. “What was that? Should you mix these?” She dropped six ibuprofen into Jamey’s hand.

  “Yup.”

  What was happening?

  “You know CPR, right?” It looked painful for him to talk.

  “Yes, but…”

  “Good. The painkillers should kick in soon,” he grunted.

  “Jamey, should I call the doctor? Take you to emergency?”

  “Not unless I stop breathing. Until then, there’s nothing anyone can do. This is kind of off the radar for a doctor.” His face was contorted in pain, and when convulsive shivering started, Tina pulled the blanket over him and ran to get an extra duvet from the guest room.

  When she returned, he was so still that her heart jumped into her throat. She touched his shoulder to make sure he was alive.

  “Jamey?”

  He moved slightly.

  “Should I call an ambulance?”

  “No. It’ll pass.” He buried his head in the pillow and she watched helplessly from the edge of the chair. They’d switched places so quickly. His eyes were scrunched in pain and his breathing was ragged. A frighteningly thick vein throbbed at his temple, and she laid her hand gently on his forehead.

  “Don’t.” He cringed.

  If she called the paramedics, they’d arrive in less than ten minutes. Did he have that long? She slipped her silk robe over her shoulders, knotted the belt and glanced to the clock. It was after two a.m., pitch dark outside and terrifying inside. She was in control of a potentially serious situation and didn’t feel competent to make decisions like whether or not to trust that Jamey would recover from this excruciating migraine without medical intervention.

  Besides the fact that he was obviously in horrendous pain, she thought about the repercussions if they had to call an ambulance. Or worse—what if he died in her bed? Her first thought was the horror of Jamey dying, the second thought was that it would be her dream’s fault, and the third was that her parents would find out she had a man in her bed. Dead. Should she find Noble?

  She had to trust that Jamey knew what he was talking about. Didn’t she? He had exceptional abilities that she knew nothing about. And she never had. She watched him shiver, his teeth making a clacking noise. Jamey. He had never been who she thought he was. Ever. “Should I get in bed to warm you?”

  “Not cold. Keep the car keys handy. In case.”

  She mentally located what she’d need to rush him to the clinic in town. Keys, backpack. Obi, who was usually perceptive about these things, stayed at her side, either concerned that Jamey was in their bed or sensing something bigger. Tina counted the seconds, and then minutes, waiting for Jamey’s pain pills to take effect. As she watched him struggling, she hoped to God that whatever it was, it would pass before it took his life.

  ***

  The searing stab in his temple robbed Jamey of sight as he endeavored to block it. Jumping had been risky. The pain wasn’t as bad as last time and came late, but it still made him feel like his head would explode; like hot blood pou
nding in his brain, unable to escape, violently strained against his cranium in an effort to release the pressure. At least his heart hadn’t stopped. Not yet.

  If the Advil and Percocet didn’t do it, he’d go to the emergency room for morphine and hope that worked. Tina would drive. Good thing he’d brought Percocet.

  After his last jump, he’d spent days on the morphine drip. When they told him what happened, the emotional pain of knowing a man died had him wishing he was still on morphine and seeing spiders on the ceiling. The dreamer died. And it became one of the military’s dirty little secrets. Jamey hadn’t bothered to ask for particulars. Details would make him feel worse.

  It wasn’t until weeks later that Sixth Force revealed their theory that the Al Qaeda prisoner was planted to find “the Dream Man.” The weapons Jamey’d seen in the dream did not exist. Sixth Force believed that the whole incident had been a red herring to throw the Americans off the trail of a rebel cache. The idea that Atash’s mission had been to kill Jamey became big news within the force. And justifiably so.

  But Atash died before they could extract information needed about Al Qaeda’s knowledge of a dream jumper. Why they hadn’t kept him around longer was a mystery until he guessed that it had been an accidental death, not an execution.

  The existence of a soldier planted to kill the Dream Man put Jamey in a shaky position, wondering if Al Qaeda had a file on him. His inability to jump was only part of the reason Jamey left Afghanistan. Although Sixth Force recommended he stay within the confines of an army base until they extracted more information,

  Jamey knew if the bad guys hadn’t identified him he’d be safer off base. He’d gotten a good feeling that they had no idea who the Dream Man was, only that he existed. Leaving seemed like the only option.

  Jamey’s head was still pounding when he woke in Tina’s bedroom, but his vision had returned. The clock read 5:06. Tina was asleep in the chair, curled around a pillow, her breathing barely audible. Jamey didn’t even try to use his ability to see if she was dreaming. The pain had subsided to a tolerable level. Tolerable for him.