The Dream Jumper's Promise

by Kim Hornsby

  “Noble, it’s a dream. See?” Jamey watched the tiger. “Tina, take it away now.” The thing looked ready to leap, and then disappeared.

  “Only a dream.”

  “Please, Noble, let go, you’re hurting me, honey,” she said.

  He didn’t. They were still too far away for Jamey’s plan to work. “The portal is marked, Tina.” He’d left a rut with his foot when he landed—a little trick he’d developed over the years. “It’s your dream, Noble. You can do anything you want. We aren’t real, you just made us up, so if you let go of Tina, we can disappear.” Noble shook his head. “But Hank died just like this.” “You’re remembering it in a dream, then,” Jamey whispered, almost to himself.

  “If I’m remembering, why are you here? And her? You weren’t there.” He took several steps back, Tina stumbling with him. Her glance behind the truck told Jamey she was thinking of the portal. “You tell me.” He shrugged.

  “I don’t want you here.” Noble looked doubtful, and in that moment Jamey knew he would win this.

  “Consciously, you don’t. I can disappear if you like.” He advanced again, forcing Noble to back up more. “But I need to take her. These are the rules, man. She wasn’t there either.”

  Tina struggled with Noble’s hold on her. “Noble, you’re choking me. Please let me just stand on my own, beside you.” She tried to look up at her captor.

  “It’s just a dream,” Noble whispered. He released Tina from the choke hold, but grabbed her arm.

  Tina stumbled to gain a few feet, putting her in line with the back of the truck.

  Smart girl. Jamey had to get Noble to release her arm, and then he’d lunge forward to push her into the portal. Noble needed a distraction. “Tina, find Noble someone to share this dream, someone more interesting than us.” He took a step towards the portal. “Stop! Don’t come closer.” Noble pulled Tina to his side at the same moment Hank appeared in front of them. Noble gasped.

  “Henry!”

  Tina’s voice turned to sobs. “Oh God, Hank.”

  Jamey could see she was torn between leaving the dream and staying with Hank.

  “Henry, I’m sorry.” Noble let go of Tina and walked towards the man.

  Jamey sprinted, grabbing Tina on his way, and in four steps was over the rut in the dirt and jumping into the air. She was ready.

  Chapter 26

  As they were sucked back to reality, Jamey watched the form of Noble embracing a disintegrating Hank. In less than two seconds, he was sitting up in the Molokai hotel bed, with Obi staring at him from the bedside.

  Tina woke up gasping. “Oh, my God!” she cried. Jamey was still holding her hand.

  “You okay?”

  She didn’t answer.

  “You jumped Noble’s dream.” He wrapped his arms around her shaking body. “It’s okay.”

  “Noble killed Hank!” She wrenched herself free to face Jamey. “Noble pushed Hank, and he fell off that cliff. They were fighting.”

  She wasn’t crying and he worried that she was beyond that point. He nodded. “It’s true, then.”

  “You suspected Noble?”

  “I had a hunch.”

  “Oh, my God, Jamey. I watched Noble kill my husband in this dream.” Tina’s eyes were frantic. “And then you arrived.” “You screamed.” He took her hand. “Remember, we don’t know if it was a true remembrance, or only your dream, or Noble’s dream, or what.”

  “It happened. I know it.” Her voice was tiny and far away. “They were brothers, criminals, and this was all some sort of scam. My mother figured it out, somehow. I bet she had an investigator on Hank from the very beginning. She did that to another one of my boyfriend’s years ago, and he broke up with me. When I told my parents that Hank and I were marrying, she probably hired an investigator. She would’ve spared no expense digging up dirt on my fiancé.” A sob escaped from her throat.

  Jamey whispered into her hair. “It might have been nothing, Tina. It might have been just a dream. Nothing more.” He needed to soften the blow if he could. She’d just had her first dream about the past and it was a whopper. Like holding a pillow against her stomach to absorb a punch in the gut, he offered what he could. “It might have been just your subconscious telling you what it suspects. Not real.”

  “They were after my paintings. Hank and Noble were con men and wanted my grandmother’s paintings.” She looked at him. “Those things must be more valuable than Hank told me.”

  Jamey kissed her hair and she slumped against his chest.

  “And if it was real, everything I knew about Hank would be a lie.” Her voice was pitifully small.

  “No. Hank loved you. I know that for a fact.” He had to tell her about being inside Hank’s psyche, feeling Hank’s emotions for that short time. He rubbed her back. “Remember the dream where I became Hank? We were in the same body, and I felt his love for you. It was a profound love, like nothing he’d ever known. And I knew he had a secret.” He pulled back and looked directly into her face. “I know he would want me to tell you this. He thought you were too good for him and that he didn’t deserve you. Hank adored you, Tina. I know that because I was inside his head and a part of his heart in that dream. You were the one thing in his life that was good and honest.”

  Tina pushed away and disappeared into the bathroom to cry by herself.

  When Jamey returned from the continental breakfast buffet with coffee and muffins, the shower was running. He’d call Katie at the shop to check in, while Tina was showering.

  “Everything is fine,” Katie said breathlessly. “Shelley is taking the scheduled boat divers on a free beach dive up north, like Tina offered. I’m in the shop all day with Megan.”

  “Have you seen Noble?”

  Katie paused. “What?”

  “You know, Tina’s big Hawaiian friend, Noble. He lives in her cottage in the backyard?” If Noble knew the sediment was being analyzed and that they were out searching for Hank’s body, he’d probably be on his way to the mainland.

  “You mean he lived in her cottage.”

  “What? Is he gone?”

  “Well, if you call dead, gone. Can you hold on just a sec?”

  “Katie, wait!” What the hell? Jamey sat on the hotel bed, the sound of the shower still strong on the other side of the wall.

  “Okay, I’m back,” Katie said. “Oh yeah, Noble. You know he shot himself in Tina’s cottage.”

  He paused. “Not recently...?”

  “No. Like six months ago.”

  A chill spread up Jamey’s back to his head.

  “Don’t talk to Tina about him, Uncle Jamey. We’re not supposed to say his name around her because she went ballistic and had to go in the hospital for a week, and Dave said she still thinks he’s alive sometimes. She only talks about him with her shrink.”

  When Jamey hung up the phone, he remembered all the times he’d spoken to Noble at Tina’s house—the man with the strange aura around him that he’d mistaken for hatred.

  ***

  Walking along the Molokai wharf towards the boat, Tina reached for Jamey’s hand but not out of affection. Her attachment to him was an anchor to reality in turbulent water. Sadness and fear emanated from her. He would not let her out of his sight all day. He might not be dream jumping, but there was nothing wrong with his intuition, unless you considered he hadn’t guessed that Noble was a dead man. Goddammit. How did he miss that one? No wonder Tina believed Noble was still alive. He walked around her house all day. This was the weirdest thing he’d ever experienced, and he’d been through a lot of shit.

  Nothing that resembled romance lingered from the night before, and he knew that today would be all business. Tina only had so much to give. Treading carefully had never been so important, now that he knew Noble was dead and Tina didn’t remember.

  The boat ran smoothly as they rounded the south side of Molokai on their way to the sea cliffs. Jamey fingered the old S belt in his jacket pocket. His theory that Noble cut the belt had
flown out the window with the knowledge that the man was dead. The belt must have snapped clean after all. Probably was a faulty belt. If Noble didn’t put a sedative in Tina’s glass, who did? And why? Her parents were next in line for the nasty role of possible suspects, but why would they sedate their own daughter? Questions fought for immediate answers in his mind, and Jamey had to set them aside until later. The task at hand was big enough.

  The current on the north shore was predictably flowing west to east as they pushed along at seventeen knots. The local dive shop said that no one had been out diving on the north shore in the last few months. When Tina asked about a cavern, the man just snorted and told her she’d never get close in spring conditions.

  “Probably not even summer. The swell is too strong to get inside that cavern,” he’d warned. “It’ll smash you on the rocks before you can get close enough to the opening. It’s more of a blowhole in the winter.”

  “He’s probably trying to get a dive charter out of it,” Tina commented dryly, once she and Jamey were outside. But Jamey wasn’t so sure it would be the ocean’s conditions that stopped her that day. She looked terrified. Although they’d brought gear for two, he was prepared to dive solo. If things turned out the way they hoped, they’d find a body today. And a body that had been in salt water for ten months would be gruesome. Especially someone you loved.

  When they passed the Halawa Valley, Tina made Jamey take the wheel. Her hands shook. Seated at the bow, she pulled her knees up to her chest and looked out from under her hood.

  With every mile, Jamey felt they were closing in on Hank. When they reached what they thought was the site, Tina dropped anchor according to the swell, the current, and what she knew about the underwater topography. “I’m going to make sure we’re stuck in the sand,” Tina said. After donning her fins and fixing a mask to her face, she jumped into the water.

  “I’ll be damned,” Jamey said to Obi. “Just like that.”

  Obi wagged his tail and looked over the side of the boat for Tina.

  Back to the boat, she grabbed her gear. “That’s it.”

  He’d hooked up two tanks, just in case. “Are you diving?” “Yes.” She didn’t meet his eyes.

  “I can do the first or second alone.” The first dive would confirm the presence of the cave and case out the conditions. Jamey envisioned the second dive would be too much for her.

  “No need.”

  She slipped into her gear, and then sat on the boat’s edge and rolled backwards. “Stay, Obi,” was the last thing said before slipping below the surface. Jamey followed.

  Sediment from the west had stirred the water to where they could only see thirty feet in front of them. The amazing clarity from the dream was nowhere to be found. The wall wasn’t visible yet. Cutting the sand ripple lines at a right angle, the two divers headed in the direction of the cliff. When Jamey put his hand out for Tina, she shook her head and proceeded.

  The swell made the going slow, but they finally reached the wall. Tina looked in the direction of the cave and took off.

  Jamey felt two things as he swam through her trailing bubbles. One was that Tina was not going to make it much further. Her terror was too intense. If she did something foolish, their safety would be jeopardized. And two, the presence of Hank was as strong as if he was the third diver. If they didn’t find a body today, it wouldn’t be because Hank had never been here.

  When Jamey caught up with Tina, he placed his hand on her arm. She jumped. A mass of bubbles flew out of her regulator. She was sucking back the air too fast, and an eighty cubic inch tank wouldn’t last long if she didn’t calm down.

  Gripping her elbows with his hands, he stared into her eyes and attempted to give her strength. He’d done it before, and she’d said it worked. They pushed off and continued, hand in hand, until a familiar cavern doorway loomed.

  The ominous black hole looked like a screaming mouth. Jamey gave Tina an “okay?” sign, and she nodded. Bubbles raced frantically out of her regulator and up to the surface. She was using more air than usual but, he had to admit, they were now evenly matched. Being small, she used very little air. Usually. Jamey signaled for her to stay and hang onto the rock, but she shook her head and proceeded.

  The ocean’s movement carried them further. He had to believe Tina was a much better diver than him and knew the risks. But what if she panicked at the sight of the body? He wasn’t trained in underwater rescues. Not like Tina. Water funneled into the black cave opening. A few seconds later, bubbles poured out the door as the water shot towards them.

  Tina must know that aerated bubbles indicated a blow hole, a connection to the surface. What if the force inside was too strong for them? The dive master had warned against the dive. If Hank’s body was in there, it had to be stuck, or it would have come out the top. Jamey had no idea what to do. He wasn’t the underwater expert. As Tina drifted by, he wondered if she was at risk of killing herself. A flash of panic exploded inside him. Maybe Tina’s intention was to die here. She’d said they only had last night. No more.

  She’d been depressed, lonely for Hank. Had her behavior last night been only a smokescreen, or a final goodbye to him? And why was she diving with this terror? His heart pounded in his chest as the what-ifs added up to include Tina’s possible suicide.

  When she turned and gave him the signal to wait, his first instinct was to ignore her order and follow. But he could be wrong. Probably was. There’s only one boss on any dive, and Tina was it. Jamey asked her again if she was okay, and she nodded. He had to believe her. What could he do? Grabbing onto a boulder near the sandy bottom, he waited.

  As she drifted to the mouth of the cave, Tina reached inside her pocket and pulled out something. In the murky visibility, Jamey couldn’t see what the lump was. In their haste to jump in the water, he’d forgotten to defog his mask, and the condensation inside the lens clouded his vision. Whatever was in her hand, she held it tightly, and then kicked hard to the side of the cave mouth. He could see she was aiming for the doorway edge, not the hole. She made it and grabbed on, but the force of the surge pulled all but her hands off the rock, like a flag on a windy day, anchored only by her grip.

  When the wave switched directions, she jabbed something into the rock. She’d brought a thin yellow rope, now attached to a wedge in the rock.

  She tied the other end of the rope to her dive jacket, and then pulled out a pair of gloves. Was she going to inch her way in by letting the water’s force pull her through the mouth? If it had been him doing this, Jamey would’ve just powered into the cave and assumed his strength would get him out eventually. But Tina was not taking any chances. When had this plan been hatched? He had to think that if her intention was suicide, she wouldn’t go to all this trouble.

  He kicked his way over to the wall and watched her round the mouth into the cave. Tina looked back, nodded once, and disappeared through the black opening. As he watched, the rope remained taut. That was a good sign she was still attached. He thought about easing himself into the cave on the rope, hopefully without ripping open his hands, letting go, or killing himself. Weighing chivalry with his inexperience, everything pointed to letting Tina do her job. He had to trust she wasn’t trying to kill herself. If she had let go and shot out the top of the blowhole, the rope would’ve gone slack by now.

  A flashlight beam illuminated the cave’s mouth from inside and flashed twice. Was this a sign for him to come in? He cursed the fact that they hadn’t made a dive plan. She’d had a plan, and it didn’t involve him. Tina’s gloved fingers appeared, then her arm, shoulder and head. She inched herself along the rope with the ascender. Jesus Christ, she was smart. And tenacious. She must be exhausted. Sliding along the yellow rope carefully, he reached to grab her hand. Soon she would be within reach.

  Then the rope snapped and in a split second, she disappeared.

  ***

  The last thing Tina saw was Jamey’s arm reaching for her, a wild look in his eyes, like he knew before it ha
ppened. The force threw her against the cave wall, and she rolled off the jagged rock, hitting her head. Luckily, she’d worn a full wetsuit to cushion the bumps and scrapes, but would she live to appreciate her choice? Her heart pounded, remembering what she’d seen in the cave before the rope broke.

  Hank’s body was up there. Or someone’s body. Her flashlight had illuminated something that resembled a foot dangling ten feet up near the blowhole. Before she panicked and suffered a self-induced heart attack, she had to remind herself that it was probably Hank’s foot. Something she was familiar with. They’d given each other foot massages. She had to think of that to keep calm.

  Tina grabbed at anything to keep from being thrust upwards to the blowhole, wedged in with Hank’s body. Her strength had been tapped already, and her arms felt like jelly. The only light in the cavern was coming from the mouth above her, where she’d seen the foot. Her flashlight had dropped to the floor of the cave when the rope broke, along with her chances of getting out.

  Fighting the rush of water that was taking her up to the blowhole, she found nothing to grab onto. Just before she entered the hole, the water slowed and began its retreat. She aimed for the cave door and prepared to kick towards the doorway. Jamey. Her arms were numb, but her legs still felt strong. Kicking as hard as she could, she made it ten feet from the opening. She hoped to kick over and grab the wall. But the next force was stronger than the last, and it deposited her farther inside and ten feet up. Her shoulder brushed against Hank’s foot and she glanced over her shoulder to see the extent of his white leg, whole and terrifying. Oh God! She fought nausea, and concentrated on Jamey waiting for her at the cave mouth. No good. She vomited into her regulator and quickly pushed the purge button to clear it for breathing. More air wasted.

  The next pull of water was stronger, and Tina kicked hard enough to make it half way to the opening. Her gauges swung in front. Her tank might be getting low on air. Heavy breathing did that. She did not want to go too far back into the cave with the next wave, so she used her last bit of energy to face the force. Kicking herself downwards to the floor to avoid losing ground, she was hopeful. The bubbles rose around her, like she was in a Jacuzzi. Her air supply wouldn’t last long with this exertion. Digging her hands into the sandy floor of the cave, she waited for the next wave to leave the cavern, planning to ride it out.