by Robin Janney
“The key to destroying their plans for you, if I remember correctly. And if I share this with the wrong person, all three of us are going to be locked in the ward and medicated. And I’m not sure I’d argue at this point. Is she asleep now?”
“Dead to the world. I wore her out pretty good,” Craig said sheepishly.
“I’d give anything to know what she’s dreaming tonight.”
A sound on the other end finally caught Craig’s attention. “Kevin, do you guys have a thunderstorm too?”
Kevin took a moment to answer. “Yes. Well, that’s a little weird.”
“And the rest isn’t?”
His friend managed a small laugh. “I’m in the middle of the storm here, Craig. Like I was in the beginning of the dream. Let me guess, it’s in the distance for you?”
“Yes, all along the horizon as far as I can see in both directions. You’re telling me this is affecting the natural world somehow?”
“At this point, why the hell not?” Kevin sighed. “I need to see you guys. In my dream, you and Angela told me to enter if I was brave enough. I have no idea what I’m stepping into, Craig.”
“Me neither.” Craig’s brain was too fuzzy to think quickly. “Is she doing this somehow?”
“You had the Dragon Dream years before you met Angela,” Kevin pointed out.
“Yeah, but then I met her, and it changed. And now, she trusts you enough to turn to you when I failed her, and now suddenly you’re in the Dragon Dream.”
“Having it with you, you mean.”
“Whatever. We were both there when her brother died. I think that means something to her.” Craig looked back to his sleeping wife. “How much time do you think we have before their next attack?”
“Not enough. They waited, what, almost four years for this last attempt on her life? I doubt they spent that time on just one plan though, so the next may come sooner.”
“Oh my God, Kevin.” Fear began to take root in him. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know, Craig. I have to come up with something to tell Sherry, and then I’m on my way.”
“Why aren’t you going to tell your wife the truth?” Craig asked cautiously.
“Because she wasn’t in the dream. Which if your theory is correct, and Angela’s somehow drawing us into this, then she either doesn’t trust Sherry, or just doesn’t want her there.”
Craig didn’t answer. “Maybe she views the two of you as one. But, I know something happened when we stayed with you for Jared’s graduation, so you might be right. Let me know when you’re on your way, and I’ll pick you up from the airport.”
There was a slight hesitation. “The first flight I can.”
The call ended.
Craig remained at the window for some time, watching the storm. He had a suspicion that if he were to walk to the other side of the house, lightning would fill the horizon there as well. But he stayed put, their dog at his feet, and his wife safe in the bed behind him.
He would do anything to see that it remained that way.
61
L ate the next afternoon, Craig left the ranch house and walked down to the large fenced arena where his wife was putting a horse through its paces. From here it looked like Crescent, so named because of the white pattern on her brown chest. Crescent was nowhere near the caliber Belle had been, but she was a good horse.
Princess barked happily as he leaned against the fence next to her and he dropped down long enough to ruffle her ears. She seemed to have finally forgiven him.
Craig watched now as Angela took her horse through the jumping course, marveling at the beauty of the two. The difference in his wife from just yesterday was astonishing to him. Katie’s surprise at finding out that Angela kept her skills out of competitions was understandable. Yesterday morning when Angela had ridden this same horse through this same course, the two had been clumsy and the horse had mirrored her rider’s insecurities and fears. Today, the two were graceful and energetic, full of a peace he hadn’t seen in too long. Had he known resuming their sexual relationship would have such a profound effect on his wife, he would never have hesitated.
Well, he wouldn’t have hesitated as much. Their friendship was beginning to return, and he wanted it to deepen even further. But he couldn’t deny the sex had helped. It wouldn’t be long before the emotional turmoil of the summer would no longer show in the way his wife commanded the horse.
Or so Craig hoped.
Angela had even joined him on the practice mat this morning in their basement gym. She was out of practice with her karate skill, but even so, she was a more than adequate challenge to him. He hadn’t practiced the entire time he’d been in New York, so he was just as out of form as she was. And it ended the way it always ended.
He smiled as his wife finished her routine and led the horse to the fence where he was waiting. How had he forgotten how much he loved watching her ride? When was the last time he’d stood fence side to watch her? He wasn’t sure.
“Hi!” his wife said as she brought the horse to a stop before him. Her smile was as enthusiastic as her blue eyes; there was barely a shadow in those eyes today. Her auburn hair flared out from beneath the riding helmet she wore for safety.
“Hi,” he replied, easily returning her smile. “I came out to tell you I’m running out to the airport.”
“Oh?” Angela’s smile didn’t falter, but he saw fear ghost through her eyes.
“Kevin’s decided to come visit. I’m not sure for how long, he didn’t say.” He shrugged, unwilling to tell her about the dream he and Kevin had shared during the night. “He wants some on-sight sessions.”
“I see,” Angela said in a tone indicating she was confused. But then she shrugged. “Well, it can’t be easy counseling someone in a different state. The timing alone would be maddening to me. Is Sherry coming too?”
“No,” he answered.
“Alright.” Relief was evident in her face. “Nothing against Kevin, but life is just beginning to return to normal and I don’t want it disrupted.
He nodded as understanding came to him about why she was upset. “It won’t. I promise, Angel.”
Her smile blossomed again at his nickname for her. “Will you be home in time for supper?”
“We might be a little late, but it shouldn’t be by much. What do you have Nan making?” He would break the speed limit to get back on time if he had to.
“I am making homemade pizza. I might make two now. A plain for me and a pepperoni for you guys.”
“I look forward to it then. I might even find it possible to bring home some Pepsi.”
“Good.” She looked pleased.
She leaned down from her horse, and seeing his wife’s intentions, Craig hopped on the bottom rung of the wooden fence to meet her halfway for the kiss. It was a causal kiss, one between two who’d been partners for some time. And it was still enough to cause his heart to skip a beat.
“I won’t be gone long, Angel,” he promised.
“I’ll be here waiting,” she answered, her smile mirrored in her eyes. She straightened on her horse before wheeling around. Methodically, she began taking Crescent through the jumps again.
As he walked to his truck, Craig looked over his shoulder. There was more anxiety in their gate now, but the two continued to flow together. There wasn’t much more he could do to ease Angela’s new anxiety over his absences. He’d always known she didn’t like it when he returned to Tyler’s Grove to check up on the store; he hadn’t been crazy about them either, but he’d always thought she was safe here. These most recent events had spread her anxiety to him, but he couldn’t let his fear rule their lives. At least, that’s what he kept telling himself. The most he could do right now was what he already planned on doing. Selling the store in Tyler’s Grove was a small sacrifice to ease the burdens of the woman he loved.
At the end of the long driveway, Craig pulled close to the mailbox and retrieved the day’s mail. He rifled through it quickly, s
eeing nothing of importance and almost set it to the side before seeing the thick manila envelope from the Montana Highway Patrol. He pulled the envelope free and set the rest to the side. Glancing back towards the distant horse arena, he wished he could see his wife’s form better.
The previous night and this morning had almost been enough for him to forget she’d been held hostage in their own woods barely two months past.
As much as it hurt him to think she was withholding her pain from him, he understood. After all, he hadn’t been able to tell her about Veronica’s assault on him in New York City yet. The envelope in his hand trembled as he ripped it open, fearing what was inside.
The top paper was a handwritten note.
Mr. Moore,
Your father-in-law, Mr. Crane requested we send you a copy of the official police report of your wife’s abduction and assault to you. When he asks for favors, we are inclined to grant them. I cannot tell you how sorry I am we didn’t respond to the threat against your wife sooner.
Best regards, Chief Chesterfield
Craig couldn’t help but roll his eyes. He wondered if they would ever be able to live without Everett poking his nose in. It was unfair, he knew that. The other man was her biological father, and Craig knew the older man was doing his best to make up for whatever events led to Angela’s adoption by her mother’s brother.
The report was thick, and he wasn’t going to have time to go through it all now. He skimmed through the parts he already knew. Angela’s official statement to the police was included, and his world, which had been righted the night before, tilted dangerously off-kilter as he read her words.
“Oh my God,” he whispered, his gaze once again to the distant form of his wife. The secret she was keeping from him, for reasons he understood on a personal level, only increased his compassion for her, and his guilt for not being here. Just last night he had made love to her as though the only problem had been his flirtation with adultery, and only now did he understand why she needed to have his hands on her body.
Just as Veronica had sexually assaulted him, Nikki Flynn had raped his wife.
Craig shoved the papers back into the envelope and dropped it on the seat beside him. The tires of the truck threw gravel as he pulled away from the mailbox. Angela having been raped by a woman instead of a man had no effect on him beyond wishing the other woman was still alive, so he could be the one to kill her. Much like he’d felt after Derek Foster had died. Rage consumed him as he drove, far above the legal speed limit.
He would have felt the same rage no matter who had hurt her. And his wife wouldn’t even tell him what had happened because he had hurt her too. And the anger filling him now was as much at the dead as it was toward himself.
The miles between his home and the airport were long, and his thoughts were dark.
T he grave was lonely and cold.
This wasn’t a family cemetery, or even a church graveyard. Located on the top of Sawyer’s Peak, the public cemetery was not visited often due to local ghost stories. The trees were just beginning to turn to their autumn colors, in a few weeks this view would be even more glorious. Despite the warm autumn afternoon, the breeze blowing through the headstones carried a chill.
Mable Flynn shivered, whether at the chill or the thoughts of ghost stories, she wasn’t sure. She was an unremarkable woman, on the tall side. Her daughter had inherited that much from her at least.
Stooping to lay the plastic bouquet at the new headstone, she cursed the tears that began to fall. There wasn’t money left to buy real flowers, and the summer flowers were long gone. The blue flowers she’d grown up calling cornflowers had been her favorite, which her daughter used to bring her by the handful. Plastic roses would suffice until next summer, then Mable could pick wild bouquets for her wayward daughter.
Her dead daughter.
A sob escaped her as she was overwhelmed by grief and regret.
“I did wrong by you, Nikki,” she said into the sharp wind. “I know it, and I never got to say I was sorry. I’ve been told you were the one to kill your father, and the world thanks you for that. I thank you for that. There is so much you never knew, so much I would tell you if you were here…”
The wind blew hard for a moment, pulling her faded blonde hair from its bun. Mable shivered again, and she could have sworn she heard her Nikki saying, I am here momma…
The words seemed to echo on the wind.
Looking around sharply, as if looking for pranksters, Mable decided it was time to be gone from this place. But she needed to finish her say first. “I don’t know what kind of judgement you’ve been given on the other side, Lord knows you deserve it after what you put that precious girl through. But, just like Harry…I can’t help but love you no matter what you did wrong. I hope Jesus was kind to you when He sent you to hell.” Fear gripped her heart at the thought of her daughter in eternal torment, in eternal flames. Hadn’t Nikki’s life been full of enough torment?
“I don’t mean that, I really don’t.” Mable wiped at useless tears. “I hope He forgave you and let you into His Kingdom. Lord knows you need to be treated right for once in your life.”
She pressed a kiss to her fingertips and laid them on the cold stone above her daughter’s resting place. “I promise I’ll come again.”
With quick steps, Mable hurried away. She was running long before she reached her car.
The words echoing behind her ‘Don’t go, momma…’ only made her run faster.
N ikki watched with a heavy heart as her mother drove away, the beat-up sedan smoking heavily.
“She looks so…old,” she said sadly to the boy next to her. She had tried seeing Randy Carman as he wished to be seen, a young man, but she wasn’t able to yet. To her, he would always be the precocious boy in her Sunday school class asking impossible questions.
“Your mother has had a harder life than you know,” Randy replied. He didn’t comment on her attempt to be heard by the living. They had all tried at one time or another.
Nikki shrugged, still uncomfortable with the things her mother had said over her grave. But even now, the land was changing around her, morphing into a barren wasteland. It was the only thing she ever saw here, though the boy had tried showing her different scenes. “If this is hell, where’s the fire and brimstone?”
Randy snorted the Carman snort. “Everything you think you knew about life and death, is more wrong than you can imagine.”
Watching dragons flying high over distant mountains, Nikki didn’t argue. She was still coming to grips with being aware in the life after death, which hadn’t hurt as bad as she thought it would. She was still coming to grips with there being a life after death. Wasn’t living once enough? “So, when do I get to meet the Big Guy? There is a God, isn’t there? Jesus?”
The boy’s laugh had not changed with death. It was loud and bright and brought a smile to her face as she looked over at him.
“Oh yes,” he said in answer. “But He’s not like anything we were ever told.”
Looking back to the distant mountains, trying not to look at the dragons, Nikki said, “No kidding. So – when do I get to meet Him? Them? He’s not one of those dragons, is he? That would be too weird.”
Randy laughed again. “No. The dragons are…complicated. A story for another time perhaps. Come with me if you want to meet Him.”
Following the boy, Nikki was glad to turn her back on the mountains. They and the dragons were on the creepy side. Suddenly, in the middle of the desert an Oasis sprung. A large Oasis, its sides stretching like a wall as far as she could see.
It smelled heavenly. Like fresh baked bread on a cold winter’s day. Like honeysuckle and freshly fallen rain. It smelled of earth and green and life. Strawberries.
Even from the edge, Nikki could hear the vibrant sounds of life from inside the Oasis. Was that an elephant’s trumpeting she could hear above laughter and music?
When Randy stopped leading her, he motioned for her to go ahead.
Hesitating, suddenly fearful, she asked, “Aren’t you coming in with me?”
The boy shook his head. “Not this time.”
The loss of the one person who had been at her side since her arrival here frightened her almost as much as meeting the One who had supposedly created the universe. Randy had waited for her to calm down after the transition, had waited for her to realize she was dead. And as Nikki had become accustomed to her new state of existence, which didn’t feel much different really, she had been able to talk to the boy who had been watching her and she was the one asking questions now. She didn’t want to lose him.
“I’m afraid.”
“I know,” said Randy, his smile sad. “But you don’t have to be. That’s one thing the New Testament got right, we don’t need to be afraid of Him.”
Nikki nodded and looked back at the wall of green. Taking a deep breath (did dead people breathe?) she stepped back from the green Oasis. “I can’t.”
Turning away from the garden, and the boy, she spoke one last time. “There’s too much hurt, Randy. Too much anger still.” Straightening her back, she walked into the desert without a backwards glance.
Randy sighed as he watched her go. He glanced to the side as an older man of equal height exited the Oasis to stand next to him; with Nikki gone, he was the young man he saw himself as. The other Man was rugged and tanned, quite unlike the kindly version his sister saw when she was here.
His face was sad when He spoke. “It will take some time before she is able to face me.”
“Can You see if she ever will?”
The Other shook his head. “Time will tell.”
It was the straightest answer Randy would get from Him as the Other didn’t like answering questions about other people.
“I’ll keep trying before I go back.” Randy returned his gaze to watching the woman walking away. No, she was running now, much as they’d seen her mother run when they’d been looking in at the other side.
“I expected you would.”
Together they watched the running woman.
