Lost In Dreamland

by Jason Paul Rice

  Whitney and Trent had just finished telling the entire story to her family. She had made up a different escape from the Dreamworld and how the helicopter caught fire because she didn’t know how to explain that she could shift into a dragon. She didn’t think they would believe it.

  Her mother said, “I can’t believe you didn’t say anything to me about it. I thought you were my daughter.”

  Whitney stirred her virgin strawberry margarita. “Oh mom, enough of the drama. If I had told you, it would have made you constantly worry and no offense, but there wasn’t much you could do to help the situation.”

  Victoria said, “I wouldn’t have been able to do the part with the spiders or most of that spooky stuff. I can’t believe it ended up being that creepy guy that we used to know. I’m just glad all of you are safe.”

  Her father said, “It’s always a proud moment in a father’s life when his daughter survives her first gunshot wound.” He pretended to wipe tears from his eyes. “I’m not ecstatic that you didn’t tell us that your husband had been kidnapped, but I’ve learned not to fight you girls anymore. I just worry now and let you be.” Robert Powers grabbed a piece of poached shrimp and dunked it into a small ramekin of cocktail sauce. He rushed to get the shellfish to his mouth before the red sauce dripped off.

  “I couldn’t have done it without my super-duper friends though. When I was at my lowest, they were there for me.” Whitney held her drink in the air and everyone joined her in a sip.

  Victoria chewed on some honey roasted peanuts and covered her mouth. “I could have been there for you too, you know.”

  Her mom added, “Yeah, me too.”

  Whitney rolled her eyes and looked up at the ceiling. “I couldn’t include you Victoria because you would have told mom and she would have called the authorities and Trent would’ve gotten killed. I know exactly how it would have gone and I can’t blame either of you for thinking you were doing the right thing. I just know you both so well that I knew what would happen. Nothing personal.”

  Gwendolyn and Guinevere entered the room and went over to Whitney.

  Gwendolyn asked in a loud whisper, “Is it time for the announcement yet?”

  Whitney realized the previous conversation covered everything she wanted to talk about so she agreed, “Yes, go ahead.”

  The girls tried to talk in unison but they overlapped each other when they said, “Aunt Whitney is going to have a baby.”

  Her mother shrieked, “Did the girls just say what I think they said?”

  Calls of congratulations and well wishes followed as her friends and family surrounded her. Whitney couldn’t get rid of the permanent smile as her mother rubbed her belly. She hugged everyone and they sat back down at the table.

  “Just goes to show that women can do anything, even when they are pregnant. It was a pretty big surprise when the nurse told me.”

  Her father said, “So I guess you need to shut it down for a while now. You might as well stay back in Pennsburgh, right?” Robert lowered his eyebrows.

  Whitney laughed. “Don’t worry, dad. We are going to move back here and build our house and maybe start that company you suggested.”

  Aaric slid his fingers through his slicked back hair. “I think it’s a great idea. I’ve even looked at some places in the city that would be perfect for what we talked about.” He pointed at Trent.

  Trent said, “That will be part of my focus, but the main focus will be making sure this little lady is alright.” He reached over and massaged the back of Whitney’s neck.

  Her father joked, “Yeah, three gunshot wounds while she was trying to save you. Not exactly doing a bang-up job so far.” He attempted to give Trent a mean look.

  Trent tilted his head and had a smirk on his face. “That does sound pretty bad when I hear it out loud.”

  Victoria interjected, “I wish I was running around getting shot at. It’s like you’re living in a movie or something.”

  “You don’t even know the half of it.” She winked at Darominius.

  The group moved outside to the pool and Whitney stood at the bar with Trent, Darominius, Bo and Tara. Everyone else was in the pool, splashing around.

  Whitney set her drink on the bar. “I just want to thank you guys for everything during this whole mess.”

  Tara said, “That’s what we do, right? Right?”

  Everyone laughed and Bo said, “It wasn’t the James Bond adventure I was looking for, but I’m glad I could help.”

  Whitney shrugged her shoulders. “Sorry, the James Bond mission was the last adventure and speaking of which, who knows what will come next. I might need some help again.”

  Darominius said, “I hope you know by now, that I will be right alongside you for whatever you should need.”

  Whitney held her margarita toward Darominius and he tapped it with his brown bottle of India Pale Ale. She said, “Cheers, my friend. So, D, you wouldn’t happen to know what the next adventure might bring, do you?”

  Darominius smirked and looked down. “I might be privy to some words here and there, but I can’t precisely say what the future holds. Predictions are volatile and certain elements can disappear before an event comes to fruition. Your missions may change because of the actions of other people. Some die unexpectedly and other issues resolve themselves.”

  Whitney used her hand to replicate a person talking. “Blah, blah, blah. Enough rambling, D, are you going to give me some straight answers or not?”

  Darominius said, “I’ll go with the latter, thank you for giving me a choice. You should focus on the baby and Trent and you right now. Be selfish for a little while because you will be dragged back into the life you’ve become accustomed to.”

  Bo almost spit his drink out and said, “Yeah right, Whit will be nine months pregnant with the baby turtle heading and still be out there busting bad guys.”

  Tara said, “Easy on the visuals there, buddy. I really like turtles, don’t ruin them for me. But you are right, a kid won’t slow this girl down at all.”

  Whitney turned to Tara and held out her non-alcoholic drink. “Cheers.” Tara clanged her White Russian into Whitney’s glass. “I just want to say one more time how sorry I am about some of those awful things I said about you. It was in the heat of the moment.”

  Tara smiled. “The heat of the moment. Now that’s a funny phrase. We both said some crazy shit and here we are cheersing drinks. Cheers.”

  Whitney added softly, “Cheers.” Two pint glasses gently tapped each other again and the girls took another sip of their drinks.

  Tara continued, “And if we didn’t get into that crazy argument, we might still be tied to those chairs being fed by needles and shit. Sometimes things happen for a reason and I’m glad we were tied up because we would have destroyed that room and probably each other.”

  “I don’t really want to fight you. It wouldn’t be fair to you,” Whitney said and looked away.

  Bo added, “Oooohhhhh.”

  Tara took a big gulp of her drink. She curled one of her braids around her middle finger. “I’m going to let that slide because you did turn into a damn dragon and save us with that clipped wing and all.”

  Whitney downed a few more drinks and started to get tired so she and Trent decided to go home. They entered their small house and Whitney realized they would need a bigger place for the baby. They got into bed and Trent started to massage her weary body.

  He started with her hands and before Trent, Whitney had never had anyone do that to her. He slid his silky fingertips up her arms and rhythmically squeezed her shoulders. Whitney felt the stress from the past two weeks seep away as Trent’s thumbs worked the top of her spine.

  She rolled her neck around as Trent removed her nightgown. He moved those strong thumbs down to the small of her back and hooked his fingers around her hips. He flipped Whitney over and moved back up to her shoulders.

  He sat on his knees, next to her, being careful of Whitney’s injured wrist. He sensually du
g in and caressed her tense shoulders with his strong hands. He worked his way down, tracing his lips over her breasts and stomach.

  He kissed her on the belly button and grabbed her leg. Trent massaged her calf before moving to her thigh as Whitney shuddered and clenched the comforter. The pain seemed miles away as Whitney floated on a bed of ecstasy.

  Trent carefully moved himself over and spread Whitney’s thighs. The familiar feeling of being one with her man returned. Trent slowly worked his way in and started at a slow and sensual pace. She closed her eyes and thought about how right everything was again.

  Trent continued with slow, precise strokes and went easy on Whitney because of her healing wounds. The two lovers climaxed together and Whitney grabbed him by the ears and pulled him in for a deep kiss. “I love you.”

  Trent said, “I love you more.”

  “No way.” She snuggled up next to him and laid her arm on his chest.

  Trent said, “So, it seems like we are going to need to move into a new house if we’re going to have a family. I’ve been checking out some places in Pennsburgh since that’s where we talked about having the office too.”

  Whitney kissed his bicep. “Look at you taking the lead again. Does anything look good and cheap?”

  Trent said, “Why would we want something cheap?”

  She picked her head up. “Because if we aren’t making any money and I am pregnant, at some point I wouldn’t be able to make money anyway. I’m just scared about how much this is going to cost and if things don’t work out with Aaric, I don’t want it to affect me and my sister.”

  Trent put his finger over her rambling lips. He gripped the back of her head and pulled her closer and kissed her nose. “Slow down and relax. I’m pretty scared to go into the kind of debt we’re talking about but when Aaric and I went through estimates of revenue, we were extremely conservative. He knows he’s not getting paid overnight and that it’s a long term investment both ways, so the early repayment period is pretty lenient.”

  She put her ear back on his chest and could hear his heart thumping. “Sounds like you have everything worked out then. We still should find a house first. We can’t put that off because if we start with the agency, we’ll never get back to finding a house.”

  Trent said, “That’s fine with me. I’m just glad to have you back. I’m ecstatic that you are pregnant. Wait, you are sure it’s mine, right?”

  Whitney slapped him on the chest. “I don’t know actually. I think it might be yours. Not really sure. Maybe we should have a Maury episode to make sure you are the father. Jerk.”

  Trent pulled Whitney on top of him. “You know I’m kidding. I know I’m all the man you can handle.”

  Whitney chuckled. “I love that you even said that with an arrogant accent. You always know just what to say.”

  The reunited couple made love again and passed out in their own bed for the first time in months. Whitney slept with a smile on her face.

  “RING.

  RING.”

  Whitney jumped out of bed and tried to remember where her phone was. She found the black pants she had been wearing the previous night and pulled the phone out of the pocket.

  “Hello,” she managed to squeak out.

  A female voice came through from the other side. “Hi, my name is Mary Edgings and I just wanted to thank you.”

  Whitney tried to think of who Mary Edgings could be and why she was calling this early.

  The woman continued, “I am Robbie’s mother.”

  Those words served better than a pot of premium Colombian coffee and opened her eyes wide.

  Mary said, “I can’t believe that I got to see my son, even if he was still in a coma. I hope I’m not calling too early but I have some wonderful news for you. Robbie came out of the coma in the middle of the night. I would be honored if you would come see us so we can really thank you in person.”

  “It would be me who would be honored. I…I’m so happy to hear he’s out of the coma. I remember the hospital and we will be there as soon as we can.” Hearing this made Whitney even prouder than busting the kidnapper.

  16

  Whitney’s heart raced as the elevator stopped at the thirteenth floor. She didn’t like the ominous floor number as she and Trent walked down the hallway and stopped to see which way to go.

  “Three thirty to room three sixty down here.” Whitney pointed to a hallway on the right.

  “You’re digging your nails into my palm again,” Trent said.

  “Sorry, sorry. I’m just a little…no I’m really nervous.”

  Trent said, “You’ll be fine. Here we are.” He guided Whitney into a room, which held a woman and Robbie.

  Robbie was sitting up in bed without any machines hooked up to him. He seemed alert as he raised his chin to greet Whitney and Trent.

  The woman with black hair streaked heavily with gray jumped out of the chair and hugged Whitney.

  She whispered in her ear, “Thank you for not only saving his life, but saving mine. Too bad you couldn’t have come along sooner and saved my husband, but that wasn’t up to you. Thank you.”

  Mary went over and hugged Trent. “Thank you too, sir. I owe you both a great debt of gratitude.” She turned to her son. “Sorry, I’ve been ignoring this guy here. You know these guys, right, Robbie?”

  The boy spoke in the same cranky voice as he did in Dreamland. “Thank you guys. People have told me a lot and I remember some things. I really thought you were out to get me.”

  His voice didn’t annoy her now. Whitney said, “We understand, Robbie. All that’s important now is that you are back with your mom.” She asked Mary, “Did they say when he could get out of here?”

  Mary lowered her head. “That’s the good news and the bad news.”

  Trent asked, “What do you mean?”

  Mary said, “The doctors said that he might be able to leave in a few weeks, but I’ve been so down and out lately that I had to sell everything I have. I don’t really have anywhere to take him and I don’t have a job to give him the financial support he needs.”

  Whitney looked at Trent with heartbreak in her eyes. She couldn’t believe that Mary would finally get her son back and not be able to take care of him. She rubbed her belly and her heart started to buzz.

  “How long does your lease run on the house we are in right now?” Whitney asked Trent.

  Trent said, “Next May.”

  “What if we find a new place to live and since that lease can’t be broken, why don’t we let our new friends stay there?”

  A gasp of elation came out of Mary. “I don’t think I could let you do that. I could never repay you for something like that.”

  Trent objected, “Are you sure we can afford that with all that’s going on, honey?”

  “Of course. We’ll figure something out.”

  Robbie said, “What about my book deal, mom?”

  Mary looked at Trent and Whitney. “Right. He does have a book deal coming up that will give us a way to pay you back if Robbie is willing to do that?”

  Robbie smiled, “After everything you’ve ever done for me, mom, I can finally do something for you. Of course I’ll share my book money.”

  The teenager was the complete opposite in attitude from the kid in the video game land. He was completely respectful and likable.

  An older man with graying hair slowly walked into the room. He stared at Mary and she returned the gaze. The man lowered his head. “Sorry. For everything.”

  Robbie said, “Dad? Is that you?”

  The man turned to his son, tears streaming down his red cheeks. “It’s me buddy.” He trembled as he spoke.

  He walked over to his son and gave him a hug. “I love you, buddy.”

  Whitney poked Trent and whispered, “Maybe we should leave.”

  Mary must’ve heard her and said, “Wait a moment. George. This is Whitney and Trent. They are responsible for rescuing our son from that lunatic.”

  He came over to
greet them. “George Edgings. I can thank you two enough.” He shook Trent’s hand and then moved to Whitney. She shook his hand and could almost feel the love of his son through his pulsing palm.

  George turned to Mary. “I have a lot I need to say to you.”

  Mary walked up to him and hugged her estranged husband. “We can talk later. Let’s talk to Robbie now.”

  Trent tapped Whitney on the shoulder and broke her stare. She said, “Right.” She turned to the Edgings family. “We’ll see you soon.”

  They all thanked her again in one form or another and the couple slipped out of the hospital room.

  On the way home, Whitney said, “So I know that wasn’t the smartest financial move of all time, but we have to help them.”

  Trent said, “You know I love charity more than anyone, but right now is a mess. I hope his book advance is a nice chunk of change.”

  “Yeah but even then, they are going to need a lot of money for his care. He’s out of the coma, but he’s not anywhere near healthy. He’s going to need constant care. They still can’t figure out how people entered his body by grabbing onto him.”

  Trent said, “And I doubt they ever will. As for money, maybe I could take on some private work while we build the agency and you have this baby. I don’t know, I could even pick up some security shifts for big events in the city. Maybe I should go back to the Pennsburgh force while we do this to keep some steady money coming in.”

  “Could you do that while we move into a new house and try to get the agency going?”

  Trent answered, “I could maybe do it after we get moved into a new house. Why is life so hard? I was just celebrating about seeing you again and now back to real life.”

  “I agree. Being a grown-up sucks. We don’t sound like two people who are about to be parents.”

  They both laughed and Trent said, “We’re going to be just fine. Wish I was more like Aaric so we wouldn’t have to worry about these things.”

  “Don’t say that. I don’t care about money. That should be the last thing you are worried about.”