by Gene Gant
“That all sounds good.”
Cato tapped the dial once more, the image vanished, and he lowered his arm. “It is good, Gavin. You’re going to be okay here. I promise.”
I wanted to believe him. He took my hand again.
THE CAB turned down a road marked Private. Towering coconut palm trees lined both sides of the road, with sandy dunes visible between the trunks. We reached an open flat area where the ocean came into view. The cab stopped in front of a big Mediterranean-style house with tan bricks and lots of windows. It seemed vaguely familiar.
“This is your destination,” the car announced as the rear passenger doors slid open. “It’s been a pleasure to serve you. Thank you for your business, and I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.”
I started to say, “Same to you,” but then realized I’d be exchanging good wishes with a car. We climbed out. The car shut its doors and drove away.
“I’ve been here before,” I said, staring at the house.
“In 2017, my great-grandfather owned this estate. He named it Prospero, after one of his favorite characters. He was head of Arts and Humanities at the University of Hawaii. He traveled a lot that year, which made it the perfect base of operations while I was in 2017. It’s mine now.” He gave me a wry smile. “Play your cards right, and it can be yours too.”
He unlocked the door for me and held it open. I stepped into a huge living room full of metal-framed furniture. The air inside was cool, a pleasant contrast to the outdoor heat.
Cato stepped in and closed the door. “Have a seat,” he said, gesturing toward the sofa.
I sat, sinking deeply into the sofa’s thick cushion. Cato pointed his watch at a small circular glass screen in the wall opposite the sofa, tapped the dial, and a huge rectangular image lit up in front of the wall, some kind of projected television screen. An action movie was playing. The picture was sharp, clear, and 3D. I flinched in a very unmanly manner when a female character threw an ice pick that came straight for my nose.
“You’ll stay here tonight,” Cato said, dropping himself lazily beside me, “and you’ll have your own room. The TIA has set you up for counseling starting tomorrow to help you make the transition to this time, and to help you cope with everything you went through at Escanaba. In the meantime, just put up your feet and relax. We can watch movies or play holographic games. It’s a great day out there. We can swim, surf, do some parasailing—”
“If it’s okay with you, I think I want to be alone for a while.”
Cato’s friendly, caring demeanor didn’t flicker one bit. “Sure, man. Come on, your room’s down this way.”
He led me down a long hall to a large beautifully furnished bedroom. He stayed just long enough to show me how to operate the projection TV and to point out the adjoining bathroom, along with the change of clothes set out for me.
“If you need me, my room’s at the end of the hall,” he said at last. Then he walked out and closed the door.
The tears had started to build not long after I arrived in Honolulu. They continued rising even though I tried to ignore them. I felt battered, beaten, as if I’d been caught on open ground in a hurricane and lashed for hours by whirling winds and rain. That’s how hard the painful knowledge that my dad was gone had been hitting me.
The sobs broke out of me in loud soggy spurts. I lay down on the bed, curled up, and cried for a long time.
I WOKE up. The light in the room wasn’t quite as bright as it had been. It was late afternoon. Rubbing a hand over my face, I felt the dried streams left by my tears. I went into the bathroom and washed my face.
I sat down on the bed again. It was stupid to let myself get bullied into joining a gang. Dumbest move of my life, and it cost me a lot. I felt like shit when I got arrested, and betraying Cato made me feel even worse. But just as I accepted responsibility for my actions, I had to accept that other people are responsible for their actions. Apache killed Crazy E, sent me to jail, had me tortured there for months, and got my dad killed. His heart had to bear the burden of those choices, not mine. Giving in to my anger and hatred over the things he did made me as much of a monster as he’d been.
But that part of my life was over. I was in a new world, with new chances, thanks to Cato. He didn’t see crap when he looked at me. He saw someone who was worth sacrifices and forgiveness. He saw someone he could love.
And he was someone I could love.
Cato wasn’t Deshaun. He’d never hurt me the way Deshaun and his gang of idiots did. I was going into counseling with a shrink or psychologist or something. Psychologically, I had to work on a lot of issues. Kissing and cuddling I could handle, but just the thought of having sex felt dangerous as hell. Maybe one day I’d get to the point where having sex with Cato wouldn’t freak me out. No, not maybe. I would get there. Deshaun and Apache were gone, bad blips in my history, and I wasn’t going to let them break me. I wasn’t going to let them take my future.
I stood up and walked out of the room. The door to the master bedroom was open, but Cato wasn’t there. The door to the patio was also open, letting in the sound of the gently hissing surf. I crossed Cato’s room and stepped out on the patio.
He was sitting on the beach several feet away, wearing just a pair of trunks, staring out at the ocean as he soaked up the late afternoon sun. I took off my shoes, socks, and shirt and walked across the hot fine sand.
He must’ve heard me approaching; casually, he looked over his shoulder at me. “Hey.”
“Hey back.” I sat down close to him.
“You okay?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
He smiled. “Glad to hear that.”
He looked back at the ocean. I pressed my shoulder to his. The contact brought out an instant rush in me like a warm glow. “I love this time of year,” I said conversationally. “Summer’s my favorite season.”
“Actually, this is the tail end of winter. Today is February 24.”
“If this is winter, summer must be hell around here.” February 24. Cato had a birthday coming up in a couple of weeks. The big eighteen. I’d have to surprise him with a really nice gift.
“Got a present for you,” said Cato. He slipped his hand into the pocket of his trunks and brought out a watch with a blue leather band.
“Cool watch,” I said. “Thanks.”
“It’s not just a watch. It’s a mobile device. Back in your day, you carried cell phones. This can do what your cell phone did, plus a lot more. I’ll show you how to use it and get you up to date on what you missed over the past 110 years. I already programmed in my contact info. You’ll be able to reach me anytime.”
With my left hand, I cinched the watch around my right wrist. It felt good there, comforting and secure. Cato watched my face closely. I wanted so much to be the guy he dreamed of….
That warm glow suddenly went straight to my heart. I pushed closer to Cato and kissed him. He wrapped me in his arms. His skin was very warm from the sun. I embraced him, and we kept kissing. He pressed harder and harder with his lips, slipping his tongue in to tangle with mine. It felt good, so very good. I could have kissed him forever.
Cato pulled away abruptly. “Is this okay with you, Gavin?” he asked worriedly. “Am I making you uncomfortable?”
“Only when you stop,” I replied with a grin.
He laughed and grabbed me again, and we fell back together on the hot sand.
More from Gene Gant
When Jason Barrett wakes up, he remembers only one thing: his name. Frightened and driven by paranoia, Jason keeps moving, going from town to town working odd jobs and making no friends. When he stumbles onto an emergency in New Hanover and saves a fellow teenage boy, it offers him the first connection he’s felt in a while.
All Ravi Mittal learns about his knight-in-shining armor is his name. Jason. But New Hanover is a small town and it is easy to reconnect. To return Jason’s kindness, Ravi wants to help solve the riddle of Jason’s missing past. As they work through clues, Jason
begins to feel settled. He finds a place he belongs with Ravi—maybe something more.
But Ravi’s father’s deep-seated prejudice against the African American teen threatens to tear Jason and Ravi apart… if the mystery chasing Jason doesn’t do it first.
At nineteen, college freshman Mace Danner works as an escort, hiring himself out to customers who want a submissive they can dominate. Having no carnal urges himself, the sexual side of his job leaves him cold, but he sees the pain inflicted on him by his clients as punishment for causing his brother’s death when he was in high school. Pain is not enough, however, to wash away his guilt, and Mace starts binge drinking in an effort to escape his remorse.
The dorm’s resident advisor, Dex Hammel, sees Mace spiraling out of control and strives to help him. Despite the mutual attraction between them, Mace is disturbed that he still feels no sexual desire for anyone. Even with Dex’s support, Mace’s self-destructive behavior escalates, leading to a situation that endangers his life.
With time ticking until graduation, Ellis Carter doesn’t have a plan for after high school. Since his best friend Cary dropped out, he has no one to talk to. All he knows is he doesn’t want to continue being a burden to his mother. Adding to his daily torture is the school’s new resident bad boy, Saul Brooks. So to say he’s amazed when the mysterious Saul invites him to the gym for a workout is an understatement. Soon, they go from workout buddies to boyfriends, and Ellis couldn’t be happier. But happiness is fleeting. His mother begins a new relationship he thinks will lead to pain, and Cary makes a decision that could take him out of Ellis’s life for good. Just when he needs to lean on his boyfriend the most, Ellis discovers Saul has a secret that could break them apart.
Is opening your heart to the possibility of love worth the risk of more pain?
After bouncing around the foster system since being removed from his neglectful mother, fourteen-year-old Linus Lightman is reluctant to trust or bond with his latest foster family, the Nelsons. He’s sure they’ll reject him as soon as they find out he’s gay. He finds a kindred spirit in Kevin Mapleton, and their friendship quickly evolves into romance. But then someone posts a video of Linus and Kevin having sex on the Internet, and experience has taught Linus that the scandal will cost him both the Nelsons’ acceptance and Kevin’s love.
Draven, a fledgling monster, faces an impossible choice just three days before his fifteenth birthday. If he doesn’t make his first human kill and release the beast within him, his father will kill his mortal mother. But Draven doesn’t want to become a sadistic, ruthless fiend like his father.
Help arrives in the form of Ahmad, a powerful 1500-year-old djinn whose soul is trapped in a brass ring, and handsome Inky, who is also much older than he seems. In turn, they introduce Draven to the eerie, mysterious Mina, who has information they need to rescue Draven’s mother. But their quest to free her is not without obstacles. Draven falls head over heels in love with Inky, only to discover how deadly this can be. And Ahmad’s ring falls into the hands of an enemy who won’t hesitate to use Ahmad against his friends.
GENE GANT graduated from the University of Memphis. He has worked with the poor as a counselor for the state of Tennessee and as a corporate writer. He lives on a country lane outside Memphis.
By Gene Gant
Always Leaving
The Battle for Jericho
Bender
If You Really Love Me
In Time I Dream About You
Lessons on Destroying the World
Lucky Linus
The Supernaturals
NEEDS
Everything We Shut Our Eyes To
The Thunder in His Head
Published by HARMONY INK PRESS
www.harmonyinkpress.com
Published by
HARMONY INK PRESS
5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886 USA
[email protected] • harmonyinkpress.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of author imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
In Time I Dream About You
© 2017 Gene Gant.
Cover Art
© 2017 Garrett Leigh.
http://blackjazzpress.com
Cover content is for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted on the cover is a model.
All rights reserved. This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of international copyright law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. Any eBook format cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact Harmony Ink Press, 5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886, USA, or [email protected].
Digital ISBN: 978-1-63533-422-7
Published July 2017
v. 1.0
Printed in the United States of America
