by Kimbra Swain
I remembered that he had moved to Tuscaloosa for a long time with Stephanie. He even took a leave of absence from the department. This was several years ago. He called me one night, drunk and upset. He had promised that we were friends, but sort of abandoned me to follow her and be around her high-class lawyer friends. “I remember. You got drunk at a Christmas party,” I said.
“That part was true. That night I dreamed about the vrykolakas coming to get you. I woke up in a crazed panic to get back to Shady Grove. I sent you to Hot Tin, only to realize that’s where they were waiting on you,” he said.
“You dreamed that?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he said, brushing hair out of my face that wasn’t there. His warm touch on my skin had become my favorite comfort in stressful times. “I have a recurring dream when I’ve had too much to drink, and it started not long after the incident with the vamps. You were missing for a couple of days. Jeremiah had us combing the county looking for you when we found you near your stone circle one night,” I said.
“I remember. I had felt drained, so visiting the stone seemed like the best way to recharge. However, I fell asleep on the center stone,” I said. “You acted strangely that night. You were still with Stephanie then.”
“I was still with her, but when I came home that night, I let the frustrations of not being able to find you for two days wash away in a bottle of whiskey. The most wonderful dream of my life flashed through my brain that night. I’ve had the dream multiple times since then,” he said.
“It’s about me?” I asked.
“Yes,” he said barely above a whisper.
Finding his words seemed to become harder for him at this point. He wanted to tip-toe through this, but I couldn’t understand why. I waited silently as he gathered his thoughts once again. His eyes focused on something across the room. He swallowed and began to speak again.
“The dream changed, but there were some things that never changed. You and I are standing hand in hand before Matthew Rayburn in his druid cloak with a little, brown-haired girl by your side. You are wearing a long, blue dress that flows as the breeze blows around us. At the time, I had no idea who the little girl was, but I assumed she was your child because she looked so much like you,” he stopped.
“Winnie,” I said, astonished that he dreamed about Winnie years before she actually became my child. She had to have been an infant when he first had the dream.
“Winnie. Our daughter. Beside me, a young man stood up with me. Dark hair and dark brooding eyes,” he laughed.
“Levi,” I said. “You dreamed about our wedding?”
His smile had never been wider. “Yes, I did. Plus, I now know that my best man is your bard, Levi Rearden. Our friends and family are there, but the actual attendees sometimes change. However, there is one that is always the same. A pretty woman holding a baby in a blue blanket. The woman is Tabitha Mistborne, and the baby is…” His voice cracked.
“Our son,” I finished. “That’s wonderful! It just means that it was meant to be. It means that Devin isn’t your child!” This news excited me, but his face remained dark as he watched me. “What is wrong? Has the dream changed?”
His face winced in pain. I felt his body tremble with fear, and I’d never seen Dylan afraid of anything other than me being hurt. I put my palm on his face to reassure him that no matter what it was he could tell me.
“I haven’t dreamed in months. No matter how hard I try. The dreams are all gone,” he said.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“I don’t know, Grace! It means there is no wedding. We don’t have a son. We don’t have a future,” he said in desperation.
“No, I refuse to believe that. Did it change after Stephanie had Devin? When was the last time you dreamed it?” I asked.
“Around Christmas, but it was faded,” he said.
“It proves that Devin isn’t your son, because he was already born while you were still having the dream about our son,” I said.
“Grace, the dreams aren’t absolute,” Dylan tried to explain.
“I will not let you sit here and tell me that you think you are going to die because you stopped having a wedding dream!” I said finally allowing my frustration to take over. I regretted it the moment I let the words go. However, my wonderful man didn’t budge. He sat waiting for it to soak in. He believed he was going to die. “I’m calling Nestor. We will get married tomorrow.”
“Grace, honey. No, don’t do that. This is Amanda and Troy’s wedding week. We shouldn’t spoil it for them,” he groaned.
“No one has to know. We will go see Matthew tonight. He can marry us, and it will be done. I’m sure I have something I could wear,” I said, trying to push up off the couch. He caught my arm, pulling me back down to him.
“This is why the dreams are unreliable. Grace, what if we get married tonight and I die tomorrow?” he asked.
“Stop saying that. You aren’t going to die. You just ran out of dream juice!” I protested. “You can’t die and leave me here. I can’t do this without you. Winnie needs you. The town needs you.” I fell to pieces in his arms. He held on tight as I cried, thinking about Levi and the book he told me about. Dylan must have told him about the dream.
“I’m not going anywhere on purpose. We need to just keep living our life as we have. You have always been observant even when you pretend not to notice things. I had to tell you because you were registering my frustration with it more often. Forgive me for hiding it from you. It wasn’t my intention to keep it a secret,” he said.
None of that bothered me. What bothered me was that this was clearly something he believed in being a truth in his life. He could dream about the future. He proved it to be true by warning me about the vrykolakas. Now the dreams had stopped. “Mike the vape guy,” I said bolting up.
“What?”
“The vault. You know the magic vape shop,” I said, wiping my tears. “We can go to Mike. He has liquid for everything. I bet he has something more potent than alcohol! We can try something else, even if it is just to settle both of our nerves.”
He pondered it for a moment, then nodded. “I’ll try,” he said. “We need to get the kids from Nestor.”
Instead of skipping back to the bar, Dylan wanted to walk to town with me. So, we walked, hand in hand, to the rainbow glitter vape shop. Mike was happy to see us and to meet Dylan. He promised that he had exactly what we needed. Providing a mod and the liquid, Mike wanted us to report back to him about how it worked. He seemed to take great pride in his concoctions.
Walking to the bar, Dylan assured me that it didn’t matter if it worked or not. He was doing whatever it took to make sure he stayed here to keep Winnie safe and his fiancée satisfied. I laughed as if all I needed from him was sex.
“Really? Dylan. You act like all I care about is sex,” I said.
“It was all you cared about at one point,” he said.
“I’ve never been that shallow,” I protested.
“Just that shallow on the outside,” he said with a smile.
“Exactly,” I replied.
Winnie was happy to see us when we got back. Mark jumped up and down, eager to get back to the trailer to meet Bramble and Briar. Dylan took them out to the truck to get strapped in for the half-mile ride home. Nestor waited for them to leave the bar before speaking to me. I knew from the look on his face that he had something important to say.
“Is everything okay?” he asked.
“Do you know about the dream?” I asked.
His dark eyes glittered with happiness. “Yes, I know about the dream. He’s had it for a very long time,” he said.
“He’s not having it anymore. No dreams. They are all gone,” I said.
He wrinkled his forehead. “Things are changing rapidly here. It’s possible whatever cosmic force that allows him to transcend time is playing catch-up. I wouldn’t worry.”
“He’s worried that he’s going to die now and that we will never get mar
ried. So, I told him we would go tonight to Matthew’s to get married. No one has to know but us. He seemed to fear that option as if it would be a catalyst to his death,” I said.
“Death? He thinks he is going to die?” Nestor asked.
“Yeah,” I muttered fighting back tears.
“No, Grace. My experience with seers and precognitive abilities has always been that it is a temperamental gift. It doesn’t mean anything. You need to hold on to the fact that he has been having the dream of being married to you with Winnie as your daughter and a son in Tabitha’s arms for years. Even Levi is in the dream. It helped him through some very dark times. Now that it’s faded it worries him, but don’t assume the worst,” Nestor said, hugging me.
“Thanks, Ness,” I said.
“Go have fun with those kids. They are a hoot,” he said.
I kissed him on the cheek, then joined Dylan in the truck. I told him what I had told Nestor, and what Nestor had to say.
“He’s right. That dream meant a lot to me. I’m overreacting to whatever the change is to come. There is nothing in this world that will keep me from marrying you,” he said.
“As soon as Finley and Levi return,” I said.
“Yes. I want them both to be there,” he said. “We will do this right.”
“Right, and soon,” I said. He laughed at my persistence.
Sitting in the chair across the room from him and wrapped in a blanket, I watched Dylan sleep. Our evening with the kids had been fun. Mark and Winnie played hide the wiener with Bramble and Briar. Rufus was delighted to have a new person to scratch his belly. Rotten dog. After Troy picked up Mark, Winnie went to bed without a protest, because she had played so hard all day she was exhausted. Dylan and I curled up in the recliner watching television. We didn’t talk about the dream or the vape mod.
When it got time to go to bed, he made love to me silently and strong. We didn’t speak at all, just using the time to explore the other’s pleasure. He smoked on the vape with Mike’s magic liquid, then quickly fell asleep. I couldn’t turn my brain off. So, I climbed into the chair to watch him sleep. After a while, I could tell that his eyes moved as if he were dreaming. He made no facial expressions to indicate whether it was a good dream or not. Finally, I saw his eyes settle. They didn’t move for a very long time. He rolled over on the bed reaching for me.
“Grace,” he mumbled, realizing I wasn’t there.
“I’m here,” I said, crawling back into the bed with him. He pulled me close to him spooning his body with mine. He felt hotter than he normally did. That worried me, but I dismissed it until the next morning when I woke up in a sweat. I felt like I was in a heater. I pushed away from him gently.
“What’s wrong?” His voice was groggy.
“I’m burning up. You are overheating me,” I giggled.
A lazy smile crossed his face. “I do know how to get you hot,” he said.
“Yes, you do,” I smiled. Eagerly I waited for him to tell me about the dream, but he drifted back to sleep smiling. I hated to disturb him. I didn’t know how well he had been sleeping since Stephanie arrived and our world got turned on its side. We were learning to walk sideways. It seemed the natural state of things in Shady Grove. I heard Winnie get up, then turn on the television to cartoons. Rufus stirred at our bedroom door wanting out. I kissed Dylan on the cheek, then got up to let the dog out. It was time to be a Mom. Looking back to his sleeping form, a dark thought crossed over me. Even with all the confusion with Levi in my head, there was no one I wanted like Dylan. I couldn’t imagine breathing, much less living without him. He wasn’t allowed to die.
“Morning, Momma,” Winnie said. “I think I’ll have grits for breakfast.”
“Grits with cheese?” I asked opening the front door to allow Rufus out to do his business. I looked across the trailer park to see Cletus and Tater outside sorting plastic bottles again. A storm cloud gathered in the distance. So much rain.
“Of course,” Winnie said with sass. I laughed at her directness and wondered if she picked that up from me. I might need to tone it down a bit or my child would end up being too much like me. For a moment, I thought about Bethany, her biological mother. Winnie rarely mentioned her other than in her prayers. She always said her mother was an angel looking down on her. Wearing the key around her neck that the troll had given her at Christmas was enough for her to daily acknowledge the woman who brought her into this world. I was glad that she would remember her mother fondly. I had mixed feelings about Bethany, but I couldn’t hate her. She gave me a precious gift that brightened my days.
I hadn’t shaken the heat from lying in bed with Dylan, so I turned on the ceiling fan hoping to cool off the inside of the trailer. It wouldn’t be long, and I’d have to turn on the window units daily. For a split second, I wished we still lived in Dylan’s house. The central air conditioning would have been perfect for the humidity that would become our daily weather. Then I remembered that Stephanie took the house, and now it seemed to sit there taunting us. The home that we could never have.
We could build our own house. I had plenty of land around where my stone circle was, and it would be great for Winnie to have a big yard to play in. I knew if I called Remington Blake that he could direct me to someone who could help with building it. I decided that I would build it as quietly as possible to give it to Dylan and Winnie as a wedding gift. A part of me cringed at living in a home that didn’t have wheels, but I knew my days of running were over. The anchors that held me here were my daughter and my fiancé. My life was different now, and I needed to start living it that way.
I finished Winnie’s grits, stirring in the cheese when it was hot so it would melt. “To the table, little miss,” I said.
She ran over to the table, where I sat the grits in front of her with a glass of milk. I also poured two tiny cups of milk for Bramble and Briar who knew it was breakfast time and appeared out of nowhere. I gave them each a vanilla wafer, then filled Rufus’ bowl up with food. He stood at the front door yipping to get back inside. He hated rain, and I was sure he knew it was coming.
“All settled?” I asked.
“This is wonderful,” Bramble’s shrill voice assaulted my ears. I was almost used to it, but not quite.
“Thank you, Momma,” Winnie said.
“Okay. I’m going to step outside and make a phone call,” I said. “Put your dishes in the sink when you finish.”
“Yes, ma’am,” they all replied.
I opened the front door letting Rufus inside as I stepped out on the porch. After two rings, Remy answered, “Well, hello beautiful.” Remy always had a way about him that made me at ease, even when I hated him.
“Hello to you, too,” I said.
“Grace, to what do I owe the immense pleasure of speaking to you this early in the morning?” he asked.
“I have a plan, and I need your help,” I said.
“Is it a secret plan?” he said playfully.
“It is,” I replied.
“Is it just between you and me?” he asked.
“It is,” I replied.
“I swear I won’t tell Dylan you are still in love with me,” he said, only half teasing.
“Remy!” I scolded him.
He laughed. I couldn’t help but like him. I asked him about the girl from the other night, and he said that she was someone he met in town. She was a fairy but wasn’t ready to make a commitment to me or Shady Grove just yet. However, he seemed to like her very much. Of course, according to him, she was already madly in love with him. Who wouldn’t be, right?
After the talk about his new lady friend, I asked him about the property that I owned, and if I could build on it. He answered all my questions as a good lawyer should.
“So, you want me to get started on it right away?” he asked.
“Yes,” I replied. “How long will it take?”
“These things take time, Grace. You can’t be impatient with it,” he warned.
“I know, bu
t I’m just so excited,” I said.
“It’s about time you outgrew that trailer,” he said.
“I know. At least how long will it take to clear a space?” I asked.
“A couple of weeks at the most. A week if the ground perks,” he said. “There are permits and regulations to follow.”
“Alright. Give me a call when it gets cleared. I want to show it to Dylan then, but until then it’s our secret,” I said.
“What’s our secret?” Dylan asked behind me.
“Uh-oh,” Remy said.
I looked up at Dylan. “Dylan, I must tell you now. I’m madly in love with Remy. I always have been.”
“What? That Nawlin’s boy doesn’t know how to treat a woman. Give me that phone,” he joked. I handed him the phone.
“Now listen here, Remington Blake, you stay away from my woman,” he said. I heard Remy’s drawl reply something causing Dylan to laugh. He handed back the phone.
“You done?” I asked him.
“Yes, then I can’t wait to hear what the secret is,” he said.
“Ugh. Let me go take care of this, Remy. Thank you,” I said into the phone.
“Good luck. Let me know if it’s still a secret. I like having a secret with you, Grace,” Remy teased.
“Later, you flirt,” I said.
“Later you,” he said, hanging up.
I turned to face Dylan as thunder rumbled behind me. “I can’t tell you. It’s a surprise,” I said.
He rolled his eyes because he knew I wouldn’t budge. “Alright. I’ll let you have a secret this one time from me,” he said.
“Thanks. I promise that you won’t regret it,” I assured him.
He kissed me on the cheek then down on my neck. I giggled trying to get away from him.
“Git you some,” Cletus yelled from across the street.
“Stupid idjit,” I mumbled.
Dylan held me tight then started thrusting his hips. I could tell he was looking at those fools across the street. They started whoopin’ and hollerin’ so loud it could have woken up the dead. The last thing we needed in Shady Grove were zombies.
