Gaia Dreams (Gaiaverse Book 1) (25 page)

Then there was the apple pie incident at Ned's
Pastry Shop. Harmony's studies with herbs, herbal laxatives, and apple pie
spice had led to another job termination. And there were others...not so bad,
some worse, some just minor little things, and some not even Harmony's doing,
but eventually just about anything in town that went wrong came to be laid at
Harmony's door.

So on this night, to hear that the only other
person they could reliably bring into their circle to be trusted with the
knowledge of all that was to come was Harmony Gold, this was the reason Jessica
added large swigs of brandy to the coffee she served.

Tucson, Arizona

Maria threw her suitcase onto the bench next to
the desk in the hotel room. Zack led Phoebe in and shut the door and dropped
the rest of their bags. Maria asked, "Phoebe? Do you want to just go to sleep
now?"

Phoebe nodded, barely. She had taken another
valium about midway during the flight and seemed only partially aware of her
surroundings even now. Maria helped her into bed and told her she'd be in the
next room if needed. Phoebe appeared to drop right off into a deep sleep. Maria
went with Zack into his room, which was next door.

"I thought we'd go directly to meet Margaret
when we landed," she said, sounding aggravated.

Zack rubbed his hands over his face as if trying
to wake up. "You know, I've been thinking about why she had us stay at this
hotel. I think it has to do with the other passengers we picked up."

Maria looked at him quizzically.

"I doubt she wants to deal with someone like
Hutton," said Zack.

"Oh, God!" said Maria, getting where he was
going. "I hadn't thought of that. Of course she wouldn't." After a pause, she
said, "I wonder if Mayor Dubois will get to meet Margaret or if it will be just
us."

Zack looked worried and asked, "We didn't
mention Margaret's name on the plane around Hutton, did we? You know, spill the
beans or anything?"

Maria grimaced and then tried to remember just
what she and Zack had talked about on the flight. Finally, she said, "I don't
think so, Zack. Besides, all I heard from Hutton was how badly he wanted to get
back to D.C. and how we were all putting him out by flying in the wrong
direction!"

"That's a relief," said Zack. "Then everything
should be all right. Let's hit the hay and get some rest. I think we'll have an
interesting day tomorrow." And with that, he and Maria both settled down in
their respective rooms for a night of much-needed sleep.

2:00 a.m. that night, Cape Fair, Missouri

Harmony woke up screaming, fighting the sheets
tangled around her legs. Only as she realized she was sitting up in bed
fighting phantoms did she notice she was screaming. Abruptly she shut her
mouth, shuddering and hugging herself, trying to regain control. Into the
still, dark night she whispered, "What is happening to me?" followed by the
broken words, "all those people..." as she sobbed.

Across town, Jessica and John sat with Samantha
on the edge of her bed and tried to calm their quivering daughter. Harry
whimpered in a corner, periodically darting over to nuzzle Sam, only to run
back to his corner when John or Jessica tried to pet him.

John glanced at Jessica with hollow eyes,
saying, "I only remember a piece of the dream, but it was enough to scare
me
,
an adult. I can't imagine what the entire thing must have been like for a
child."

Sam and John both jumped when the phone rang,
breaking the gloomy silence of the house. Jessica said, "It's okay, guys, just
the phone. And I'll bet its Mrs. Philpott." She got up to get the phone and
walking away, heard Sam say in a small voice, "It was really, really bad,
Daddy, wasn't it?"

"Yes, Sam. Yes, it was really, really bad," he
replied. "Come on, let's go in the other room and get some milk and cookies."
As they entered the kitchen, they heard Jessica on the phone saying, "Yes, come
right over--do you think so? Well, I guess if you think it's that
important--and Sam did say she was the one. Okay, I'll call her right now--Yes,
I guess she would be awake at that."

Jessica turned off the phone and enlightened her
family. "Mrs. Philpott and Perceval are on their way over. They want to talk
about what's coming up based on the dream. Get the details while they're fresh
in your minds. And she wants me to call Harmony and have her come over. She
says that Harmony probably had the dream, too, since it was so strong and she
deserves to be let in on what's going on so she doesn't think she's going nuts."

John started to object and then thought about
it. He'd only experienced one small part of the dream, or rather, he only
remembered one small part of it. If he had gone through the whole dream and
didn't know what was going on, he guessed he'd want to have some answers too.
And Harmony was a good person, no matter what foibles or idiosyncrasies she
brought to the mix. He looked up to see Jessica smiling at him fondly, and he
grinned sheepishly knowing she had just followed his thought processes by
watching his face. She did that sometimes...most of the time...all the time. He
shrugged and said, "What the hell...call her!" Jessica laughed.

A little scream came screeching out of Harmony
when the phone rang before she could stop it. "Damn, girl, get a hold of
yourself!" she said aloud. Gingerly picking up the phone, she was glad to hear
Jessica's voice. John and Jessica had been great to her. Then she realized her
mind had wandered because Jessica had asked her a question. "What?" she asked.

"We want to know if you would come over to our
house," Jessica said.

"Well, sure, anytime," Harmony said. "The party
there tonight was great."

"No, Harmony, I mean we want you to come over
right now. Tonight. As soon as possible," stated Jessica firmly.

Harmony was silent for a full ten seconds,
thinking about the night, the party, the dream, and now this call. Finally she
spoke in an excited low voice, "You
know
something, don't you?"

Jessica paused before she said, "Yes, we do, and
so will you if you get over here. We'll be waiting."

"I'm on my way," Harmony replied.

Throwing on clothes and frantically brushing her
hair, she was out the door ten minutes later, almost tripping on the stairs as
she stumbled over the stray gray cat she had been feeding for the past week.
Nursing the old 1967 Volkswagen engine to life, she was soon speeding down the
empty streets of Cape Fair, hoping to soon hear answers to the many questions
that were multiplying in her busy mind.

Chicot, Arkansas, 2:00 a.m.

Waldo woke up first, jumping onto the bed waking
Andy, who was crying out in his sleep.

"No, no," he sobbed. As he came to full consciousness,
he was thoroughly startled by the fact that Waldo was practically sitting on
top of his chest, growling.

"Waldo!" he said sharply. "That's a good boy,
now, get down, boy, it's okay, it's okay, boy, get down," he kept saying over
and over until Waldo moved. As he sat up in bed, he realized Waldo was still
growling and had moved to the interconnecting door that led to Lisanne's room.
That was when he woke up enough to notice the screams coming from next door.
Leaping up, he raced to the door and opened it, running into her room.
Expecting to find something horrible, instead he found only Lisanne and Merlin,
the cat meowing at Lisanne to wake her up and Lisanne obviously still caught in
the web of sleep and a bad nightmare.

Andy leaned over her and grabbed her shoulders,
shaking her forcefully until her eyes popped open and the screaming stopped.

"All the people..." she said. "The water, all
the people..." and then she burst into tears.

Andy looked stunned at her words and sat down, shaken,
on the edge of her bed.

Chicago, Illinois, 2:00 a.m.

After discussing various theories until
midnight, Nathan and Alex had decided to get a bit more sleep, hoping morning
would bring clarity about where to go with their ideas on the disasters. The
nightmares were a rude awakening. They were sharing a room to cut down on
costs, and Alex fell off the couch as she woke. Nathan was already jumping up
out of bed saying, "Dead, all dead," and then stopping as he came fully awake.

They stared across the room at each other and
Alex said shakily, "Turn on the light."

Nathan reached over and turned on the lamp by
the bed. He looked back at Alex standing with her arms crossed tightly against
her 'I Love NY' t-shirt. He noticed her long, tanned legs were trembling. He
opened his mouth to speak and she said, "No! Don't talk. Grab some paper and a
pen and write down exactly what you dreamed. Right now. Hurry. Before you
forget. Details."

His brain clicked into gear and he nodded
briskly and dove into his backpack for his notebook. They both wrote furiously
for about five minutes. As they finished, they glanced nervously at each other
and Alex broke the tension by laughing, a brief odd little laugh.

"It's crazy, I know," she said. "Just because we
both woke up at the same time...."

"Right," he said, "It doesn't mean we had the
same dream."

They exchanged notebooks and began reading.

Louisville, Kentucky, 2:00 a.m.

Janine liked to sleep at the stables. If there
was a horse that was sick or a mare about to foal, she often stayed overnight
to be on hand if needed. There was a cot in one of the tack rooms and she felt
safe and comforted by the sounds of the horses in the stalls. The horses at the
stables were not all racehorses. She enjoyed the variety of types she got to
ride to exercise them. Since Sherry's death a few days ago, she only felt safe
here at the stables. So when she bolted out of sleep terrified, it was a shock.
She heard noise all around her and as her senses awoke, sorted out the sounds
of horses neighing and snorting and hoofs striking the doors of stalls.

"What on earth...?" she muttered as she ran out to
check on the horses.

The horses seemed to calm down as she walked the
length of their stalls, but she became more and more sure that what she felt
among them all was fear. And then she recalled that her first emotion on waking
up had been fear. She sank down to the ground, legs splayed out in front of
her, and leaned back against the front of a stall door. Fear of...what? The
dream, she remembered.

The horse standing behind her whinnied.

She looked up and said questioningly, "The
dream, right?"

The horse whinnied again.

Janine stood up and looked around at all the
horses. It was momentarily startlingly quiet in this section of the stables.
She looked up and down the row of stalls and every horse leaned his or her head
over the stall doors. Janine pinched herself.

Into the quiet night air, she said, "Okay, now,
friends. This is getting just a little bit spooky."

Not one sound came from any of the stalls.

"I woke up...scared...were you scared too?" she
asked hesitantly.

As one, all the horses' heads nodded.

"Oh, my lord," she breathed the words, hand
fluttering at her throat.

After a few seconds, she said, "Was it...was it
because of the dream?"

The sound of all the horses whinnying was
deafening.

Tucson, Arizona, 2:00 a.m.

Maria woke up because she heard yelling. She
looked at Phoebe in the other bed, but she was fast asleep. Then Maria heard
the shouts again and knew they were coming from Zack's room. She dashed out and
pounded on the door to Zack's room, calling his name. The yelling stopped and
in a minute Zack opened the door to her.

Maria walked in past him, flipping on the light
and shutting the door. Grabbing his hand, she got him to sit down in a chair at
the table across from her. His hair was disheveled and his eyes looked haunted,
wild and faraway. He was bare-chested and wore boxer shorts. She just held his
hand and softly said over and over, "It's okay now, you're safe, it's okay."

After a while, he seemed to come more into the
present, and with a shudder his eyes filled with tears.

"What is it, Zack?" asked Maria. "You can tell
me. It's okay."

"The dream," he started, and then stopped.
Wiping the tears from his eyes, he seemed to pull himself together a bit. "You
know I told you how I was having dreams and not remembering them?" She nodded. "Well,
I remember this one and it was a doozy! And if it's real...."

"Real!" Maria said pointedly. "What do mean,
real? It was just a dream! Come on, everybody has nightmares now and then. And
we've seen so much death lately. It's no wonder you would have a bad one."

Zack just shook his head and looked at her. "I
don't think so, Maria. I think it's more than that. But--" and he held up a
hand to forestall her interrupting him. "Let's wait to discuss it until
tomorrow--after we talk to this Margaret, the psychic, okay?"

Being reminded that they were interviewing a
psychic in the morning threw everything into a somewhat different light, as
Zack had intended, and Maria was fully aware of it. She looked at him
stubbornly. Then she smiled a little and said pleadingly, "It's just--it's just
that you're like a rock to me, Zack. So solid and there! If you go weird on me,
it's really going to affect my sunny disposition," she ended, smiling
ingratiatingly.

Zack burst out laughing.

Cape Fair, Missouri

Harmony swerved wide around the corner of Elm
and West Fort Streets and yelled, slamming on the brakes, screeching to a stop,
and barely missing the figure in the middle of the road. "Holy goddess, what
the heck is this?" she muttered, turning off the engine, but leaving the lights
on to see as she climbed out of the little red car.

Stepping softly toward the crouching person in
front of her car, Harmony realized it was a man, or, no, not quite a man. As
his face lifted up to look at hers, she saw with astonishment an utterly
beautiful young man. Thin as a rail, and looking frightened beyond all measure,
but with skin the color of rich coffee barely touched with milk, appearing to
have the texture of silk. The young man stood up. Hair in dreadlocks to his
shoulders fell in disarray around his ears, his large dark eyes widened as they
looked at shining-haired Harmony standing in the halo of light from the car,
and his soft voice said, "Are you an angel?"