by Lori Cohen
I flipped on the lights in the gallery and said, “I present to you, our dreams!” Everyone was silent as our eyes roamed over the canvases. I was still busy looking for more clues. I knew Owen was too. Amy and Michael gave me glowing compliments of my work.
Suddenly, I went over to one of the paintings and said to Owen, “Look, this is a small part of a golf course that sits right beside this stretch of beach that they’re on,” I said.
“Oh true! It looks like a putting green. We could see if there’s a golf course near that Popponesset place!” Owen said. We high-fived on this potential discovery.
We went over to my mom’s desk and I logged on to the computer. I quickly googled “Popponesset” and we looked at the map. Sure enough, next to Popponesset was a place called New Seabury Country Club with a golf course that stretched alongside the beach in parts. I googled more images of the golf course and although I couldn’t find an exact match to my canvas, the landscape looked eerily familiar to both me and Owen.
“Do you feel weird right now?” he asked me.
“So weird…” I got up, feeling like we both knew there was more work to do.
On the way home to drop me off, Owen said that he’d do some movie research when he got home. “There’s no point in both of us doing the same work,” he said.
“Okay sounds good. I also have to get some reading done for school tomorrow.” We drove in silence, holding hands, listening to the Foo Fighters. Each of us was lost in thought.
Later that night I got a text from Owen. “No luck yet. Goodnight my love xoxo.”
We spent our lunch period the next day in the library working on our religion project. “So, from what I’ve read, Judaism has very little focus on the afterlife. There are many stories over many years that have evolved on the subject, but there doesn’t seem to be one agreed-upon belief. The references to the afterlife are vague and seem symbolic rather than literal,” I shared.
“Okay, so definitely less of an emphasis than all of the other religions, which is interesting,” Owen said.
We were going to be able to put the finishing touches on our report soon and then work on our visual presentation. “Okay so how about we edit each other’s sections and then we’ll put it all together?” I suggested.
“Great plan,” he said as he kissed me.
“Were there many movies filmed in Cape Cod?” I asked.
“Well, there’s ‘Jaws’ of course,” he laughed. “But seriously, there are some, but no, not many. There are a lot that were filmed in New England in general, and I don’t know within those if there might be some shot specifically on Cape Cod. I’ll definitely go through the list though. How can I not?”
I had my last yearbook meeting for the year after school and then I promised Dani that I’d stop by her house on my way home. I knew she felt a little neglected and I felt badly. I’d been so wrapped up in Owen and solving our mystery. I had talked to Owen about telling Dani what’s been going on with us and he left the ball in my court. “Whatever you need to do, do. I totally understand that you’d want to tell her what’s been happening and from what you’ve told me, you can trust her,” Owen had said.
When I got to Dani’s, she was outside on her steps with a guy that I didn’t recognize — and he was gorgeous!
“Hey Aria,” she said, as she got up to hug me. “This is Liam. We met at camp orientation.”
“Nice to meet you. You’re the bff I hear,” he said, smiling.
“Yup! That’s me! Nice to meet you too!” I said, completely shocked that Dani had not mentioned anything about Liam to me.
The three of us chatted for a little while and then Liam said that he had to get going. Once he was out of earshot, I said, “Wow. He’s beautiful. And sweet. Where did he come from, and why is this the first I’m hearing of him?!”
Dani laughed, “Well, we’ve been talking a lot and he randomly asked if he could come by after school today. Honestly, I didn’t mention him because it’s clear something’s going on with you. I hate to say it but, you’ve been pulling away,” she said, as we walked toward her front door. I could hear the hurt in her voice.
“I am so sorry, Dan. You’re right. I’ve been a shitty friend.” I knew I had to tell Dani everything and I did once we got up to her room.
She just stared at me with her mouth open. “You know how unbelievable this sounds, right?” she said.
“I do. It’s been really difficult to even concentrate on anything else. We both just want to figure out what’s going on,” I said.
“Yeah I can’t even imagine how I’d be able to sleep or do any school work if I were you!!” she said sympathetically.
I explained to her that Owen was busy checking out movies from the past that maybe could have stayed with us.
“Even if it was a movie, why would you both be having these dreams at the same time? And why is each of you in your own dream?” she asked, her skepticism apparent.
“I know...it does sound impossible. It makes no sense,” I sighed.
She gave me a big hug. “You must be going nuts from this. I’m always here for you. You know that, right?” she assured me.
“Thanks Dan, I do know that,” I replied, and added, “so when are you seeing Liam again?!”
She laughed.
I called Owen on my walk home from Dani’s house to let him know how things went. As we were talking more, I started to cry softly. “Owen I’m scared,” I said.
“I know you are. I am too, but we’ve got to hold it together. We’re going to figure this out. Aria, I love you so much,” he said.
“I love you more,” I said back.
Chapter 15
At 9 a.m. I woke startled. Energy ran through my body and my adrenaline kicked up. I jumped out of bed with the feeling that I should be doing something. I stood, in my pajamas, arms at my sides staring at the window, trying to figure out what I had forgotten. I must have stood like that for five minutes before I gave up, went to bathroom and brushed my teeth. It was probably just a dream.
It was Friday and another week was whipping by. I made my lunch and was happy to walk to school with the warm sun touching my face. The air temperature was still a bit cool in the mornings, but by mid-day I would be reminded that the cool days of the school year were almost over, and that summer was around the corner. With just a few assignments to finish up and only one final exam, I was seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. But the energy ran through my body again and I felt nervous. The wave of uncertainty washed over me — and then fear crept in. Owen and I had found one another, but in doing so, we had made our lives so much more complex. For one moment I felt regret: regret for falling for Owen only to find ourselves knee-deep in an unsolvable mystery. My body felt paralyzed as I stood on the corner across from the school, looking at the walk sign on the crosswalk 6-5-4... as it counted down. I stood there not able to move.
“Aria!” I heard the call from behind me. It was Dani; I recognized the voice. Still unable to move, I didn’t turn around.
“Hey,” she said, out of breath, as she came up behind me and grabbed my arm.
“Hey Dan,” I said, finally breaking my trance.
“What’s wrong?” she asked clearly concerned.
“It’s just getting to me. I feel so afraid and I don’t know what to do.”
Dani dropped her backpack and wrapped her arms around me. “We’ll figure it out. Don’t worry. I know it seems impossible, but I’m sure we’ll get to the bottom of it.”
“I hope so. And soon.” I pulled away and asked, “Why are you not in class?”
“Oh, I skipped first period. I was up a bit late texting with Liam!”
I smiled, “That’s great!”
“Ya, I’m so into him! I can’t wait for the summer, oh my God!”
Laughing, we crossed the street and walked into the school. I realized then that solitude was my enemy; I needed to be busy and distracted, so that was my plan. My class came and went quickly, and I rush
ed back to my locker to drop my bag, grab my lunch and wait for Owen. As I opened my locker, an envelope fell to the ground that had clearly been shoved into the crack of my locker. In handwriting, “Aria” was written on the outside of the envelope. My heart raced. What was this? I opened it reluctantly to find a lined piece of paper, handwritten. I quickly glanced at the signature and saw it was from Owen, so I read...
Dear Aria,
I can’t bear to hear you cry. It breaks my heart. I know you are scared, and if I’m totally honest, I’m scared too. I have no idea what this all means, but I know I have to try to find out, for both of us. I’m writing this letter to let you know that I’m going down to Cape Cod for the weekend. I will go to Popponesset and New Seabury and walk through the places in our dreams. I don’t know what I will find, but I know I can’t sit around here feeling the way I do. I won’t be in touch for the next couple of days because I don’t want you stressing with every detail. I want you to be distracted by the other things in your life and for you just leave this to me (for now). When I get back, I will tell you everything I have discovered (if anything at all). In the meantime, please use this time to do all the things you’ve ignored or haven’t had a chance to do. I know you are feeling overwhelmed.
I love you, Owen
The first thing that occurred to me was how cute it was that he hand-wrote a letter to me. Who does that? So old-school, so sweet. Owen was the most sensitive guy I’ve ever known. Sensitive, but not weak — he wasn’t running from the fear; he was facing it head on. And more than that, he was trying to shield me from dealing with all of it. I felt nothing but love for him. Just as I had concluded on my walk to school, I needed distraction; Owen already seemed to know that. So, with that, I decided to go with it and leave it in his hands for the next couple of days while I dealt with other things on my plate. But first, I went down for lunch with my friends.
When I got downstairs, I told Dani about Owen’s letter and his plan. She was a big fan of Owen and this just cemented that feeling for her. She loved that he was taking charge. She said, “He’s like a real-life knight in shining armor.” I couldn’t have agreed with her more. I felt in Owen’s hands, things would work out alright.
After school I went right to work on finishing all the assignments that were due in the coming weeks. I decided that if I got them out of the way, I would have more time for Owen and solving our mystery when he returned. So I put my head down and spent the rest of the night working away, resisting every impulse to contact him.
The weekend seemed to last an eternity. Happily, the plan worked, and I got a ton accomplished. In the quiet hours, before bed and just waking up, I was alone with my thoughts of Owen. There was this certain way that he always looked at me, reached out and touched my hair when he was listening to me talk. It was comforting and familiar, and made me feel listened to, and adored. It was a gesture that I had come to know from the boy in my dreams. And thinking about it, it didn’t seem so crazy that Owen did this, because he was having the same dreams. We were connected.
It was 7pm on Sunday when I finally got a text from Owen saying, “Can I come over now?”
“YES!!!” was all I needed to say; he showed up at my door five minutes later.
He smiled running up the path to my front door and when he got close enough, he lifted me in his arms as I jumped. I wrapped my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck, and held him tight.
“I missed you,’” I whispered in his ear. He put me down and kissed me sweetly.
“Come,” I said taking his hand and walking into the house. We went right into the kitchen. My parents were out, and I couldn’t wait to hear everything about Owen’s weekend.
“Aria, it’s the place. It’s all there. You know how dreams can be a little vague in some details?” I nodded. He continued “Well, being there was like coloring in all the little pieces inside the frame. I don’t really know how to describe it, but it brought everything to life in 3D. I wish I could tell you that I have answers, I don’t. But I can confirm that the place in our dreams is a real place. I spent a lot of time walking on the beach. It was so familiar. But Aria, my heart was racing sitting on the beach looking out, watching the water lap the shore. I know there is something for us to discover. What it is, I have no idea right now.”
I rubbed my eyes. I couldn’t help but feel disappointed. I wanted more information, not just a feeling, but I didn’t want to make him feel badly so I nodded in understanding.
He watched me and then continued, “The best I could do so far was to take tons of photos, and to get my hands on as much “local” stuff as I could — so I picked up brochures, local newspapers, area tourist guides, maps, anything that would help tell the story of this place. I haven’t gone through any of it yet. I figured that this is stuff we can do together to see if anything gives us clues.”
“Well, this seems like a good next step,” I said, reaching for some of the printed pieces. Deflated, I started leafing through a ferry schedule to Martha’s Vineyard, unsure how this was going to help us solve our mystery. “Did you find the Ice Cream Patch?” I asked expectantly.
“Yes, I can’t believe I forgot to tell you! It’s still there, even though it’s been closed for over ten years. But it’s exactly as you painted it, and as I visualized it.”
“That’s crazy! I wonder why it went out of business and why it’s still sitting there.”
“Well, I heard from a lady at the laundromat next door that the owner of the business also owns the building, and he didn’t want to sell it to anyone.”
I raised my eyebrows and wondered if that was the whole story. “She didn’t say why?”
“Honestly, she was pretty strange, and she was mumbling something about him still not being over it,” Owen said.
“Over what?” I asked curiously.
“No idea. I’m not sure she had any idea either. I’m not sure she had all her marbles, if you know what I mean...”
I chuckled, “That’s a funny expression, but yes, I know what you mean.”
“Owen, pass me that old brochure — the one that says New Seabury Golf and Country Club. It looks so vintage!” We laughed at how old-fashioned it was to have a printed brochure, and not just a website. I flipped through, smiling at how preppy everyone was dressed in the brochure. There were many candid shots of golfers on the golf course, wedding receptions in the Country Club dining room, people lounging on the beach, and playing tennis. But then something caught my eye. “Owen, look!” I was stunned, staring at the two girls holding their tennis racquets during a tennis lesson.
I pointed, and Owen’s eyes followed my finger to the faces of the two girls. “That’s them!” he said excitedly, “I know them from my dreams!”
“They’re my friends! How can this be?” I said. We stared at one another. “Do you realize what this means? We are seeing real people, Owen! They exist!”
We both looked back at the small print under the photo. There in black and white was a listing from left to right of the people in the photo. Their names were Emilia Olsen and Kerry McDonald. “Owen, when was this brochure printed? It looks so old, but they are as I see them in my dreams.”
Owen flipped to the back. The brochure was printed in 1999. “If they were teenagers in 1999, they must be in their 30s now!” We sat there confused, processing what this could mean.
Then Owen asked what I was thinking. “Is it possible we’ve both seen this brochure sometime in the past and we remembered it?”
“And we are both dreaming the same people in the same places??” I asked rhetorically. “That doesn’t make any sense, Owen. I wish it were that coincidental, but it just doesn’t add up.”
“No,” he said, “It doesn’t.”
After a couple of minutes of pondering all the possibilities of what this could mean, Owen finally said, “I think the only thing that makes sense now is to find these two girls and to talk to them.”
“I agree. It may be challenging — who
knows if they even live there anymore... or if their names are the same; they could have married and changed their last names…”
Owen stopped me and then added, “AND, even if we find them, what do we say? ‘Hey, you’re the girls in my dreams!’ I don’t want to sound like a crazy stalker, so we have to be really careful how we get them to talk to us.”
“Agreed,” I said, “But first things first, we have to find them!”
We spent the next few hours scouring the internet, looking for Emilia and Kerry. We didn’t find anything promising.
“Let’s call it a night. We’ll get some sleep. Do you want to get together tomorrow after school to go through our presentation for Thursday?” Owen asked.
“Sure, sounds good. Owen, I have to thank you so much for how you’re handling all this. I want you to know how much I appreciate your strength. I wish I could be stronger for you. You’re actually amazing!” I said.
“You don’t have to thank me. I’m doing this for us, and I don’t know any other way to be. I want to be strong for us, and you are strong! I love that about you.” We held each other for a while. He kissed me softly, in such a soothing way. “Goodnight my sweet, sweet girl. I can’t wait to see you tomorrow.”
When my parents got home, I brought them up to date on Owen’s weekend on the Cape. “Maybe you can get in touch with someone at the tennis club who may have been around back then? You could call the office and say you’re looking for old friends that you lost touch with,” my mom suggested.
“Yeah, that’s a good idea. I’ll definitely try that, thanks!” I kissed them goodnight and got ready for bed. I was feeling a lot less stressed than I was earlier in the day, now that I had more information to work with. I was actually feeling optimistic that we would get some answers.
When I woke the next morning, there was a text waiting from Owen. “Good morning Aria. These are simple lyrics by Big Star and their song ‘My Life is Right.’ It’s how you make me feel xoxo.” He sent a link with the lyrics. He’s such a sweetheart, I thought to myself. The lyrics were so simple and so beautiful. I felt like the luckiest girl in the world. I sent him a text saying just that in return.