The Dream Jumper's Promise

by Kim Hornsby

  “Ready for what? You fucking me in my sleep, or the plane ride?”

  Jamey put his foot on the brake. So it was a dream jump. “I didn’t mean to jump in.” One of the driveway’s palm trees dropped a coconut and it rolled in front of the jeep. “I have no idea how I got in that dream.”

  “I don’t believe you. Just drive.” She waved her arm for him to go. “I still want to search the coastline.”

  He pulled onto the street. “I need to be touching the dreamer when I jump. I can’t figure out how…”

  “You are such a rat, James Dunn. I am horrified at what you did last night.” She exhaled like she’d been holding her breath all night. “It was an invasion of privacy, in the worst form.” Tears pooled in her eyes.

  Jamey steered the car to the side of the road. “Tina?” His voice was grave. “I’m sorry it went so far. At first, I assumed I was just dreaming about you. Then I thought I might be jumping and was just about to leave. But all of a sudden, I…I just went from hugging you to...to...having sex with you. I tried to stop and couldn’t, which told me it was your dream.”

  “I wasn’t dreaming about you until you jumped in.” Her voice rose.

  “I hate to ask this, Tina, but are you sure?”

  “You let me do things to you.”

  “I did.”

  “I wasn’t myself in that dream.”

  “I understand, and I hope you realize I wasn’t myself either.” Her look burned through him.

  “You were exactly yourself.”

  “I thought it was just my horny dream about you.”

  They paused.

  “At first I did. Honestly.” He took a deep breath. “It’s not unheard of for me to dream about us. I’ve had lots of dreams about us over the years. I thought it was another one of those.”

  She looked horrified. Jamey touched her shoulder gently. She moved closer to the door.

  “Tina, I would never do anything to hurt you. You are a widow, grieving for your husband. I’m sorry. I can’t direct my subconscious thoughts.”

  She turned and looked at him full-on. “I feel weird having a dream about you like that.”

  “It wasn’t real. And it isn’t like we actually had sex. Or, like we haven’t had sex before.” He was grasping at anything now.

  “I don’t know who I hate more right now—you, or me for letting it go so far. Just drive, will you?”

  The fact that he’d made it through a jump without feeling like he was going to die was interesting. Twice now. Maybe it had something to do with jumping from miles away?

  When they arrived at the private airstrip just south of the Kahului International Airport, Jamey parked and they got out of the jeep, still silent. Hopefully, they’d be lucky today and this would be over soon. Tina could bury her husband and get on with her life and Jamey would return to Seattle. He couldn’t think beyond that right now. This morning, he and Tina had the Maui coastline to search. He’d be looking specifically for the dream’s rocky outcrops to find the exact shadow he’d seen in his peripheral vision.

  ***

  Tina squeezed the armrest so tightly that her fingers were bony white. “When did you get a pilot license?” she asked Jamey.

  “After the divorce.”

  When they were airborne, she relaxed her grip only slightly and looked over at him. Yup, he was flying the plane, alright.

  “Are you scared to fly in small planes?” Jamey asked. She didn’t want him to know anything more about her than he already did, but he could read her well enough to feel her terror. “Yes, and with our past trust issues...”

  Jamey laughed out loud. “Try to trust that I know what I’m doing. I fly a lot.” He looked over at her and patted Obi, who sat between them on a folded blanket, shivering from his own fright.

  “And try to pull it together, for Obi’s sake.”

  He was right. She took a deep breath and wrapped her arm around her dog’s neck. “S’okay, boy.”

  The morning light streamed in through the windshield. In the buttery glow Jamey looked handsome. The way his hair curled slightly behind his ear, his strong jaw line, the faint trace of whiskers, even his tanned hands on the wheel were all reminders that she’d once known every inch of this man. Last night’s dream had left memories. She had to stop thinking of him in this way. For one thing, he was intuitive and might read her thoughts. She tried filling her mind with thoughts of her parents, but that just made her more anxious.

  They flew north to Waihee, along the coastline at about four hundred feet. Maui’s northern edge was jagged like a torn hem. The ocean’s waves pounded against the walls of rock that stretched up to meet high grassy meadows. The rocky beach from the dream did not grace this stretch of the Valley Isle.

  As they flew over the village of Kahakuloa, Tina hoped her queasiness wouldn’t ruin the search. Vomiting would be embarrassing. A pocket of air made the small plane dip and swerve.

  Her tummy clenched and she gripped the sick bag she’d found under the seat. On their left were pineapple fields; on the right was the coast. Jamey steered towards the area where Hank’s truck was found that morning, an area that surfers called Hobbit Land.

  Tina set the binoculars on her lap when they reached Cliff House. Jamey gazed at her, questioningly. She shook her head. He turned the plane to cross over the West Maui Mountains to the airport side. “Nothing at all?”

  “Nope.” Tina barely got the word out of her mouth.

  He made a beeline for the famous wave break on the other side of Paia, where surfers were injured on a regular basis. “There’s no way he was surfing Jaws that morning?”

  Tina shook her head. “His truck was at Honolua. Part of his board washed up near Kahakuloa.” The heaviness threatened to take her down again. They followed the coastline to Paia and turned around, back to the airport. “Maybe it’s just a dream, plain and simple, not Hank telling me where his body is.” The headset crackled with Tina’s hopeless words.

  “Don’t give up, sweetie.” Jamey didn’t sound so sure himself.

  The morning had held such promise. She hadn’t realized how much, until it was taken away.

  ***

  On the drive back to Lahaina, Jamey offered to buy Tina breakfast, but she wasn’t hungry. He tried to engage her in conversation by suggesting they try dream jumping again.

  “Are you crazy?” She muttered something about risking his life and she “sure as hell wasn’t going to have another person die on me.”

  At least she wasn’t worried about last night’s sexy dream anymore. He drove her home to get her truck, and followed her up the stairs to the second-story deck. She plunked down on a deck chair, her head in her hands.

  Jamey perched on the edge of a chair opposite her. He had to think of something. Why couldn’t he get a feel for the location of the body? “Don’t give up yet.”

  She looked up, her expression stony, cold.

  How in hell would they find the body without more help from Hank? Jamey glanced at the patio door that led to Tina’s bedroom. The night they’d purposely dream jumped, she’d been freaked out when he whispered Hank’s name. He was pretty sure that Hank was still around but he didn’t want to give her hope, just in case he was wrong.

  “Tell me about Hank.” He handed Obi a dog cookie from the treat jar on the table.

  Tina hugged her knees to her chest. “Not today.”

  “Humor me. This might help.” She couldn’t be worse than she already was. “He was fun.” It seemed like that was all she was going to say. She sighed. “Everyone loved him.” Tina laid her cheek on her knee and looked out at the ocean. “He loved me. And in the last two months before he died, he wanted us to have a baby. I did too, of course. I had all along, but now Hank was on board, like something stung him, like he needed me to have his baby. Almost like he knew he was going to die.” Her eyebrows wrinkled and tears came to her eyes.

  “He wasn’t sick?”

  “No. I thought of that. I even talked to hi
s doctor. He was healthy, positive, excited to become a father. Hank was kind. Very sweet. He loved Noble. He was a good friend to Noble. He wasn’t sure if Noble would stay with us on Maui forever. We hoped.”

  Jamey watched tears roll down the leg where her cheek rested. “He loved art. When I met him, he was engaged to an art dealer and they’d come over here to manage galleries. When they broke up, she left Maui.” Obi whined and Jamey gave him another cookie. “Hank had a degree in art history.” She smiled. “He appreciated the beautiful things in life. I was one of them, he said. He appreciated women.”

  “Where’d he go to college?” Jamey wanted to keep her talking.

  Tina looked at the sky. “Some art school in California.” She sounded surprised that she didn’t know. “I forget.”

  ***

  Later, Jamey drove north to the lookout near the Ritz Kapalua and parked in the little lot by the church. There were only eight parking spots and his was the only car there. It was not yet noon. He walked towards the sign for the Hawaiian burial ground, a two-acre patch to one side of a multimillion dollar golf course. Buried bones had been found only a few years earlier, by someone walking their dog, and a giant excavation was ordered to determine the exact nature of the ancient cemetery. Building the Ritz-Carlton on the site was postponed until they decided what to do. First they planned to gather the bones for relocation, but then the Ritz came to an agreement with the Hawaiian people that the dead bodies could stay, and hotel guests would be asked to avoid the site.

  Jamey felt the power of the remaining spirits swirling around the wooded patch of hillside. Like all cemeteries, the energy recharged him. Standing by the sign that warned people to stay outside the sacred ground, Jamey closed his eyes and tried to draw from the power of the spirits. Like plugging in to a charger, he was surprised at the intensity of the site.

  He continued to the point of land between Ironwood Beach and Fleming—a peninsula of jagged lava rock known as Dragon’s Teeth. The surf crashed against the wall of volcanic teeth as Jamey stepped around inside the dragon’s mouth, thinking about Hank. His military counselor had cautioned him in an earlier conversation to be careful with ghosts. “This is not your area, Freud. You know very little about this side of things and might end up worse off than you are now.”

  He’d had to tell Milton that he suspected he was getting glimpses from a dead man. “Believe me, I know I’m no expert, but I’m all she’s got.” Not to mention the ghost.

  Chapter 18

  Jamey called Katie to find out the whereabouts of her boss. “Is Tina at the shop?”

  “Has this got something to do with her birthday party tomorrow?” Katie whispered.

  “It’s her birthday?” He hadn’t heard.

  “Pepper is holding a surprise party at her house with her parents and friends. Didn’t you get invited?” Katie’s voice was full of disappointment.

  He hadn’t, but he didn’t care. The most pressing issue was to attempt contact with a dead man, not get an invitation to a birthday party. “Call me if she leaves the shop.”

  The house was quiet, except for the noise from the squawky bird next door. Some days the thing sounded like a baby crying, and after what Tina had said about wanting a baby, he had to think the bird noises were disturbing to her.

  Her bedroom door was closed. Gently, he laid his palm on the door. No one inside. He opened it slowly. Her bed was neatly made and, for some reason, that was touching to him. With all that was going on, she cared enough to make her bed. The room held a floral scent, maybe lavender, and he found himself recalling their sexy dream. It was impossible to be in Tina’s bedroom and not think of them making love, but knowing that Hank might be around, he tried to concentrate on the task at hand.

  The shelf along one wall was filled with ornaments, as well as novels and travel guide books. Reading the titles, he wondered how much Tina traveled. He’d brought a pad of paper and a marker in hopes that Hank might be able to communicate through automatic writing. Sixth Force had trained him in simple paranormal methods, and this would be the first time he tested what he knew of this type of communication.

  “Hank? If you’re here, I need to talk to you.”

  Lowering himself into the armchair, he listened to the bird continue its monologue next door. A minute passed, and then the room dropped in temperature. A flutter of cool air whispered past his arm. “Hank?” Jamey laid the tablet of paper on his lap. “If you can push a paper off a table, I’m assuming we can write something.” He scoured the room for a sign. “Are you Hank?”

  Uncapping the black marker, he wrote a ‘yes’ and a ‘no’ on the paper, and then held the marker loosely between the words.

  He waited to feel the marker move and held his breath as the seconds ticked by. Then it happened. The pen moved. Slightly. Just a fraction to the side. He stared at the paper for several seconds. Nothing more. The room remained chilly. A good sign. “Can you point to ‘yes’ or ‘no’? Or write something?” Nothing budged. Grabbing a pencil stub from Tina’s bedside table, he leaned the tip on the paper, and it began to move. Down, across, up, down. When the pencil stopped, he held the paper under the lamp. And there was the letter, plain as day.

  ‘H,’ it read. The penmanship was not his. “Are you trying to tell Tina where your body is?”

  The pencil moved in jerks, and then rested near the letter “Y.”

  Shit, this worked! “In a cave?” The pencil didn’t move.

  “We can’t find the site. Do you know where this cave is?” Immediately, the pencil moved to circle the word “yes.”

  Jamey’s heart beat hard against his rib cage. Keep going, keep going! “Can you give me a hint?” He drew a rough sketch of Maui and waited, the pencil resting above the map. Nothing.

  Jamey felt Hank leaving. “Don’t go. Tell me where?”

  A slight tug on the pencil alerted him as it slid to the top of the page. Up, down, up, down and a loop. When it stopped, Jamey held the paper under the light. It was faint, but something was there. Something that looked like two mountains and a circle. It could be two peaks and a bay. Haleakala and the West Maui Mountains? “Hank? Are these mountains?” The room’s temperature warmed quickly. Hank was gone. Or were they letters? If so, they might be ‘M.O.’ Maui what? Maui Outfitters? The mobile doctors, Maui on Call? What?

  Exiting Tina’s bedroom, Jamey saw Noble standing at the top of the inside stairs. Too late to duck back in. Jamey froze. Noble stared at him. If looks could’ve killed, Jamey would have dropped to the hardwood floor, his beating heart a thing of the past. “What the hell are you doing?” Noble closed the distance between them.

  “Need me to move my Jeep?” This Noble guy loathed him. His aura still glowed and shimmered like a predator waiting to pounce. Noble sneered. “Yeah, move it to the mainland.”

  Jamey wouldn’t give him the fight he wanted. “I’m on my way out.” He stepped around Noble, opened the sliding patio door and walked onto the deck and down the stairs, alert enough to guard his back. But at the bottom of the stairs, Noble shot out of the garage and moved in front of him.

  “Not so fast, hot shot,” Noble said. “What are you doing in

  Tina’s house?” Noble’s arms were folded across his massive chest. Jamey held his position, on guard in case Noble threw a punch, something he thought entirely possible. “Not that I need to tell you, Noble, but I was getting something for Tina.”

  Noble looked at the pad of paper and marker in Jamey’s hand. “Her letter-writing supplies?” He smirked.

  “Look, Noble. I am not gonna fight you for Tina. She and I used to be friends. If you two have something going, that’s cool. I’m not trying to take over.” Jamey calculated the distance to his jeep, in case Noble dove for him. Between his ability to anticipate every move and his combat training, Jamey was pretty sure he wouldn’t lose the fight. “I’m just trying to help Tina reach some finality with the death of your best friend. We all want the same thing.” He stared at Noble. �
��Don’t we?”

  Noble’s jaw twitched. “I don’t trust you.” The words were a warning, not a statement, and his look drilled a hole through Jamey. “And if I ever see you alone in Tina’s house again, I will personally throw you over that railing.”

  Jamey noted the distance from the deck to the driveway and reckoned he’d make it without breaking anything if he hit the lawn. “Nice to see you, too.” He climbed into the jeep and drove away, knowing Noble was staring holes into the back of his head.

  ***

  When Katie picked up the shop’s phone, Jamey decided to throw her the million-dollar question. “What does M.O. stand for?” “I don’t know. Wait. Is this a joke, or what?” Katie asked.

  “No joke, I just saw it on a sign. I think it’s a place.” He needed to get to a computer. “Maui something?”

  “No idea. Let me ask Tina. She’s right here.”

  Jamey turned the jeep north to his father’s condo. M.O. might be initials.

  “Jamey?” Tina took the phone.

  He was excited to hear her voice. More excited than he wanted to admit. Being hurt twice by the same woman in one lifetime seemed stupid for a hardened soldier. He had to stop letting her get to him when he’d tried so hard to forget this woman.

  “What is M.O.? Modus Operandi?” she asked.

  “I’m wondering if it stands for something here on Maui.” “Like?”

  “No idea. It was just a question I had for Katie. How are you now? Still air sick, or better?”

  “Define better. I’m busy. And pissed off. Apparently there’s a surprise party for my birthday tomorrow night and the thought of having to smile, and appreciate being a year older, makes me feel like vomiting.”