Dream a Little Dream

by K. J. Emrick

  “Yeah. I’m just hoping it’s not Izzy. Or Mark, either.”

  “How come not Mark? You’re not worried about Kyle?”

  “Have you seen Kyle? That guy could bench press my car. It’s not him I’m worrying about getting hurt.”

  “Yeah, but Mark’s a big boy, he can handle it. Besides, we haven’t known him all that long.”

  “Yeah, I know, but I really like him.”

  One of Jon’s eyebrows rose with a question.

  “Okay, fine.” Darcy rolled her eyes at him. “Yes, when he first got here I suspected him of a lot of things, but can you blame me? Sometimes it seems like every new face in Misty Hollow brings some kind of new trouble with it.”

  “Mm-hmm. Not just the new faces, either. We’ve had more than our fair share of troubles in our little town. Remember that one news article that declared we were the new murder capitol of the US?”

  Darcy’s expression soured. “Yeah. Brianna Watson outdid herself with that one. I’ve still got a printed copy of it framed on the wall in my office at the bookstore. I’m so glad we don’t have that nosy reporter hanging around here anymore. I heard she took an affiliate position in Washington, DC.”

  “Good. The politicians can have her. They’re just her kind of people.”

  “Be nice,” she told him playfully.

  “To who? Politicians?”

  “Yes. Be nice to our elected officials. Even they don’t deserve to be stuck with Brianna Watson.”

  They shared a laugh, at politics, at the random mention of Miss Brianna Watson, and at other things they shared with a touch instead of with words. Jon was the only man who had ever truly understood her heart. Sometimes it felt like they were having entire conversations with just a glance. If she could hope to pass anything down to her children, it would be this example of what love truly meant.

  Speaking of the children.

  “We should take the kids outside,” Darcy suggested. “Let’s get them some exercise. Maybe take a walk into town or go sledding.”

  “Oh, yeah! Sledding. I vote for sledding.” He was like a little kid all of a sudden, excited to go play in the snow. “I’ve got nothing going on at the station. They don’t need me there today. Haven’t had anything really serious since the United States Secret Service Agent came in last week to say he was working on a case in the area.”

  “Somebody from the Secret Service is in town?” It was the first Darcy had heard of it. “What are they doing here? Is there some threat to the President here in Misty Hollow?”

  “Well, that’s not the only thing they do, but I have a feeling it’s something else.”

  “A feeling? You mean they didn’t tell you?”

  “Federal agents don’t usually involve us local guys in their business unless they need our help. They just come in, tell us they’re around, and then go on their way.” He was still bouncing in his chair about their plan to go sledding, and the topic of work got set aside. “We can go to that hill by the college that the kids liked so much last year. Maybe we’ll grab dinner out while we’re up in Oak Hollow. How’s that sound?”

  “Hmm. That’s kind of a long drive just to go sledding, isn’t it?”

  “If I knew of any good hills around here, I’d say yes, but since I don’t, I vote for Oak Hollow.” Kissing her forehead, he lifted his voice for the kids to hear. “Who wants to go sledding?”

  “Me!” Colby said immediately, and her brother’s “I do, I do!” was just a second behind.

  “There, it’s settled,” Jon told Darcy. “The kids have spoken. Who are we to argue with our own children?”

  Darcy crossed her arms and fixed him with a look. “Uh-huh. I think the kids had a little bit of help deciding that one.”

  “Doesn’t matter,” Jon said with a wink. “No takebacks. Off we go. Colby, Zane, get your boots and mittens!”

  His boyish enthusiasm for a day out in the cold with their kids was infectious. Darcy couldn’t even pretend to be upset at him. She would just take it out on him later when she and the kids ganged up on him with a big pile of snowballs. A huge pile. Like, a snowmageddon-sized pile of snowballs. Now that sounded like fun.

  She put their coffee cups—and Mark’s—in the sink. That could wait until she did dishes again tomorrow. “My mittens and scarf are upstairs in our closet. Get everybody else ready and I’ll be right down.”

  “Okay. Oh, hey. Can you get my ski gloves while you’re up there? And my hat?”

  “Sure thing. I’ll be down in a jiff.”

  Her son and daughter came racing out of the living room while she was headed for the stairs. Colby gave her a quick hug. Zane held his hand up as high as he could to give her a high five. He’d grown so much, and yet he was still her little bundle of energy. Both of them were practically bouncing with excitement. It really would be a good idea to get them out of the house for a while. Maybe they could do it again later in the week. Ooh. Maybe for Valentine’s Day. That could be part of the surprise for Jon. He’d said they were just going to stay in but if they did a day trip somewhere, wouldn’t that be fun? Yeah. She’d have to talk to Colby about that idea when they went out to get their haircuts.

  Funny how a simple day at home during the winter break could turn into such a long list of things to do. Well, she supposed it was really only vacation for the kids, not for her and Jon. That’s the way life worked. She was going to have to go into work tomorrow, if she expected to make money. The Sweet Read Bookstore was doing okay profit-wise, but not going to work just because she wanted to spend time with her kids wasn’t going to be an option. There would have to be something pretty serious that happened to keep her from work a second day in a row.

  Sometimes life sucked like that.

  In her room, she found Tiptoe asleep on her bed, all curled up with her tail around her whiskers. The gray cat with her single black-tipped ear twitched her whiskers once when she heard the closet door open. Rolling over onto her back, paws in the air, she pretended not to be watching everything Darcy did.

  “I know you’re not really asleep,” Darcy told her. “You’ve still got one eye cracked open.”

  That eye shut closed tight, but she still wasn’t fooling anyone.

  “We’re going out for a little bit,” Darcy said, still talking to her faker of a cat. “Can you keep an eye on the house while we’re gone? We won’t be long. Just don’t trap Cha Cha in the bathroom again, okay? I still don’t know how you did it, but I was cleaning up in there for days afterward.”

  Tiptoe’s tail twitched, and Darcy could practically hear the cat giggling at the mischief she caused.

  “Uh-huh. Next time, I’m going to make you clean it up. I don’t care if you don’t have opposable thumbs.”

  Right on cue, as if he’d heard them talking about him, Cha Cha came nosing through the bedroom door. His floppy ears cocked up to hear better, his head tilted to one side. The tan Bassador hound was the newest addition to their family, and he’d made himself right at home. He was more Zane’s dog than anyone else’s. Those two got along like best friends. They were closer than Darcy ever could have imagined.

  Probably because, as it turned out, Zane could talk to animals.

  Her family had a gift. Powers and abilities that other people didn’t know about, like a sixth sense. Usually, it only developed in the women in her family. When it had shown up in Zane, to everyone’s surprise, it became something Darcy had never seen before. Now her son could understand animals, and they could understand him. Darcy couldn’t, but that didn’t mean she didn’t know how to make the family furbabies understand her.

  “Okay, Cha Cha. We’re going to go out for just a few hours. Tiptoe is in charge.”

  The little dog snuffed at that idea and shook his head until his ears flopped over across his muzzle. He stopped, blinking at himself, as if he couldn’t for the life of him figure out how he’d ended up like this.

  Tiptoe lifted her head, looking down at the dog over the edge of the bed.<
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  Cha Cha looked up at her, cocking his head the other way, asking a question Darcy couldn’t hear.

  Tiptoe sniffed in response and went back to pretending to be asleep. Obviously she considered the matter closed. She was in charge while the people were away, and she was going to rule over the house from right here on these blankets.

  “Okay, you two. Just behave while we’re…”

  Darcy stopped with her hand ready to close the closet door. She had her scarf and Jon’s hat and both their mittens, and everything else she needed was already downstairs, but something had just caught her eye. Something…not right.

  She could feel Cha Cha and Tiptoe watching her, like they sensed something was off, too.

  For a moment, nothing moved.

  Nothing, except the jewelry box up on the shelf.

  She hadn’t looked at the box for weeks…no, longer than that even. It had been sitting up there all this time, forgotten, where she had stuffed it aside. That box was the living space for a wicked ghost who was now a part of her life, whether she liked it or not.

  Darcy would like to say she didn’t mind. What was one more ghost in her life? There were plenty of others. Her family gift made her sensitive to the world beyond death. Maybe she couldn’t talk to animals, like her son did, but she could see and hear ghosts, and feel things on a deeper level than other people could. Ghosts found her whenever they needed help.

  This ghost had found her for other reasons.

  The jewelry box was made from silver and adorned with artistic etching around the edge of the lid, while the interior was lined with magnificent velvet. It had been made in the 1800s by a master craftsman and had belonged to one of Darcy’s distant ancestors. One of the first to emigrate here from Europe, coming to the fledgling United States by way of French Canada.

  Now that ancestor’s ghost was here, with no indication of wanting to leave anytime soon.

  The box shook, rattling back and forth on its curved legs, tap dancing its way through a semicircle. The ghost wanted Darcy’s attention. She could guess why.

  She reached up before the creepy family heirloom could fall off the lip of the shelf and slapped her hand down on it, hard. The sound of her palm smacking against the lid made Cha Cha jump, and his ears flop.

  The box trembled against her grip for a handful of seconds, and then went still.

  “No,” Darcy said flatly. “We are not doing this now, Willa. Be a good girl and go to sleep or whatever it is that evil witch ghosts do when nobody’s paying attention to them, and maybe when I get back I’ll have time to talk. Maybe.”

  The box rocked again, just once, in a final tantrum.

  “I said no. Not now.”

  There was no response, and that was just what she wanted to hear. She had put up with Willamena Duell invading her dreams for weeks now, telling her stories about when she had been alive that Darcy suspected were mostly made up. Things about past bad deeds, and lost loves, and missed opportunities. It was getting to be a bit much. All those people out there using DNA testing kits to get in touch with their ancestry didn’t have a clue what kind of rocks they might be turning over. Well, at least none of them had to actually listen to their ancestors talking on and on and on about things they’d done while they were alive.

  Whatever. Now was family time for her and Jon and the kids, and she wasn’t going to let a ghost interrupt that. Especially one she could barely tolerate.

  “If you have something to say to me, do it tonight,” she said to the box. “At least having you in my dreams while I’m sleeping is better than having that same nightmare again.”

  The nightmare. The one she kept having. The one with the same creepy, scary vision.

  Darcy shuddered, and tried not to think about it even though it was kind of hard not to. The last few nights, it had been especially bad. She figured tonight would be more of the same. That was just the way her luck ran. Even a long conversation with someone like Willamena would be preferable to seeing that image of herself, again, desperate and scared and...

  She shuddered again. With a breath, she told herself it was just a dream.

  Dreams couldn’t hurt you.

  Carrying the winter clothes she’d come up to collect, she closed the closet door, giving the jewelry box one last look. “Stay. I mean it.”

  Tiptoe gave her a look, and then shifted her eyes to the closet with a flick of her ear.

  “I know,” Darcy said with a shrug. “But what can I do? She’s family.”

  Cha Cha whuffed at that idea, as unconvinced as Tiptoe.

  Darcy couldn’t help but laugh. “Nice to see you guys in agreement on something. Be good while we’re gone, okay?”

  A short while later, they were getting into the car and driving away and she didn’t spare Willamena the evil witch ghost another thought.

  Chapter 2

  “Again, again!” Zane shouted. His round plastic sled had only just come to a stop at the bottom of the hill, and already he wanted his daddy to take it back up for another run. Twenty slides in a row, and he wasn’t bored yet.

  Darcy felt the cold air whipping past her face, pulling at her hair, as she took her turn next, sliding down from the very top of the hill on a long green sled built for three. Colby was sitting in front of her, between Darcy’s knees, the two of them throwing their hands up as gravity pulled them faster and faster. The breeze had the tips of Colby’s light brown hair flapping every which way around her warm knitted hat, the auburn highlights flashing in the sun.

  “Wheeeeeee!” Colby squealed. They swooshed past the mound of snow the college students had piled together as a ramp, making sure to miss it this time, and then to the right of the scraggly stand of bare brush. Then it was a quick glide down to the ditch where the hill ended, right next to where Jon and Zane were waiting for them.

  The day had warmed up above freezing and the snow had gained a smooth, slick surface that was more like ice. It made for a quick ride down. Both of the kids were loving it. Zane was four years old now, closing in quick on five, and he had the exuberance of youth on his side. He could do this all day long if they let him. Colby was a very grown-up twelve, and she liked to pretend that activities like this were too childish for her, but she was having just as much fun as her brother was. No electronics. No internet. Just good fun.

  The drive here had been fun, too. The four of them sang along to the songs on the radio, making up lyrics when they didn’t know the words and singing off key on purpose. Jon was the worst offender. Darcy accused him of making up half the notes he used. She was positive they couldn’t be found on any normal musical scales.

  Now, as she checked her Mickey Mouse watch, she found they’d been here for two hours already. Her cheeks were chapped. Even inside her gloves, her fingers were freezing. Her rings were little circles of ice against her skin. She got up when their sled came to a stop and stamped her boots to warm up her toes. There was no way the kids weren’t cold, too, but they just didn’t want to leave.

  “Okay, guys,” she said, “you can do three more runs down the hill and then we have to leave and get dinner, okay? Colby, can you ride your sled with your brother? Me and your daddy will stay down here to watch.”

  “’Kay,” Colby said with a big grin. “Come on, Zane. Let’s pull it up together. It will be easier if we both do it.”

  “Yeah, ‘cause grabbitty won’t be able to stop us both!”

  Colby rolled her eyes at her him. “It’s gravity, dum-dum. Not grabbitty.”

  Zane picked up the rope handle of the sled, and then gave his sister a blank look. “I’m pretty sure it’s grabbitty. ‘Cause it grabs you and pulls you down.”

  “No, little brother, it’s grav-i-ty. With a V. You’ll learn that when you go to school next year.” She took her side of the sled’s rope, and they started up together. “Don’t worry about it. Let’s just go sledding.”

  “Yay!” her brother chanted. “Sled-ding, sled-ding!”

  Darcy watched t
hem start back up, resisting the urge to help Colby correct Zane. He was getting better with his choice of words, even if he still made a few goofs, and she didn’t want to stress him about it. Colby was right. Zane would start school in September, and then he’d learn all sorts of new things. He was such a bright boy. She was proud of him. Both of her children, in fact.

  “Yeah,” Jon said, reading her mind. “I love them, too. We did at least one good thing in this life, Darcy Sweet.”

  She reached out, and took his hand. “I’d say more than one, Jon Tinker.”

  “We do have our days, don’t we?”

  “This is one of the better ones.”

  Some people found it odd that they had both kept their last names when they got married, or that Colby had Darcy’s last name and Zane had Jon’s. For them it was the most natural thing in the world. This was their family. Crazy, beautiful, and wonderful.

  The kids were at the top of the hill now. Colby was pointing and gesturing with her hand out flat, showing Zane which way they should go down the hill this time. She was the big sister, after all. Zane idolized her. She was usually the leader whenever they played together and as much as she might complain about her little brother tagging along, anyone could tell it was just an act. She loved her brother. Those two would be friends for life.

  Darcy zipped her coat up tight against a sudden gust of icy wind. This had been fun, and she was very glad they did it, but it would be nice to get inside someplace warm and have dinner. All this sledding down and then walking up this hill had made her hungry.

  Her stomach rumbled, as if it knew she was thinking about food.

  “Hey, Jon, I was thinking we could go to the Chinese place. How’s that sound…?”

  She trailed off when the cellphone in Jon’s inner pocket interrupted her by playing the opening of Pompeii by Bastille. Jon gave her an apologetic shrug as he unbuttoned his coat and reached in for where he kept the phone. Even on family activities like this, he always had the phone close by. He had to. As Misty Hollow’s police chief he had to make sure his officers could always get in touch with him in case of an emergency. Darcy understood, but sometimes she felt like she was taking second place to his job.