by Saxon Andrew
Jimmy started shaking his head, “I had another dream.”
Candice didn’t know if now was a good time to push him, so she said, “A dream?”
Jimmy looked at her, “You know, like the ones you have when you close your eyes.”
Candice stared at him and said, “What did you see in your dream?”
“I saw the two planes crash and fall on our home.”
“Have you had dreams like this in the past?”
Jimmy tilted his head and his eyes narrowed slightly, “I have dreams all the time, Mother. Don’t you?”
“Do these dreams tell you what is going to happen?” Jimmy nodded. Candice stared at him and finally said, “Was it a dream that you saw that allowed you to save that woman and her baby from the taxi?” Jimmy nodded again.
Candice forced herself to smile at him and say, “We’ll talk about this tomorrow. Both of us need to try and get some sleep or we’ll be exhausted in the morning.” Jimmy blew out a breath and moved under the covers. Candice pulled him close and held him in her arms until he fell asleep. The only thing that allowed her to find sleep was the exhaustion that came with fear.
Chapter Two
The next day, they woke up around noon. Candice called the front desk and heard, “Good morning. I have some items for you if you’re ready for us to bring them up.”
“Please do and if you can also bring up two breakfasts, I would greatly appreciate it.”
“It will be our pleasure.”
The bellman arrived and Candice was surprised to see three outfits that fit her perfectly. There was also a makeup bag filled with items that matched her perfectly. The bellman saw her surprise and smiled, “Klein once worked in the fashion industry in Paris and is very astute at knowing what to purchase for our guests, Madame.”
“Tell him he was absolutely perfect in his choices.”
The bellman left just as two breakfasts were being brought into the room. Jimmy was sitting up in bed and he remained silent until they left. “What are we going to do?”
“First, we’re going to eat and then we’ll decide what to do next. Ok?” Candice replied.
Jimmy lifted the cover off the plate and his eyes went wide, “THEY BROUGHT US CRAPES!”
“First your breakfast, then the crapes.”
“Yes, Ma’am,” Jimmy said sullenly.
They finished their meal and Candice looked at Jimmy, “Tell me about the dreams you have.”
Jimmy finished chewing a crape and said, “They’re just like yours, Mom.”
“Jimmy, I don’t have dreams that show me what is going to happen.”
Jimmy’s head tilted and he said, “Mom, I’ve seen you close your eyes a lot when we’re out…”
“What I’m doing is visualizing in my mind what I see. I always thought you were doing the same thing when you closed your eyes.”
“But…” Jimmy grew silent.
Candice smiled, “Do you remember that woman not understanding you when you yelled at her to stop?” Jimmy nodded. “Well, just like not everyone speaks different languages, not everyone can see dreams of what’s going to happen. Can you understand that?” Jimmy stared at her for a long moment and then nodded. “This…ability you have is extremely rare and I suspect there are very few that can do what you’ve done.”
“Why?”
That simple question stumped her. After a minute, she sighed, “Jimmy, you’re just going to have to trust me on this. And if you tell others about your dreams, it could cause some…problems.”
“What problems, Mom.”
“The ones you tell will probably not believe you, initially. And if what you tell them happens, they will come after you and try to use you for their own purposes.”
“Why?”
“That’s the way the world works, my wonderful darling. Have you ever had a dream that didn’t come true?” Jimmy nodded. “Tell me about them.”
“I had a dream about a building at a place where young people were walking around with books under their arms.”
“Sort of like a school?”
“What’s a school?” Candice shut her eyes and sighed. Jimmy quickly said, “Did you just have a dream?”
“No, Jimmy. I was thinking that I’ve never allowed you to attend a school; I’ve always taught you. You must know that the children that lived around us in our travels were going to school.”
“I guess. I’ve never really thought about it.”
“And you haven’t seen that building?”
“Well, noooo.”
“Why the long no?”
“I believe that some of my dreams take place a long time from now.”
Candice stared at him and said, “How would you know the difference?”
“Because they are at places where I’m not hanging around.”
“You will keep your dreams a secret!”
“Why?”
“Because I love you! Is that reason enough?”
“Yes, Mom. I’ll keep them secret.”
“You promise me on your sacred honor.”
“What is that?”
“It’s a promise that you will never break because of the goodness inside you.”
Jimmy stared at her, “Is this the strongest promise that can be made?”
Candice smiled, “It is. And if you can’t keep a sacred promise, you should never make it. Can you keep this promise?” Jimmy stared at her and after a very long moment he nodded. “I need you to say it, Jimmy.”
“I promise that I will never talk about my dreams unless you say it’s ok.”
Candice smiled, “That’s good enough, my beautiful boy.”
“What are we going to do now?”
“We’re going home.”
“But our home was just…”
“To America,” Candice interrupted.
“But I thought we could never go there. You said we couldn’t.”
“I know. But you have to start going to school and we need to find a home that’s more than just a short stop.”
“School?”
“You will be with other children your age and you must learn how to interact with others around you.”
“What does interact mean?”
Candice smiled, “If I had any doubts about this, you just removed them. Interact means learning how to live with others in the proper manner.” Jimmy was still confused but Candice wrapper her arms around him. “You know how much you’ve learned during all of our travels?”
“Yes.”
“This is like that. You’ll like it, Jimmy.”
“Ok, if you say so.”
Candice hugged him tighter and later that day contacted Heinrik and told him she needed two green cards for entry into the United States and ten-thousand euros delivered to her by courier. “How long do you intend to stay in America?”
“I’m moving there so my son can go to school.”
“Do you require a private school?”
“I’d prefer a public school; why do you ask?”
“It would be easier to get a green card to attend a private school.”
Candice sighed and said, “Set it up. I don’t want a school near Washington, D.C.”
“Do you require a different last name?”
“Why do you ask that?”
“It sounds to me like your current name might be on a list. Would anyone be watching for you to enter the United States.”
“What do you suggest?”
“You acquired Swiss Citizenship four years ago. I can change your records to reflect a Swiss name.”
“How did I acquire Swiss Citizenship? I’ve only been there off and on.”
“I, Uhhhh, did it for you a few years back so that your account here wouldn’t be questioned by foreign governments. I assumed you wanted to maintain your privacy. Our banks have been under a lot of pressure to reveal accounts in Switzerland that were established by foreign depositors.”
“See if you can find a last name that starts with
the letter ‘C’.”
“I have just the one, Caspari.”
“What does that mean?”
“It’s a synonym for Kaspar in Italian, which is derived from Patriarch.”
“Are you certain…”
“If it’s used as a first name it means ‘keeper of the treasure.”
“It’s absolutely perfect! Set it up.”
“I will do so, immediately. Just don’t do anything while you’re there to cause an investigation.”
“Will it not stand up to inspection?”
“Depends on who’s investigating.”
“I can’t worry about that. Set it up.”
“I’ll get the documents ready in a couple of weeks.”
“Let me know when they’re ready and in the meantime, I need you to send me some credit cards with my new name on them. I also need you to contact the hotel I’m in and wire them the funds to pay for our staying here until we leave.”
The call ended and that night Candice sat down with Jimmy and said, “We’re going to use a different last name in the United States.”
“Why?” Jimmy asked.
“Because I want to keep our identity hidden.”
“What is it?”
“Caspari.”
“Caspari,” Jimmy said slowly.
Candice smiled, “Exactly right. It means keeper of the treasure.”
“Cool!”
“You should use a slight Swiss accent in your English when we get there.”
“How would I do that, Mom.”
“I’ll start teaching you. You’ll be fine once we arrive. Later, after we’ve been there a while, you can start speaking English normally.”
“This sounds like fun!”
“It will be. Now here’s how you speak English with a Swiss accent. We’ll only talk like this until we leave.” Jimmy stared at her and she began speaking. Jimmy picked it up quickly, his language skills were just as good as his Mother’s.
Later that day, Candice went down to the front desk and was told that they had received funds to pay for her room and incidentals. The Clerk looked at her and smiled, “Is there anything you require, Ms. Caspari?” She smiled and told the clerk she had ordered new Id’s and they would be available in a few weeks. He handed her his card and said, “If you need your identity verified by anyone, just have them call me directly.” Candice smiled and the Clerk handed her a large envelope, “This arrived by courier thirty-minutes ago.”
“Thank, you.”
Candice turned and went back up to her room. Inside the envelope was thirty-thousand euros and four credit cards with a note from Heinrik, “Never know when you might need a little more than you anticipate.” Candice smiled and took Jimmy shopping for clothes.
• • •
The German Inspector looked at the list and said, “Are you certain this is all of them?”
“Yes, Inspector. Those are the one’s living in the three buildings at the time of the crash.”
“Have you accounted for all of them?”
The Officer stared at the Inspector and lowered his eyes, “Anyone inside those buildings were effectively cremated and, when the buildings collapsed, all of their ashes were mixed in with the rubble. Just how would you like me to go about confirming it?”
“You’re right. I just need to notify the next of ken.”
“Better you than me.”
The Inspector nodded and looked at the list. Ummm, a Candice Carpenter and her son were in the central building. That’s an American name. He noted it and contacted the American Embassy. They can round up who needed to be contacted. He had more than he could do with the hundreds of other names.
• • •
Senator Cantrell picked up his phone and said, “Yes, what is it?”
“Is this call private?”
Cantrell pressed a button on his phone and said, “It is now.”
“You requested that if anything happened in Europe involving someone named Candice Carpenter, you wanted to be notified.”
“Actually, I asked that if anything turned up anywhere involving that name I wanted to know immediately!”
“Sir, it appears that Candice Carpenter and her son James Carpenter were killed during the crash in Tegel. The two planes landed on the apartment building they were renting space.”
Cantrell’s smile was instant, “Are you sure about this?”
“Sir, the German authorities are sure about it. They say all the bodies in the building were burned beyond recognition.”
“Thank you for letting me know.”
The call ended and he immediately called his wife, “It appears that tramp daughter of mine will never be an issue.”
“Why?”
“She went and had herself killed in an airplane crash along with her brat.”
“What about her Trust. Can we get it?!”
“Not without revealing our connection with them.”
“But…”
“Besides, she moved that trust and I’ve been unable to find out where she put it. It could be anywhere from Switzerland to the Cayman Islands. There are too many places to even know what she did with it and making a thorough search to find it would lead to too many questions. We don’t need it.”
“But it will go to waste.”
“Curb your greed, my Dear. If we go after it and claim she was related to us, what is going to happen if the press finds out about the fake funeral? Are you willing to give up what we have for just a couple of billion dollars?”
“You’re right, as always, Darling.”
“We can relax now and not worry about her showing up and causing a scene. As I understand it, there won’t be any DNA to track back to us. That really removes a load from my mind.”
“Hurry home, we need to celebrate.”
Cantrell looked at his calendar, “I’ll postpone a meeting with the Speaker and come home early.”
“I’ll be waiting,” she said seductively.
• • •
“I have it worked out.”
“Tell me what you’ve done, Heinrik.”
“I’ve enrolled James in Dalton Academy in New York.”
“Why did you choose that one. I’d prefer a school on the west coast.”
“All the others wanted a bigger donation.”
“WHAT?!”
“It’s almost impossible to get admission to the top prep schools in the United States. Quite frankly, most of those I contacted were blatant in their demanding a large donation. Dalton, did not. They accepted James to enhance the diversity of their student population; James being a foreign citizen helped him.”
“Then why did you make a donation and just how much did you donate?”
“Because they deserved it after speaking with all the others. I donated a million dollars to their scholarship fund.”
“That’s all.”
“Any more might have caused questions.”
“Alright. Do we have to do anything?”
“Normally there are entrance exams and other tests he would have to pass but I’ve set it up so that some of the professors will interview James when you arrive to determine if he would be competitive with the other students. They feel that if he is struggling to stay up with the other students academically, it wouldn’t be good for him. They really do have the student’s welfare in mind. I think you’ll like it and their class ratio of students to teachers is very low. He should catch up.”
“What do you mean catch up?”
“Their math courses are pretty tough.”
Candice smiled, “I think he’ll do ok.”
“I don’t know, Candice; this is one of America’s best schools.”
“I had some pretty good tutors growing up and I’ve been teaching him for a long time.”
“Ok, he’ll be entering the third grade. How old is he?”
“Seven but his birthday is coming up.”
Heinrik sighed, “Well, for some reason I thought he was older. Go and
see what happens and even if they reject him, they will suggest a school for him and your visas will still be good.”
“Thank you, Heinrik. You are a lifesaver.”
“Stay in touch. And, Candice, if you need to transfer funds, let me know.”
“I will.”
Candice opened her computer and began searching the internet for math books used at Dalton and decided to have a fifth-grade book drop shipped to her by Amazon. It arrived in two days and she gave it to Jimmy, “I want you to start going over this book and answer all the problems you’re capable of doing starting with the first chapter. The answers are in the back and I want you to self-grade them and tell me how you do on each chapter.”
“Does this mean I’ll have to do this if I go to school?”
“It does and there is no ‘if you’re going’.” Jimmy took the book and went to the desk against the wall in the hotel room and began reading. Candice thought about it and went back on the internet and began looking for history books. After looking at the summary pages, she decided that ordering them was not worth it. Jimmy had been exposed to the places where history had actually taken place. While they lived in England, she taught him about the American Revolution and he loved learning about it. What else? English…nah…language was not an issue. Writing…Ummm…maybe. But he should focus on his math skills first. They might give him some slack being a foreign student.
She stopped and thought for a moment. Would failing the interview be a good thing? They would send him to another school to prepare him for later consideration…but that school might be closer to Washington. New York was large enough and just far enough away to be safe. She thought about it and contacted Heinrik, “Did you change my name as well?”
“You also have the last name Caspari.”
“What about my first name.”
“I changed it to Aldehyde, which means sweet or Nobel.”
“What’s the nickname for Aldehyde.”
“Alde should do it.”
“Great, thank you, Heinrik.”
“You would have seen it on your passport when you receive it. I’m sending it by courier tomorrow. I thought that name was close to the meaning of candy.”
“You’ve done well, my friend.”
“Be safe…Alde.”