by Pamela Davis
Merlin just stared hard at her.
"Hey! I heard that!" she replied. "Look, I couldn't just leave my car there, could I? Now just hop on up here and start typing. I don't think I need to hear your thoughts just now."
As Merlin typed, he thought furiously. When all this over and I get her settled somewhere, I'm taking a week off. A month off. I'll turn her over to Andy and Waldo. Let them deal with her.
But even as he thought it, he knew he'd stay by her side. They were connected. He sighed.
Sonoran Desert, Arizona
Margaret was looking at maps again. Zack and Maria watched as she traced a route to the northwestern part of the U.S. Zack spoke up. "Washington? Washington State? Why do you need to go there?"
"Because that's where the whales are, the San Juan Islands off the coast of Washington."
"Whales?" Maria questioned.
"Yes, whales. There's something I need to figure out, something I've been hearing, sort of, getting glimpses of, and I can't understand it. But I think the whales will know."
"But, but," Phoebe spluttered, "why whales? Why not--something else? You said animals could talk to you--why do you have to go that far away? Couldn't you just talk to a cat or something?"
Margaret smiled. "I already tried. I've been hearing a very low, deep-sounding kind of thought--oh, I don't know how to explain it exactly. But finally I pinpointed this location, and if I'm right, it's the whales, but I can't quite get a clear picture of what they are saying."
"But shouldn't we try to get back on TV and warn more people?" Maria asked.
"I don't think they're going to let you back on the air, Maria, not until after the flood begins," Zack answered. "We might as well go with Margaret and film what we can. Then when they're ready to listen to you again at headquarters, we'll be ready to go and have tape ready for them."
Phoebe interjected hesitantly, "But I thought you said there were safe zones, Margaret. Shouldn't we be going to one of those places?"
Margaret thrust her hands through her hair and leaned back in her chair. "Yes, I said there are safe zones. But we don't need to go there yet. We still have time and it's more important to gather information."
"You mentioned before you thought maybe we could fix things," Zack observed. "Is this part of that?"
"Yes. If the crop circles that started all this are right, then they were warnings. Like, if we stop doing certain things, the planet will settle back down. I'm trying to find out what those things are, what steps we need to take to make things better."
"Do you think it's possible?" Maria asked, skeptical, but feeling an undercurrent of hope at the thought.
"It's all I have to go on at the moment," Margaret replied. "And travel is going to get harder and harder as things break down." She stood up and told them, "You all should head back to your motel and get ready to leave in the morning." She paused and then announced, "Maria, you and Zack need to talk to Mayor Dubois--we might as well bring her with us. She could be useful later."
"Wait a minute," Maria replied. "How are we supposed to explain all this to her? She hardly knows us! She'll never believe it!"
"Since Houston is now a watery spot on the map, I think she might be willing to hear you out," Margaret said dryly.
"Oh, yeah," Zack replied. "But what do you mean, she could be useful? What are you up to?"
Margaret just smiled and headed out the door.
"Sometimes Margaret scares me," Phoebe said quietly.
"You're not the only one," Maria and Zack both replied at the same time.
Cape Fair, the Samuels' House
John woke to sound of hoof beats. For a minute he thought he was dreaming, but then realized he was hearing hoof beats, lots of them, outside the house. It sounded like a stampede. "What the hell?" He mumbled.
Jessica stirred and awoke to see John staring out their bedroom window. "Honey? What is it?"
John murmured quietly without turning around, "Jess, you are not going to believe this. Come here and tell me if you see a lot of horses out there on the road."
Jessica threw off the pale green sheets and padded across the hardwood floor in bare feet. Peering out, she blinked a few times to be sure she was actually seeing what was out there. "Uh, yes, I see a lot of horses. Are we dreaming?" Then she jumped as they heard a banging on the door downstairs.
Grabbing a t-shirt and pulling it on to wear with his pajama bottoms, John hurried out of their room and down the stairs. Jessica frantically yanked open her closet door to find her big fluffy robe to go over the pajama top of John's that she'd worn to bed.
As John reached out to open the door, he heard Jessica running down the stairs. "John, wait, we don't know who it is--" She stopped talking as she saw Samantha sitting on the little bench in the foyer, Harry at her feet.
"Sam--what are you doing up?"
"More company, Mom. And I had to see the horses!" Sam exclaimed happily.
"Oh! Well, I still think you should be in bed," she said, "More company? The house is already full!"
John pulled open the door to witness a bickering couple on his doorstep.
"And I'm telling you for the last time, I'm not checking into any motel--" A bedraggled looking young woman was saying.
"You can't just walk up to someone's house and--" The young man stopped, realizing the door had opened. He turned to John and said, "Hello! Sorry to bother you. We should have called first."
"Andy, you're the one who forgot to keep your cell phone charged. And mine was smashed by the hail. Besides, we're already here," Lisanne observed.
There was a moment of silence as they all stared at each other awkwardly, then Sam jumped up and said, "I want to see the horses," and ran out the door. Harry followed her, bowling over a cat who was sitting on the step.
"Hey!" Lisanne started.
"Sorry!" Sam called as she ran down the walkway. "Harry's sorry, Merlin!"
"Merlin!" Jessica said, surprise in her voice. "We heard about him tonight!"
Lisanne had picked up the cat and was smoothing his black fur as he hissed. "It's okay, Merlin. You know how dogs can be."
Waldo woofed.
"Well, you know you dogs can be a pain sometimes, Waldo. I'm just calling it like I see it," Lisanne replied.
"Lisanne, if you're ever going to get along with Waldo, you need to be kinder to him," Andy told her.
"And why would I need to get along with Waldo? Huh? He's with you, isn't he? And right now you aren't my favorite person in the world!" Lisanne replied heatedly.
"Um, folks, why don't you come on in and let's sort all this out," John suggested, opening the door wider. "Jess, let's put on some coffee or something and then we can sit down and all talk calmly."
"Coffee! Oh, my God, yes, that's just what I need!" Lisanne said, walking quickly into the house and following Jessica down the hallway.
"Coffee! That's the last thing she needs!" Andy responded, shaking his head as he walked in. He looked back for Waldo and saw the dog running off after the golden retriever and little girl. "Well, I guess Waldo wants to make friends. Is it all right if he goes with them?"
"Sure," John replied, looking out the door. "I'm just not sure Samantha should be out there with all those horses milling around, but Harry's with her, so she should be okay."
"Oh, the horse girl will take care of her--I mean Janine, the girl, she's a girl I mean, not a horse." He stopped and started again. "Janine is the girl who looks after the horses, talks to the horses, rides with horses," he explained. "She'll look after the little girl."
John closed the door, saying, "That's okay, then."
"You just accept what I'm saying about a girl talking to horses?" Andy quizzed him.
"Around here, talking to horses sounds perfectly normal. Come on, let's go get some coffee," John answered him. "My name's John Samuels, by the way."
"The writer?" Andy asked.
John stopped for a moment and laughed. "Yes, the writer. With all that's been going
on around here, I'm more used to thinking of my job title as 'Sam's dad' or as 'safe zone planner.' But yes, I've written a few books too."
"I'm Andy Jordan and I think I've read all your books. And there are more than a few!" he said enthusiastically. "You're one of my favorite writers!"
"And do you feel lately like you're in one of my books, part of the story?"
Andy laughed and said, "I don't think I've had a spare moment to think about that, but yes, it does seem more like fiction than real life, doesn't it?"
"Just wait. Once you've met everyone here and heard our part of the story, I think you'll be convinced it couldn't be real! At least, that's how I feel about half the time." He sighed and then said, "But with the dreams coming true and all, I guess we have to believe it's real."
"You've been having the dreams?" Andy demanded.
"Oh, yeah," John replied wearily. "Just call us dream central here."
Sonoran Desert, Arizona
Zack stretched out on his bed in the motel room, still clad in a t-shirt and jeans. It had been a long day. The meeting with Mayor Dubois and Alan Beakman had not gone well. He thought it was hard for Maria to be convincing when she wasn't having the dreams and didn't totally believe in all of what she was saying to the mayor. Zack knew it sounded crazy, but he also knew it felt right. That the dreams really were predicting the next disasters. Still, he was disturbed because parts of Margaret's story didn't make sense to him. She seemed to be saying humans caused the disasters by not taking good care of the planet. Kind of an environmentalist's revenge sort of thing playing out on a global scale. That if they all became tree-huggers and stopped polluting the planet, the disasters would end. Yet, that didn't make sense to him. Ignoring the dream aspect of things, he knew that the earth was a big place; a planet was a big place. To suggest that humans could cause its demise was going a bit far. Yes, humans could cause damage, but he'd always thought that the planet had a lot of self-correcting mechanisms. Still, perhaps Margaret was right and the planet was indeed conscious. And fed up with the behaviors of humans. But if that were the case, wouldn't humans be given a chance to change? From his point of view, Zack thought it looked like the humans were just being wiped out in large groups. A kind of behavior modification plan was what Margaret seemed to be saying. Yet, to Zack it looked more like genocide, or species-cide, or whatever the term would be.
He heard soft knocking on his door. Rising and opening the door, he found Maria, standing there in a silky, cream-colored nightgown with a matching robe over her shoulders.
"What's up?" he asked, puzzled by the fearful look on her face.
"Can I come in and just be with you for a while? I can't sleep."
"Sure, no problem."
"Thanks," she said, walking quickly inside, and settled into a chair. "Were you asleep?"
"No, just lying down, thinking. There seems to be a lot to think about lately," he told her. "Did you leave Cleo in your room?"
"No, I gave her to Phoebe for the night. She seems to be able to calm Phoebe down."
"Okay. So, what's wrong?" He sat down on the edge of the bed.
"Oh, nothing much, just the world coming to an end, people dying everywhere, us following a damn psychic around, us not being able to get on the air again, Phoebe barely holding it together, my mom and dad...." Her voice trailed off after the burst of speech; then she covered her face and began crying.
"Hey," he said softly, "hey, it's gonna be okay, Maria." He crossed the room to her and knelt down beside the chair. Standing, he pulled her to her feet and wrapped his arms around her. He rubbed her back as she sobbed against his chest.
After a few minutes, her crying slowed down. He let go of her and reached across the table for some tissues. "Here," he said, giving them to her. "Any better now?"
Wiping her eyes and nose, Maria laughed darkly. "No, not really. I guess I thought if I could cry it would all feel better."
"There's a lot wrong, Maria, and you haven't really let yourself grieve for your parents. We've been so busy. And it all has been crazy-making."
"Yeah, I know. I realized tonight--I'm never going to have that again, that feeling of safety I had when I would go home to see them. They were always there and being home made me feel so safe. And now the world is at its most unsafe ever, and I can't go home. There is no more home to go to without them."
"Maria, I am so sorry." He pulled her toward him and hugged her. Slowly her arms encircled him, holding on to him tightly.
"You know I'm always here for you?" Zack whispered in her ear.
"Always?" she replied shakily.
"Always," he answered firmly.
She leaned back in his arms and looked up into his face, into those kind, gray eyes, like a calm sea tonight, she thought. And suddenly she didn't want to think anymore. She reached up and pulled his face down to hers.
The kiss was soft and tentative at first, then more intense. As Zack kissed her, he felt amazed even as he worried if this was the right thing to do. He kissed her face, moving softly from lips to eyes to cheeks to nose and then back to her lips. His hands roamed up and down her back, down further, pressing her against him. Murmuring against her mouth, he asked, "Are you sure about this, Maria?"
"I want you," she replied. "I don't know what will happen tomorrow, I don't know if part of it is grief or what it is, but I know that right now I need to feel alive, really, completely alive. And I care about you, Zack. I'm only starting to realize just how much. You've been there for me for so long." She kissed him gently again. "I feel like you are all I have left. So, yeah, I'm sure about this."
He let out the deep breath he hadn't even realized he was holding in while listening to her response. Even as he slowly slid the robe off her smooth shoulders and felt her hands running up under his t-shirt across his chest, he still had a moment of doubt as he recognized it hadn't been a declaration of love so much as one of need. But he'd never told her how he felt about her either. Helping her tug his shirt over his head, shivering as she ran her fingernails across his back and around to his abdomen, and then feeling her loosening the belt of his jeans, he decided the doubts could wait.
As his hands moved across satin and beneath it, he said breathlessly, "Yeah, I'm sure too."
Cape Fair, the Samuels' House
Lisanne looked stunned, eyes glazed as she watched Jessica re-bandage her arm using gauze instead of the old scarf Andy had tied around it before. She shook her head sharply, trying to clear her mind.
"I knew it was strange, the whole thing with Merlin, and running into Andy and Waldo, and our having the dream--and I can't believe Black got here before us! But hearing it all from you, the bigger picture, well, it's just mind-boggling! And to think I thought at first it was all because I'd been drinking so much."
Jessica looked up at that and exchanged a worried look with John. Lisanne noticed the look and grimaced. "It's okay, guys. I stopped drinking when I left Florida. Merlin kind of insisted."
Jessica couldn't help the relief that spread across her face, but John asked, "That's not too long ago. Do you have a drinking problem, Lisanne? Because we're going to need to know all of our weaknesses as much as we know the strengths and skills of everyone here."
Lisanne shrugged and squirmed a little in her chair around the big oak kitchen table. "I don't know how much of a problem I have. For the past six months or so I've been drinking pretty heavily. But maybe that was just because I was feeling kind of self-destructive--look, I don't want to go into all of it. When my mother died, I kinda went into a tailspin, and I'm only recently figuring all that out. I guess what I can say at this point is I probably should stay away from the alcohol and I'll try to do that."
"What's that Alcoholics Anonymous saying?" Andy asked. "One day at a time, right?"
"How should I know?" Lisanne replied. "I've never been to AA!"
"I was just trying to--" Andy began, only to be cut off by Jessica.
"Where's Sam?"
"Outside with
Janine, hon, remember?" John said.
"Well, it's late and they shouldn't be out there alone." She stopped and smiled ruefully. "Although, I guess they aren't alone, not with all those horses, plus Harry."
"And Waldo," Andy put in.
Rising from the table, John said, "I'll go get them. Why don't you all figure out the sleeping arrangements for tonight? We'll find a more permanent place for you to stay tomorrow."
As John left to the sounds of Lisanne and Andy bickering over whether they should get motel rooms and Jessica insisting they stay here, he felt satisfied that Andy was going to be a good addition to their group and worried that Lisanne might be a handful. He walked outside, across the front yard to the patch of dogwood trees. Jessica had insisted on putting a wrought-iron bench under the trees so that she could sit amongst the blossoms in the spring. He approached from the side and the two girls didn't see him coming as they sat there talking. He stopped a few feet away and shamelessly listened in to their conversation.
"So you think it's pretty big? From what you can tell with the horse-mind?" Sam was asking.
"Yeah, it seems like it," Janine agreed. "But I can't really get into it. It's more like I can feel around the edges of it beneath all the other horse stuff going on."
"Probably you shouldn't try to, not yet anyway," Sam said wisely. "It can be too-o-o-o much if you aren't ready for it. I almost got lost there one time."
"Ooh, I wouldn't want to get stuck in there," Janine responded.
"Well, I don't really know if you can get stuck there, but maybe you can get lost for a while."
"So you can talk to all the animals?" Janine asked.
"Yeah--but don't go talking 'bout that too much right now. Everybody's sort of upset by that. I think they get scared. They don't have to be, but you know they won't listen to me." Sam shook her head. "Grown-ups can be dumb sometimes."
"I remember when I was a kid, nobody would listen to me at all," Janine said darkly, a scowl on her face.
"You're still a kid!"
"Am not!" Janine corrected her. "I'm sixteen!"
"Well, you're kinda small to be sixteen. I thought you had to be bigger to be sixteen," Sam replied. "Max is bigger and he's sixteen."