by Eden Winter
I waited almost four days before I got in touch with him. The excuse I made to myself was that I was busy with work, but I knew I had been avoiding him. I chose to text because hearing his voice would have made me feel even guiltier.
I sent a single ‘hello’ and put the phone in my pocket. I was sitting on my bed after a long day at work and sorting out my mind. I was trying to piece together life before Peter, life before his friends, and life before these premonitions. I wondered what it was that had triggered them, and if it was possible I would have gotten the powers even if I’d never met Peter. I wanted to know if the two were linked. Maybe my father’s grandmother developed her gift because she met my great-grandfather. Did this power only come when two of the right souls were connected with one another?
Maybe the reason the powers had developed now was because there was something I needed to do. I wish they had come at a time before I knew Alex. The premonitions could have saved me from a lot of hurt.
My phone buzzed. I stared at it and decided to count to twenty before reaching over for it. I got to nine before I flung myself over the bed and picked it up. It was a reply from Peter.
‘It’s good to hear from you, Sam. I hope you’re feeling better. Sorry if I scared you.’
I smiled with only one side of my mouth. It was more a shameful pursing than a real smile. I was the one who revealed to him that I knew him before I’d even met him and that the two of us had a special connection because I was sometimes able see the future, and he was still the one worrying about having scared me. The kiss only scared me because I was afraid of repeating a mistake and falling for the wrong person. I wondered then if I was going to spend the rest of my life being afraid to connect with anyone because of what Alex did to me.
‘You didn’t scare me.’ I started to type. It wasn’t a total lie. I was more afraid of the situation and the possibilities than I was of him. ‘I’m feeling much better. I hope you’re okay too.’
His response came almost immediately, and for some reason that made me giddy inside. It could have been that he was holding his phone and waiting on my response. Maybe the tiny flicker was something he felt inside himself as well.
‘I’m fine. Will I be seeing you soon?’ Peter responded.
‘I’d like that. I know I have a lot of things to explain. Please be patient with me.’ I replied.
‘I’ll do my best. Let me know whenever you’re ready to talk. I’ll be here.’
I smiled when I read the message. I would reply to it in a little while. I didn’t realize how tired I was until that moment. There was no rule that said I needed to send a reply right then and there. I would be better equipped to talk after a short nap.
I rested my head on my pillow, and before I knew it, I was fast asleep.
*
It was as if I’d started to dream the moment I had fallen asleep. I was sitting in Malcolm’s pickup truck. He was driving, and Isabelle was sitting at the front seat. It was a cloudy day, and I remember thinking that was strange since we were in the middle of summer.
We were driving on a road I didn’t recognize, and it was surprisingly smooth. Trees surrounded us, but there weren’t any other cars there. I could hear music on the radio, but I wasn’t able to figure out what it was.
Now, I’m not sure if someone can fall asleep in a dream when they’re already asleep, but I could feel that I was dozing off while Malcolm was driving. My dream-self was shutting down. She wanted to take a nap too. The eyelids of my dream self were getting heavier and heavier every time I blinked.
Then, I heard a scream. My dream-self jolted upright, and I looked around wildly. I felt a hard jerk and then the pickup truck was spinning. Isabelle was screaming, and I could hear that I was screaming too. I pressed one hand against the door and the other on the passenger seat beside me to keep myself from being thrown about like a rag doll. I had on a seatbelt, but I was still able to toss about and spin with the way the car moved. We spun so hard and so fast that it was about a 200 degree turn we made. I couldn’t see what we had hit, but my neck was in agony. I shrank back into the seat, grateful we had stopped, and I just kept breathing deeply.
I didn’t hear anything else. And then, I woke up.
When I opened my eyes, the sky outside was a deep blue with the small remnants of an orange and purple hue. The sun had just finished setting, which meant I had been asleep for at least an hour. I groaned and looked down at my phone and saw that there were no messages.
Surprise, surprise.
I was groggy, but I felt okay enough to get up out of my head and get a glass of water from the kitchen. It helped. The dream scared me even though I tried to shake away the feeling. It wasn’t real, but it felt real. It felt like something I’d experienced before. I rubbed my neck. It wasn’t stiff or painful, but I still wanted to feel it just to make sure.
When I went back into my bedroom, the screen on my phone was lit. I was getting a call from my sister.
“Samantha. Hi, how are you?” Isabelle asked.
“I’m a little tired. Long day at work, and just woke up from a nap. I’m great otherwise,” I replied.
“I hope that means you’re now well rested. Listen, what are you up to over the weekend?” my sister asked. I liked that she never beat around the bush. It was nice to know that someone straightforward was also someone who was incredibly kind always.
“Nothing that I know of. Why, what’s going on?”
“Malcolm and I were planning on leaving the parish to go to this beautiful waterfall. Would you like to come with us?”
I stopped and remembered the dream I’d just had. I knew that there was nothing to be afraid of, especially since it was a dream and nothing more. But I’m not going to lie to you, the thought scared me.
“I’d like that,” I said as calmly as I could.
“Great!” Isabelle said. She sounded so excited, and it made me smile. My phone buzzed against my ear and I pulled it away to see what was happening. I saw that I’d gotten a new text message from Peter.
“Hey listen, Iz?” I started.
“Yes, Sam?” She said it like a question.
“Do you mind if I invite someone to join us?”
*
“All set to go?” Isabelle was smiling at me through the side mirror of Malcolm’s pickup truck. I looked back at her and nodded. I sat up, wiggled forward, and wrapped my arms around the front seat that Isabelle was sitting in. I couldn’t see that she was still smiling, but I could feel it. She held onto my arms with both of her hands.
I was in a good mood that day. I knew I was still worried about getting involved in an accident, but during the dream, there were only three of us in the car. I looked over to my right and smiled at Peter. He looked so tall and lanky in the backseat. It was like he was a no-nonsense spider. I tried not to laugh at the thought of that.
Peter returned the smile. He looked so nice. His hair was tied back as usual, and he was wearing a simple black T-shirt and faded jeans. I felt a little too formal, which was the exact opposite of how I had felt the last time I saw him. My blouse was mostly lace, and I had on black capris.
“It’s a pleasure meeting you, Peter. So glad you could join us on this adventure today,” Isabelle said. She flashed him a smile, and I finally let go of her.
We were all waiting for Malcolm. He’d said he would be right back, but he never said what he was doing or where he was going. We were parked at the side of the road on the edge of town. It was a safe enough place that I wasn’t afraid that the driver of our car had been gone for a few minutes. What I was considering were the rain clouds that were forming in the direction of where it was we were supposed to be going.
“Thank you for inviting me,” he said. He was feeling a bit awkward. The two of us never got a chance to talk about what had happened the last time we were actually near each other. He had driven to my house so that Malcolm could pick us both up at the same time. We had barely gotten our hellos out before I heard the famil
iar purring of Malcolm’s pickup truck outside my house.
I wish I had gotten even an hour alone with Peter. It wouldn’t have felt so weird for both of us now. I knew I was more comfortable than he was because I was with my sister and I knew Malcolm, but Peter was a stranger to everyone but me… or maybe including me, based on the very little that we actually knew about each other.
“Sorry I kept everyone waiting,” Malcolm said when he hopped back into his truck and closed the door. “Buckle up and let’s get ready to go.”
I put the seatbelt back on and made sure it was nice and secure. I kept stealing glances over at Peter, each with a wide-mouthed smile. It must have freaked him out a bit. I didn’t know how to make things normal again—well, as normal as they were before the night I almost burned to death—or act fully okay around him.
“So, how did you two meet?” Isabelle asked. She was fidgeting with the radio, but she hadn’t settled on a song she liked just yet.
“I saw Peter at the grocery store and just told him hi,” I said. I didn’t have much of a flair for storytelling.
“Oh, well, that sounds nice,” Isabelle said. I knew she was going to want more details than that, but I didn’t feel comfortable giving them to her. I didn’t want to let anything slip about my visions or even about the kiss from before. I would tell her at the right time, and I would tell her when we were alone.
“What about the two of you?” Peter asked. He was trying to get the spotlight off us. I shot him a grateful look, but he didn’t see it.
“I was actually at the beach. I was looking for blue sea glass. It’s so rare, and I wanted to make some jewelry. I was so caught up with looking down at the sand that I couldn’t see this guy standing a few feet in front of me.”
Isabelle smiled over at Malcolm. I couldn’t see much of his face from where I was sitting, since his hair was covering most of his face.
“Yeah. I remember just seeing your red hair and wanting to talk to you,” he said. “It was like fire. I was so curious. I thought you were a wild one, and I was almost too afraid to ask. But now I’m really glad I did.”
A few years ago, I would have gagged. But after everything, I was truly happy for Isabelle. She found a man who cared about her and didn’t have eyes for someone else—especially not me. I hoped he wasn’t going to hurt her. It seemed like something he was incapable of, but men have a way of surprising you.
“You guys seem very happy together,” Peter said. He looked out the window he was sitting next to.
“We are,” Malcolm said. His hand wandered from his side to the passenger seat. Isabelle took it, and I smiled. I didn’t know what to say after something like that. It seemed like an intimate moment, and I almost felt like I was intruding because I had witnessed it.
The car fell quiet. I hoped Isabelle wasn’t doing this on purpose just so she could get me to start a conversation. It’s not that I didn’t know what to say, it was that everything I wanted to say to anyone in the car was supposed to be said in private. I needed to talk to Peter about our kiss and more about how he was connected to the visions I had. I needed to talk to Isabelle to tell her about my powers and how they ran in our family. And I was going to have a talk with Malcolm when it involved my sister. She had no doubt told him about Alex. Neither of them mentioned it, but it was just something that I felt must have happened.
Eventually, my sister found a radio station she liked and settled with it. She was humming along to the music and Malcolm was quietly driving. They would sometimes exchange an inside joke or start a conversation, but they seemed totally content whenever there was silence. I, on the other hand, thought that since we were in a group, we should probably spend our time having group conversations. But I relaxed a bit. Like Malcolm, Peter would sometimes talk to me about what he saw outside, and he asked if I had any tattoos. Then, he told me what each of the visible ones meant to him. I was less anxious but still nervous enough to not start any true conversations of my own.
I was getting tired while we drove. It was a sudden wave of fatigue. I had been pretty awake during most of the drive. Isabelle said that it would take us a while to get to where it was we wanted to go, and I didn’t think that a quick nap would have been such a bad idea.
The music she had chosen was so soothing and was lulling me to sleep. The road was smooth enough that I knew I wouldn’t be jolted out of my slumber at random. My eyelids were getting heavy, and I knew that I was going to give in sooner or later. I stifled a yawn, but not too long after that, I was drifting off into a beautiful sleep.
I was under water. I sensed I wasn’t too deep in the water, but it was deep enough that I wasn’t sure which way the surface was. There was a dim light coming from one direction, and I swam toward it. When I broke water, I gasped in the sweetest air. I couldn’t see any land around me. It was nighttime, and I didn’t know what body of water it was that I was in.
I saw a flash under the water, and I gasped. It wasn’t a flash at all. It was a long golden light that was moving in one direction. It should have scared me, but I followed it. I let myself sink into the water before swimming toward the bright light. It was almost twice as long as I was from what I could see. It was going deeper, and there was no way I would be able to follow it for much longer without going back up to take a breath.
Then, the long light stopped. It looked like it was turning to face me. I was still calm. In my dream, I already knew what it was. I knew I was going to expect it. I was about to float up to the surface to get more air and maybe try to swim back down, but I took in a breath. A breath… Underwater.
I could breathe!
I was too afraid to take in a long breath in case the water would suck into my nose and mouth to drown me, but I was breathing. I no longer needed to swim or kick in order to stay put. It was a peaceful deep blue silence. The golden light was getting closer to me, and then it stopped and turned again. It was in front of me, and it was swimming by my face.
It was a giant royal blue fish. Even in the darkness under the blue water, I could tell the distinct color of the fish. It looked like there were patches of a paler blue underneath it. It was like it was originally that light blue and then someone came with a sponge and dabbed the fish with the royal blue color until it covered all of the lighter shade. I could only see the difference in color because each scale of the fish was lined with a gold trim. On occasion, the gold lining around each of its scales glowed, and so did the golden fin that was on top of the fish. It was lit up to guide me to it. The fish was perfectly round, and it moved so slowly through the water. It was so big that I knew my arm span wouldn’t cover one side of the large fish.
I couldn’t believe that I was staring at it. I stayed where I was, mystified. I realized it was the fish that was giving my breathing abilities. I felt more like I was floating on air instead of floating under the deep blue water.
“Samantha,” I heard a soft voice inside my mind. I looked around to see if there was anyone near me. The fish’s mouth didn’t move.
“Yes?” I whispered a reply. I didn’t say the words out loud. I did my best to try to communicate with my mind.
“Samantha,” was all the fish said in return. I was puzzled in my dream, but I began to swim away. I was going in the direction of the surface. I was now craving the sweet taste of air. I had swum only a few strokes when something jerked me forward.
But this wasn’t a part of my dream. The moment I lurched forward, my eyes shot open, and I heard a scream. This whole scene was familiar to me.
There were trees lining the road, a smooth journey, and now a familiar enough song. I had lived this experience before. But it was impossible. That had been a dream. My dream wasn’t a vision or a warning—it was just a dream.
I didn’t have time to act or even think. I closed my eyes just as quickly as I had opened them. I heard the screeching of tires and felt my body slamming this way and that as the pickup truck spun out of control.
I didn’t open my eyes ag
ain until Malcolm’s pickup had completely stopped. I could hear heavy breathing from all around, but everyone seemed to be okay. The dream I’d had stopped before I could talk to anyone else in the car. No one was screaming, and that could have been a good thing or a bad thing.
“Is everyone all right?” It was Isabelle’s voice. Her voice was quivering, but it didn’t sound like she was in any pain.
“I’m fine,” Peter said. I didn’t look at him.
“I’m okay, babe,” I heard Malcolm say. My eyes were focused directly in front of me, and all I could do was breathe. One of my hands was pressed up against the window next to me, and the other was on the middle of the car seat.
“Sam?” Isabelle asked. “Sam, are you okay?”
I still hadn’t processed what had happened. To have dreamt of all of this, then to have another dream just before having a near death experience. There was so much that I needed to process in this moment.
“Are you okay, bunny?”
That was when I looked up.
“Bunny?” I asked when I looked at Malcolm. He was looking right at me.
“No. I’m sorry. I said honey,” he said. “But you’re okay? Does anything seem broken?”
I stared blankly at Malcolm.
“I’m fine,” I said. I did several half blinks while looking at him. I know what I heard. He didn’t say honey at all.
A flood of confusing daydreams came back to me like a jumbled pile. So many unwanted memories were still stuck in my brain. Malcolm called me bunny. And no one had ever called me that except…
“Sam,” Peter said. He reached over and placed his hand on top of mine.
“I’m okay. I just… Can I go home?” I asked.
“I think the car is still working. I can take you,” Malcolm offered.
I nodded without looking at him. There were no cars around us and there was no one to call and rescue me, but I wanted to be out of this pickup and as far away from wherever this place was as soon as humanly possible.
“Would you like me to stay with you?” asked Peter. He wanted to spend time with me. His car was at my house, but he was offering to stay to make sure I wouldn’t feel scared or alone.