Dreamcatchers (The Dreams of Reality Book 3)

by Gareth Otton

  “Celebrity status? Work experience?” Tad interrupted. “What are you talking about?”

  The doctor blinked again. “What are you talking about? I was told you wanted your daughter to come learn from me. Was that not true?”

  “Yes, that’s true. But it’s not work experience. Jen has a very real problem that is in your particular area of expertise. She also has a potential solution to that problem that we think you could help her develop.”

  “What’s wrong with her?” he asked, looking at Jen doubtfully.

  “Just before the Merging, Jen was involved in an incident that damaged her spinal cord and left her unable to use her legs,” Tad said.

  Again the doctor looked at Jen and shook his head. “If this is a joke, Mr Holcroft, I’m not getting it. She is obviously standing right now.”

  “She’s a dreamwalker, like myself. She’s using her powers to animate her legs. But outside the Borderlands that isn’t possible, and even here it’s a constant effort.”

  “What you are talking about is ridiculous,” he explained. “The injuries couldn’t possibly be so severe unless—”

  This time when Tad held out his hand, Tony knew he wasn’t asking for a club. He fished out the file Tad had stored in the bag for just this moment and handed it over, cutting off the doctor mid sentence.

  “What’s this?” Dr Burman asked as he accepted the plain, brown folder that should be familiar to anyone who had been to an NHS hospital. Even as he asked the question he was opening it and an instant frown formed as he came face to face with Jen’s medical records.

  “This isn’t possible,” he whispered, but never looked up as he continued to leaf through the file. He paused on the x-ray and scan results, even going so far as to pull them out of the file and hold them up to the light for a better look. “This is a girl of about the same age, but this can’t be her,” he said, talking to Tad but still not looking away from the file.

  “I assure you, it is her.”

  “Then that is remarkable,” the doctor said, replacing the documents and closing the file. “It sounds like you have found quite the work around. I still don’t understand why you needed to see me.”

  “What Jen has done is a workaround, like you say, but it's not perfect. Ideally, she would like to heal herself.”

  “Impossible,” Doctor Burman answered instantly. “The human body can't heal from such an injury without more advanced surgery than I have ever heard of. I’m sorry to have wasted your time, but—”

  “We’re not asking you to fix me,” Jen said, fed up of waiting for Tad to get to the point. “I want to heal myself. I can do it you see, here I’ll show you.”

  “Jen, don’t,” Tad said, but he was already too late.

  Removing a tee from the golf bag, she quickly reversed it and drove the pointy end into the bare flesh of her thigh below the hem of her shorts.

  Amber and the doctor gasped, and even Tony winced at the gruesome sight.

  “God damn it, Jen, we talked about this,” Tad snapped. Rushing forward and brushing Jen’s hand away so he could pull it out.

  “It’s the fastest way,” she protested even as the doctor shouted for Tad not to pull it free just yet. He was ignored though, and Tad pulled out the offending object and shook his head as his daughter’s antics as he snatched up a cloth that came with the golf bag. He quickly wiped down the tee before returning it to the bag.

  No one was watching him though, all eyes were transfixed with Jen’s leg as the doctor rushed in close to help. However, before he could even start administering aid, the small hole that was oozing blood closed.

  The flowing blood stopped first, then the muscles beneath closed up like the hole was growing tighter, then finally the skin knit together. Soon there was just a trickle of sticky red blood running down Jen’s leg. Tad handed her the cloth so she could wipe it away, and a second later she looked like she had before she mutilated herself.

  “Oh my god,” Amber whispered in amazement. However, for all that she was amazed, the doctor was stunned.

  “What did you just do?” he demanded.

  “I healed it,” Jen said, then quickly fell into an explanation of how she discovered this talent, how she had been practicing to heal her back, and how Tad said the reason she probably couldn’t fix it was because she didn’t know what she was doing.

  “It’s like the wound was never there,” Doctor Burman whispered. “There’s no scar or anything. How do you achieve that?”

  “Why would I want a scar?” Jen asked like he was crazy. “I just picture the wound being like it was before and I call over Dream to make that happen.”

  The doctor shook his head like she just said the most impossible thing in the world, yet he had seen it with his own eyes.

  “What do you think? Is this something you can help her with?” Tad asked.

  “I… Uh… Yes. Are you kidding? Of course I want to help with this. We’ll need to experiment of course, see what the depths of your talent is and how it works. I will also need to understand how your magic works so I can better figure out how we can use it, but yes, we must start working on this immediately.”

  “You can help me fix my back?” Jen asked, her voice surprisingly quiet as she tried to make this point abundantly clear.

  “I can… Well…” The doctor rubbed his eyes as though testing if they were working, then shook his head. “Honestly, I don’t know enough about your injury or your talents to answer for sure, but I am willing to help you try.”

  “Really?”

  “Of course. Don’t you understand what you did? What this could mean for the medical community?” he demanded, looking at them like they were crazy. “You just healed a deep tissue wound without a scar in mere seconds with your mind. If you could do nothing else, you would already be saving lives. Just the ability to close up surgeries like that, drastically reducing the risks of infection… We could speed up recovery times by a ridiculous degree, send people home from major operations in a day, ease up the congestion in our hospitals almost instantly. You could—”

  “Easy there doctor, you’re getting ahead of yourself. Jen’s just one girl looking for help, she’s not a tool to be used to solve NHS troubles.”

  “She would save lives,” the doctor argued, but he was shaking his head as he said it. He already knew it was unfair to put such a weight on Jen’s shoulders. “No, you’re right. But even studying what she could do, seeing if we could replicate it or… The possibilities are endless.”

  Tad tried to say something else, but the doctor held up his hand for silence and took a step away, once again rubbing his eyes and even rubbing his temples as he mulled something over. The transformation in him was amazing. From the angry person he had been just a few minutes ago to this animated character, he looked like a man twenty years younger. After thirty long seconds, he finally looked up.

  “I will have to think on this. But I would like to propose a deal if I may. We’ll hash out the full details later, but these are the broad strokes. I will relocate my practice to Cardiff so I can be closer to Jen and we can work together. I will also do everything I can to help test and prepare Jen to one day be in a position to potentially heal her back. I will help guide her schooling, sponsor her through university, anything I can to get her on the right path to either heal her back, or at least get her as close as we can. However, my help has a price.

  “In return, I want Jen to actively think about gearing up for a career in medicine. Even with what little I’ve seen today, Jen could be the most revolutionary thing to happen to the medical profession since the proposal of germ theory in the late eighteen-hundreds. She could save thousands of people, maybe millions.”

  He probably would have kept selling his point, but Tad stopped him. He asked the doctor to wait and pulled Jen closer to Tony and Amber, but away from the doctor.

  “Jen, don’t get too caught up in what he’s saying. I don’t want him to pressure you into doing something you don’t
want. We can always find another doctor. The choice is yours though and I’ll support you no matter what. You don’t have to lock yourself into this just because you feel you have no other choice.”

  “Do you think he’s right?” Jen whispered. “Could I really save millions of people?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe. You have to remember you’re only one person and a lot of what we do can only be replicated by other dreamwalkers. Could you save people? Definitely. You can do anything, Jen. But this isn’t the only path to that.”

  “But saving people’s lives, healing them,” Jen said, her voice awed. “I never thought about healing anyone other than myself. What if I could, dad? What if I could be a doctor and I could heal every single person who came to me?”

  Tad was shaking his head. “Don’t get too far ahead of yourself. We don’t know if you can heal other people yet, let alone become some super doctor. If you do this, it has to be because it’s something you want to do, not because it’s something you have been forced to do out of guilt.”

  “But I want to do it,” Jen said, suddenly more animated, her voice much more eager. “Think about it, I could save people, dad. I might be able to heal things that people would die of otherwise. I could help you when you do stupid things and get—”

  “Don’t make this about me,” Tad said. “I’m not going anywhere and I certainly don’t want you doing this just to help me. I know I’ve had a bumpy year, but I’m still here and I’m stronger than ever.”

  “I might be able to heal your hand,” Jen said, not listening. “If I can heal my back, a hand can’t be harder can it. I wonder if I can grow people’s limbs back.”

  “Jen, you’re getting ahead of yourself. Please think about this properly.”

  “I am, dad. I want to do it. I can’t do what you and Stella do to help people, but this might be an even better way. I would rather heal people than hurt them. I want to do this. Please, can I do it?”

  Tad hesitated, clearly not liking something. However, Tony thought she had a point. If she could help people this way, shouldn’t she do it? Not to mention it might keep her out of harm's way. If she thought she was helping people, she’d be less likely to repeat what broke her back in the first place.

  “Alright, we’ll give it a go,” he said loud enough that both Jen and the doctor could hear. Both started grinning. “But I have conditions,” Tad added.

  “Name them,” the doctor said.

  “The first is that you remember at all times how old Jen is. I don’t want you pushing her to see things she’s not ready for. I also don’t want you pressuring her to do things. She’s not a doctor with years of experience, she’s a young girl and you need to remember that.”

  “Of course, I’ll treat her like she was my own daughter,” the doctor agreed. “What else?”

  “We take it slow. Just a couple of nights a week to start until we can get a feel for how this will work. I don’t want you pressuring her to do more days because she could help. That’s not fair for—”

  “I already agreed not to pressure her, Mr Holcroft. Baby steps are important… No, they’re necessary for what we’re doing. First, we experiment slowly and we get young Jennifer—”

  “Jen,” Jen interrupted.

  “We get Jen up to speed, then the real fun begins. Anything else?”

  Tad shook his head. “Not right now. Like you said, we can hash out the details later. For now, I’m happy for Jen to do this if she’s happy.”

  Jen grinned from ear to ear and started bouncing up and down on the spot. “Yep. I want to do this,” she said, barely containing her excitement.

  “Fine. Then I’m on board as well,” Tad said.

  “Great, when can we start,” Doctor Burman asked.

  “How’d it go?” Tad asked as Tony entered the living room.

  Tony sighed and slumped onto a sofa, rubbing his hands over his eyes. Sixteen years dead and he still couldn’t shake the human trappings of exhaustion every now and again. His eyes actually felt like they were aching… was that a good thing? It was easy to say no, but he hadn’t felt this… pumped might be the right word… in a long time.

  “Pretty good. Lizzie got the message out and we’ve already heard from relatives for the twins. They’re coordinating with mum and dad so they can come down to explore their options. We’ve also had some calls from people looking for the ghosts of their kids, which sucks, but we’ll keep an eye out.”

  “What about the other two?” Tad asked.

  “Nothing yet, but it's early days. I mean, Lizzie’s show only went live a couple of hours ago. In the meantime we stick to Plan B, if you’re still willing to talk to the school.”

  “First thing tomorrow, I promise.”

  “I appreciate it.”

  Tony continued to rub his eyes and only stopped when he sensed that he was being watched. He lifted his hands away from his face and found Tad smiling.

  “What the hell’s your problem?”

  “Nothing,” Tad said. “I’m just pleased to see you care about something this much. It’s a step in the right direction.”

  “I’m just helping some kids. Don’t go reading anything into it.”

  Tad held up his hands in defence, but he was still grinning. “I’m not saying anything. Just nice to see is all.”

  Disturbed by Tad lifting his hands in the air, Growler woke up and yawned loudly. He untangled himself from the ball he’d curled into at the end of Tad’s sofa and instantly started scratching the cone-shaped collar around his neck. Unable to reach the itch, he whined and trotted over to Tad so his fingers would could scratch the spots that the dog couldn’t.

  “It’s only for a little while, just until the stitches are ready to come out,” Tad said to the puppy. “It’s your reward for being so brave.”

  The puppy huffed like it could understand him and wasn’t happy about it, however he accepted Tad’s fingers scratching underneath his collar with good grace and soon was sprawled across Tad’s lap looking pleased with himself. If he were a kitten, he’d be purring.

  “It’s a shame he doesn’t have ghosts of his own,” Tony said. “He’d have those scratches healed up in no time.”

  “Speaking of which, have you given any thought of what you want to do for Proxies for those kids?” Tad asked. “And no, before you get any ideas, I’m not offering.”

  “I really don’t know. I would have tagged along with you to the next dreamwalker meeting, but I think they’re all going to be too old.”

  “What about Jen?” Tad asked.

  “What about her?”

  “Ask her to Proxy for you.”

  Tony glanced over his shoulder towards the living room door and the kitchen where Jen and Amber were talking.

  “You’d be okay with that?” he asked. “I thought the last thing we ever wanted was for Jen to Proxy again.”

  “Proxy for adults,” Tad corrected. “I didn’t want Jen to go through what she did with her parents and with Maggie just like I don’t want your kids—

  “They’re not mine,” Tony protested.

  “Just like I don’t want them to go through the same. But it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world for Jen to get experience with younger kids. She might not be ideal considering everything she’s been through, but she’s far better than getting an adult to do it and beggars can’t be choosers.”

  “You think she would agree? Maggie hit her hard,” Tony noted.

  “Yeah, I know. But as you are so keen of reminding me, we’ve all got to move on, eventually.”

  “I never actually said that,” Tony protested, but Tad just laughed and ignored him.

  Disturbed by his laugh, Growler climbed to his feet and shook himself awake. His tail started wagging and he looked Tad in the eye like he was trying to communicate.

  “What?” Tad asked. Growler barked in response, just once and not in a menacing way, and Tad laughed again. “Alright. I guess it’s feeding time.”

  Growler ba
rked again and jumped down from Tad’s lap, suddenly wagging his tail so hard it was throwing his whole back end off balance. He barked again impatiently and Tony couldn’t help but laugh as well.

  “I’m coming,” Tad said.

  “I swear those dogs are more intelligent than most kids,” Tony noted as Tad climbed to his feet.

  “I don’t think you're far wrong, which is why I won’t keep the little guy waiting?” There was another bark, this time from the kitchen where Hawk was hanging out with Jen and Amber, and Tad rolled his eyes. “Make that little guys,” he added. “I’ll be right back.”

  Tony watched them go, mulling over thoughts of intelligent dogs and Jen possibly Proxying for Amber’s kids when Amber walked into the room, closing the door behind her and sitting with Tony on his sofa. Though on the next cushion over, she was a lot closer than she needed to be.

  “You alright?” Tony asked.

  “Yeah. Jen and Tad are just feeding the puppies, so I thought I’d see what you’re up to. Did you talk to Tad about the school?”

  “Yeah, he’s on board with the idea. If what Lizzie says is true, this should all be sorted by tomorrow.”

  Amber grinned. “Good. It’s crazy. It felt like I’ve been struggling with this for ages, and now it’s all getting sorted in just a couple of days.”

  “Yeah, between my parents, Lizzie and the school, you’re finally off the hook,” Tony said. “Time to move on to more interesting things.”

  For a second her smile faltered and when it returned, it didn’t quite seem as real as it had before.

  “I might stick around a little longer. I’ve grown fond of them.”

  “What about after that?” Tony asked. “You know, all this time I never asked what’s keeping you here? I mean I know you’re trying to help the kids, but why didn’t you move on before?”

  Amber’s smile slipped again and she frowned. “Are you supposed to ask people that? It feels kind of personal.”

  Tony snorted. “You want to talk to a ghost who minds social boundaries, then you’re in the wrong place. Just ask Tad and Jen.”