Dream of Me: Book 1 The Dream Makers Series (9 page)

“Just a heads up.” She looked back at the cat who was still twitching angrily. “I completely accept work done by animals, so if you or your tiny dinner there wants to help clean up what is obviously your home, then please don’t
not
help on my account.” Did she really expect the cat and mouse to turn into some Disney characters and begin whistling as they worked? No. But it was nice to have someone to talk to. She had a feeling she was going to get mighty lonely, very fast.

Night had begun to fall when Emma realized that it was getting a little difficult to see in the room. She went to flip on the light but nothing happened. She stood there in the darkening room trying to decide if she should ask Mildred for a light bulb or just go seek one out herself. Her desire to avoid any conflict with the obviously disturbed woman won out and she set off. Rather than searching the kitchen or utility room, she went into the bathroom, hoping that there would be more than one light in it that she could pilfer without anyone being the wiser. She found it, two doors down from her room, and when she flipped on the light, she found what she was looking for. Above the mirror three bright bulbs were sticking out of the sockets. Emma flipped the light back off and waited for her eyes to adjust to the darkness before attempting to climb up on the sink to retrieve one of the bulbs.

Once back in her room a new dilemma occurred. How on earth was she going to get the bulb into the socket when it was way up on the ceiling and she was way down on the ground?

“It appears that you have a bit of a dilemma.” Her head whipped around and she saw him—the Sandman whom she had met a couple of years ago. She knew him instantly. He wasn’t a figure one was likely to forget. But he wasn’t alone; he had, what appeared to Emma, an angel standing with him. She was pretty sure that her estimation of the stranger was correct, as he had huge white feathery wings poking out of the back of his leather jacket and a glow seemed to emanate from him.

“Are you here to see my aunt?” Her voice rose in confusion. She just couldn’t imagine her aunt being someone that would change the course of history.

Dair shook his head. “No, little genius, I’m here for you.” He reached out and took the bulb from her hand, removed the old one, tossed it into the now overflowing wastebasket, and screwed in the new one. Because of his height, he could have easily touched the ceiling if he’d have wanted to. Emma was frozen in place as she tried to make sense of what he had just told her. She couldn’t imagine anything was special enough about her that could influence anything or anyone, let alone the entire course of history.

“I’m only eight-years-old,” she pointed out.

“Just because I’m here now doesn’t mean that your destiny will be fulfilled immediately. I am simply to put you on the right path through suggestions in your dreams. Age has nothing to do with it,” Dair told her.

“Can’t you just tell me what to do since I can see you?”

He shook his head. “It doesn’t work like that. I don’t know what your destiny is. I only know enough to point you in the direction you should go, and I can only relay that information through dreams.”

“Hmm, bummer.” Emma looked at the angel again and then frowned. “Why’s he here? Is my destiny to die?”

The angel smiled at her and it was radiant. “I am merely keeping Brudair company; he is having a bit of a rough week.”

Emma thought about this and then smiled with a mischievous gleam in her eyes. “Is it because of the girl from my dream? Serenity, I think is what she told me her name was. She looked like she was going to be, what my mama called, a tough cookie to crack.”

The angel burst into a belly laugh while Dair frowned at both of them.

“She is proving to be one of my more difficult assignments,” he agreed.

There was a moment of awkward silence and then Dair spoke again. “Why are you here, Emma?”

She tried not to flinch at the thought of her parents, but the pain was still so very raw. DHS had suggested that she talk with a counselor, and she had tried but she didn’t know what to say. She was sad but she didn’t think it had really set in that they were gone.

“My parents were killed. They were shot at a gas station,” she told him as she climbed up on the bed. Emma still wasn’t ready to talk about it, not even with an angel and the Sandman. “I guess I should go to sleep so you can do your job.”

“I am sorry for your loss, little one,” the angel said as he reached out a hand and placed it on her forehead. Emma felt power rush into her and then peace―like she had not known since before her parents' death―flowed through her.

“Thank you,” she told him, unable to think of anything else that would be adequate for the gift he’d just given her. For the moment the pain was at bay and she might actually get some sleep. Emma was asleep as soon as her head hit the dusty pillow.

D
air stared down at the sleeping child and was surprised at how very young she looked. When she was awake her mature vocabulary and confidence made her seem like a much older child, but in sleep all that was stripped away, and she looked like the innocent eight-year-old that she was.

“She has been through much,” Raphael said quietly.

“I’m afraid that she will go through worse before her life gets any better.” Dair’s jaw clenched as he looked around the room for the first time and saw the living conditions that she would be forced to endure. “This woman is not fit to raise a child.”

Raphael laid his hand on Dair’s shoulder. “We cannot interfere, you know that. The consequences for that is banishment.”

“I know. But that doesn’t mean it makes it easy to watch.” Dair stepped forward and closed his eyes. He gathered his power and allowed Emma’s dream to take form and then he gently entered her mind. The dream didn’t seem very significant to him. It showed Emma going to the library, and he recognized it as the Marion County Library, where Serenity’s aunt worked. That was all and as his part in the dream was concluded, he pulled out of her mind.

“I’ve made sure she will sleep peacefully,” Raphael told him.

“What happened to not interfering?”

“Granting a little child a small measure of peace will not change the course of history or interfere with her free will.”

“I know Serenity’s and Emma’s fates are tied together somehow,” Dair spoke up the thoughts that had been in his mind since he realized Emma was his assignment. “And for some reason it doesn’t feel like that’s a good thing.”

“You must let their destiny unfold, regardless of whether or not you agree or like the way it feels.” Raphael’s words were not meant to be unkind; he was simply reminding Dair that he had no place in the human realm, not really. He was simply a messenger.

“What if I can’t?” Dair asked.

“Then you must leave, for good.”

S
erenity looked into her bathroom mirror after having washed her face. The air hitting her wet skin was cool and she shivered. She looked tired. The dark circles under her eyes did nothing for her already pale skin, and she was pretty sure she might have lost a few pounds, but she didn’t typically pay attention to the scales.

“Longest…week…ever,” she told her reflection. She was frustrated with herself even though she had done what Glory had told her. She’d gone on living. She hadn’t sulked in her bedroom or curled up in a ball and rocked back and forth as though she’d lost touch with reality. She had gone to school, talked to friends, gone to work, helped at the library, and had dinner with her Aunt Darla and Uncle Wayne who was home for the week. She’d lived,
darn it
. But the one thing she hadn’t done much of was sleep. She kept thinking that he would come when she slept, or maybe she’d just been hoping. Serenity hadn’t felt depressed as she lay in her bed at night with sleep refusing to take her under. Rather, she just couldn’t stop her mind from racing with thoughts about the mysterious Dair. As much as she tried, she just couldn’t push him out of her mind. She wondered what he looked like, what he did during the day when he wasn’t weaving dreams for people, and where he lived, or
if
he lived anywhere. Did he eat or sleep or have any of the normal human body needs and functions? She hadn’t dwelt on that too long because, well, she didn’t exactly know him well enough to be concerned with those things. So sleep had eluded her while her mind created hazy images of a mystery guy with an alluring voice.

Serenity brushed her teeth and then headed to the living room to tell her aunt and uncle goodnight.

“I’m going to turn in; I’m so tired,” she told them.

“You look a little rough around the edges,” Uncle Wayne told her, never one to mince words.

“Thank you for that, oh fish whisperer,” she said dryly.

“Do you work at the vet tomorrow?” Darla asked.

Serenity nodded. “Yep, I’ve got to be there by 7:00 a.m. to let the dogs outside.” She looked over at Wayne. “Any more hunting expeditions planned?”

“Hope not, we found the den of the mountain lion and waited until she came back from hunting. It was freezing but we got her. Hopefully, the Thompson’s won’t lose any more goats.” Serenity nodded and then turned back to go to her room. In her mind she counted,
three, two, one.

“I got a new one for you,” her Uncle Wayne hollered just before she reached her door. She smiled to herself, knowing what was coming.

“Okay,” she said as she walked back into the living room. “Let’s hear it.” Aunt Darla was already shaking her head.

“Relax, Darla, it’s not that bad,” Wayne told his wife.

“I’ve heard that before,” she retorted.

“Why do squirrels swim on their backs?” He paused for effect and then chuckled as he answered. “To keep their nuts dry.”

Serenity couldn’t help but crack a smile, though Darla told her laughing at his jokes only encouraged him. Serenity disagreed. She always responded,
I think if we didn’t laugh at them then he would just tell more because he would be determined to get a laugh out of us
.

“You’re right, Uncle Wayne, compared to your other material that wasn’t too bad.” Serenity waved goodnight and headed for her room.

She set her alarm on her phone, just in case she actually got some sleep. Being late to work was not something she made a habit of, especially when she knew those poor dogs were waiting to go outside to do their business. Serenity flipped off her light and then pulled back the covers of her bed and climbed in. But just like the other nights, tired as she was, she couldn’t sleep. She stared up at the ceiling counting the fan rotations. Nearly a half hour later the blades on the fan began to grow darker. She thought perhaps her eyelids were finally getting heavy, but she quickly realized that she still wasn’t the least bit sleepy. He was back.

Serenity shot up and she realized how comical she must have looked but she pushed away her embarrassment. She had more important things to worry about besides being self-conscious.

“Dair?” she nearly whispered into the now completely pitch black room.

“Yes.”  His voice was every bit as potent as it had been the first time he’d spoken to her. Serenity shook off the effects.
Focus Sarah,
she told herself.

“I wasn’t sure if you’d come back,” she admitted.

“I told you I would.”

She couldn’t tell anything by his tone of voice. It wasn’t betraying any emotion and it frustrated her. Was he irritated with her for doubting him? Had he been thinking about her all week and worrying about what she was going to say to him?