Once Again (10 page)

“How did you know to come here?” His eyes
looked at me with such tenderness, such understanding.

“I’ve been here before,” I said. “Once, with
Jessie and Marsha and Tiffany, after school that first week. We
just walked barefoot in the water. We didn’t go down to the rocks.
But this morning, after the dream, I knew I’d seen that place
before.”

“I had the same dream.”

His simple declaration almost knocked the
breath out of me. I’d known it of course. Why else would he have
come here this morning, running to find me and calling my name? But
hearing it from him just made the whole thing even more
unbelievable.

“What happened to you?” I asked, even though
I was afraid to know. “What were they doing to you?”

“I couldn’t see that. I saw the same thing
you saw.” He turned toward me, so that we now faced each other. The
wind picked up a bit and blew the loose strands of my hair across
my face. He took both my hands in his, holding them on the blanket
between us. “It’s like whatever happened on the other side of the
rocks was a blind spot. I just saw you, running down the beach. I
could feel how afraid you were, and I knew it was because of me.
And I knew you were running to save me, trying to stop whatever it
was that was happening to me. But I couldn’t help you.”

He lifted our raised hands and kissed the
knuckles on both of mine. He took several deep breaths, and I could
tell this was as difficult for him as it had been for me.

“I was helpless, Layla,” he whispered. “I saw
you fall on the sand, and I knew you were defeated, lost,
anguished. And I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t get to you. I was
so scared for you. Scared that whatever had happened to me would
happen to you next.”

“Oh Lucas,” I said, putting my arms around
him, letting him pull me into his lap. “I’m so sorry. So, so
sorry.”

“It’s not your fault.” He pulled back to look
at me. “There’s more I need to tell you. Things I’ve never talked
about with anyone. Well, except for my mom.”

I moved to sit beside him again. He kept me
pressed against his side with an arm around my shoulders. I melted
against him.

“When I was eight years old I started having
dreams. In the dreams I would see a man, and I knew he wasn’t from
this time. I knew the dreams were from the past. I didn’t see
details. The faces were all unclear, and there weren’t any specific
locations or events. But somehow I knew the man in my dreams was
me. I knew I was seeing glimpses of his life, whenever it had
been.

“For about three years, I only saw him in
dreams. And they weren’t scary or unpleasant, so I didn’t say
anything. But then I started having these visions, or flashes,
while I was awake. It was the same man, the same kind of things I’d
seen in my dreams, only it was happening while I was conscious.
That’s when I told my mom.”

I looked up at him. I was riveted. Completely
captivated by his story. “What did she say?”

“Well, you’ve met my mom,” he said with a
smile. “She’s not exactly typical, and she’s a bit kooky. So, I
knew she wouldn’t think I’d lost it and try to pack me off to the
psychiatric hospital. She started doing research, trying to figure
out what these recurring dreams and visions were all about.”

“What did she find?” Could there possibly be
an explanation for this?

“She told me she thought I was the
reincarnation of the man I’d seen in the dreams.”

My mouth fell open. Lucas laughed.

“I know,” he said. “That was my reaction,
too. But, after a while, I had to admit it was the only possible
explanation. Mom said she thought the dreams and visions were just
a way for me to see bits and pieces of his life, to get to know who
he was.”

“Did you see me?”

“Not specifically,” he said. “At least not
then. Like I said, I didn’t see details like faces or places. It
was all very vague, but yet, very personal too.”

“At least not then?” I asked, repeating his
words. “Does that mean that you’ve seen me in your dreams before
last night.”

He nodded. “The dreams and visions began to
get much more definite over the summer. The first time I saw you
was July fourth. I remember it because there was a 5K run that day.
I was running when the vision hit. That’s not unusual. It’s
actually why I started running in the first place. The visions
caught me off guard so often, and I found out if I could relax my
mind they’d come then, rather than sneaking up on me. That day, the
fourth of July, I was running the 5K. And I saw you... her...
running along the beach. And somehow I knew that she was connected
to the man I’d been seeing in my visions for years.”

Stunned was too mild a word for what I was
feeling. I’d read books and watched movies where this kind of
phenomenon happened, but never in my wildest imaginations could I
have conjured a situation like this one. Dreams, visions,
reincarnation? Had I stepped in to the Twilight Zone? Was Sky Cove
some sort of alternate reality?

“You saw me before you actually
saw
me?”

“It was really kind of nice,” he said,
smiling. “Yours was the first discernible face in any of my dreams
or visions, except for my own. And you were beautiful.”

How I could be flattered at a moment as
serious as this I had no idea, but I was. That Lucas thought I was
pretty was both thrilling and astounding.

Just then, something occurred to me. “Wait a
minute. You said July fourth?”

“Yes.” He looked at me with a questioning
expression. “Why?”

“We came here that day,” I said. “To Sky
Cove. It was the first time I’d been here. We looked at houses. And
I saw the same thing. We were driving along the coast. I could see
the ocean from the car. I saw a woman running on the beach. I
thought she was real, until she plowed right over a family on a
picnic blanket, and they didn’t even move. It was like she was a
ghost. I chalked it up to stress.”

His eyes widened. “That can’t be a
coincidence.”

“Do you think I triggered something somehow?”
I asked.

He nodded. “You coming to Sky Cove for the
first time must be significant. Maybe my visions were waiting for
you to arrive before they showed me anything else.”

“Be glad you at least had some idea what was
happening.”

“I can’t imagine what this must be like for
you. Being thrown into all this with no warning, no warm-up.” He
kissed my cheek, and I felt his lips move against my skin. “I’m so
sorry.”

“Not your fault,” I said, repeating his
earlier words.

The sunlight landed on a patch of rocky sand
beside our blanket, and a tiny, shiny green stone and caught my
eye.

“What’s this?” I asked, reaching over and
plucking it off the ground. It almost looked like glass, but it was
smooth and frosted, like a gemstone.

“Sea glass,” Luke answered. “Sometimes it
comes from shipwreck items. Other times it’s pieces of broken beer
and soda bottles. They’d get tossed overboard by fishermen, and
over time the broken pieces get tumbled in the water and tossed
against other rocks, until they’re smooth like this.”

“Interesting.” I handed the sea glass to
him.

“See how the edges aren’t jagged?” he asked,
running his finger around the uneven roundness. “Some people try to
replicate sea glass with machines and chemicals, but you can tell
it’s genuine sea glass from the ocean by these small pores. If you
look closely, they look kind of like a C-shape.” He turned it over
in his palm and pointed to a flat area. “Green and brown are the
most common colors, but sometimes you find blues and whites or
other colors.”

“It’s beautiful,” I said. “It almost looks
like an emerald.”

“We’ll keep it for good luck,” he announced
with a grin, slipping the green jewel into his pocket. “Since I saw
you for the first time right here on this beach.”

I liked that thought. And the sea-glass
lesson had been a lovely, momentary discussion.

Back to reality. “If you’re the reincarnation
of this man, do you think I’m the reincarnation of the woman?”

“I think so,” he said. “It makes sense, in a
weird sort of way.”

“What are they trying to tell us?”

“I’m not sure, but I think we’ve got to
figure it out if we want the scary dreams to stop.”

“You’ve had others?” I asked. “Other scary
ones.”

He nodded. The breeze picked up, causing the
edges of the blanket to billow. I leaned closer to Lucas, seeking
his warmth. His arm tightened around me for a moment.

“Let’s get out of here,” he said. “Get out of
the wind. We can talk at my house, if you want.”

“Okay.” I stood up and grabbed the water
bottle. “You want to tell your mom?” I wasn’t sure how I felt about
that. I liked his mom a lot, but this was all so new to me.

“Eventually.” He picked up the blanket, shook
the sand off the bottom, and folded it. “But not yet. Right now
this just seems rather, well, personal, I guess. Like I’m not ready
to share it with anybody but you just yet.”

We
found his mother in her office, working away at her computer. She
smiled brilliantly when she saw me, jumping up to hug me.

“Welcome back, Layla,” she said. Then to
Lucas, “There’s coffee cake in the kitchen. Be sure and get some
for her.”

“Thanks, Mom. I’ll do that.” He kissed her
cheek. “Listen, Layla and I have some things we need to talk about.
Is it okay if I take her upstairs?”

“To your room?” his mom asked, eyes
narrowing.

“Yeah. We won’t bother you that way, and if
we need to, we can use my computer. We’ll leave the door open.”

“I suppose I can trust you,” she said with a
smirk, and it was clear that she did trust him. “But get some
coffee cake first.”

“Will do.”

“You and your mom have a great relationship,”
I said on the way up the stairs with a piece of coffee cake and a
can of Coke. “You didn’t really have to ask her about bringing me
up here did you?”

He lifted a shoulder. “Probably not. She
trusts me, and I never give her reasons not to. But she’s my mom,
and I don’t forget that. So, I ask permission when I should.”

No one else on the planet could be like him.
There was not another boy alive who thought of his mother this way.
It said a lot about Lucas himself, but also about the way Gwen had
raised him.

“I love your mom, by the way.”

He pushed open the first door on the right
and stood back to let me enter. A double bed was against the far
wall, and a love seat under the front window. Along the wall
opposite the little sofa, sat a rectangular table with a small TV
on one end, and a computer and work lamp at the other.

“She loves you, too.”

We settled on the love seat with our
breakfast, which was now closer to lunch. “The relationship you
have with her, it’s really great.”

“Thanks,” he said. “I like to think that we
take care of each other nowadays. She’s never needed me to take
care of her. She’s too self-sufficient for that. But it’s always
been just her and me, so I’ve felt like the man of the house for a
long time. She’s done a lot for me, and it’s nice that in some ways
I can take care of her, too.”

We finished the coffee cake in comfortable
silence, both aware the talk we began on the beach had to continue.
Despite the grave mood, it was pleasant to enjoy the lull and
normalcy of sharing a meal.

“I dreamed of you several times before school
started,” he began, taking our plates and sitting them on the table
across the room. “Again, no specifics, just glimpses of us
together.”

He came back to the love seat and tugged me
to his side, his arm resting on my shoulder. He kissed the top of
my head before going on.

“After we met, the first time I saw you in a
dream was the night before I ran into you at Emerson’s Antique
Store. That night I saw you standing in the front door of the
house. I was walking up the yard toward you, like I was coming home
to you after work.”

I gasped. He’d just described the exact dream
I’d had. He must’ve heard me, because he took my chin and turned my
face up to his.

“You had the same dream?”

“Yes,” I whispered.

“I thought you might’ve,” he said. “But I
couldn’t be sure. It was possible my dream had just been pointing
me there so I’d find you.”

“I had a vision,” I said. “While we were
inside the store. It was more a flash, like you described. When I
looked at you through the glass of that paperweight, I saw you as
you’d been the night before in my dream. It was just a split
second.”

He nodded. “I experienced the same
thing.”

“This is bizarre.”

“I also had a vision of you while I was
running yesterday, during the meet. I saw myself saying goodbye to
you, in the back room of that house. The same place I found that
paperweight. I think it may have been the kitchen at one time.”

I discovered I wasn’t surprised anymore. That
he’d experienced the same dreams and visions as me, at the same
times, was oddly comforting.

“I fell asleep before the game,” I said. “I
only meant to chill out for a while. But I fell asleep, and I had
the same dream. You didn’t want to leave, but you thought it was
the only way.”

“I wish I knew what I was so afraid of.” He
scooted near the edge of the love seat and turned to face me. “I
wish I knew what the danger to us was. I was trying to protect you
by leaving.”

“Maybe now that we’ve figured this much out,
the dreams will show us more,” I offered.

“I don’t know whether to be happy about that
or scared to death,” he said, a slight laugh in his caramel-smooth
voice. “You may get sick of this and decide to leave town.”

Strange, but that thought hadn’t occurred to
me at all. In fact, since meeting Lucas, I’d thought of Nashville
and my former life less and less. It was as if Sky Cove had worked
its way under my skin without me realizing it. Even with the
frightening dreams and unexplained visions, the thought of leaving
Lucas was incomprehensible.