The Somnient exploded through the window, roaring.
Darius and Destiny fell out of the booth, running away from it.
Uncle Leroy sat with his back to me, not moving.
“Never thought I’d be saving you like this,” I said, pulling dream ether around me.
With it, I blew Uncle Leroy’s table away from the Somnient, knocking him to the floor.
Pulling dream ether from above, I collapsed the ceiling and buried the Somnient in a cloud of debris. Then, pushing the air, I pushed it into the moonlit parking lot.
“Be gone from this place,” I said. “May God grant you serenity upon your return to the underworld. May one day you wake up and see the blessed goodness of the holy spirit.”
I prayed, hovering into the air.
I uttered the prayer again, and the Somnient disappeared in a heap of flames.
Darius looked at the flames incredulously. Then he looked at me, and at the dream version of me.
My dream version stared at me, too.
“You go, girl,” Dream Aisha said.
With a wave of my finger, I repaired the damage I had created.
Uncle Leroy sat against the wall, laughing.
“Well hot damn, that was some good magic castin’,” he said.
Then more Somnients exploded through the windows.
“They’re bringing the fight to me,” I said.
Before I could grab more dream ether, Uncle Leroy had transformed into a gorilla. He grabbed one of the Somnients by the neck and cracked it against the linoleum floor.
Darius pelted another beast with fire, killing it.
The dream version of me swiped at the final Somnient with a chair.
A lioness attacked the demon from the rear, breaking its legs.
Destiny.
I whirled the dream ether around me and uttered my prayer. The beast exploded into fire.
Uncle Leroy transformed back.
“That’s how we take care of business,” he said.
We waited for more Somnients to appear, but everything grew quiet.
The cashier knocked on the counter to get my attention.
“Y’all gonna be much longer?” she asked. “I’m tired of watching this.”
“I’m thinkin’ we got more important things to do,” Uncle Leroy said, picking up a chair. “Don’t we, Aisha?”
I took one look at everyone.
At Uncle Leroy.
At Dream Aisha.
At Darius.
At Destiny.
And then I knew what my uncle meant.
“Right,” I said.
I closed my eyes and transported myself out of my uncle’s dream.