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The Dreamscape
Book 2
Recalling Color
Chapter 1
When Kate stepped through the light, she found herself standing in a room with crooked-hanging portraits on the walls. The wallpaper was dark gray and drab, and the portraits that hung on it were of dog-headed people. Most of the people had the heads of beagles, but some had the heads of tawny chihuahuas and black Dobermans. The people in the portraits were wearing fine suits and dresses, smoking cigars, and sipping from wineglasses. One person – a man with a pop-eyed chihuahua head – was wearing enormous glasses.
Beneath the wall of crooked-hanging portraits was a long dining table with a white tablecloth draped over it and several wooden chairs. Dinner was laid out, including a roast turkey in the center, still smoking from the oven, and candles had been placed at intervals among the plates. Kate looked at the food on the table, and her belly rumbled. The hotdogs from the picnic suddenly seemed like eons ago.
“About time!” scolded Mini, moving through the dining room on her jerky, spindly legs. The robot extended her arm, reaching behind Kate to quickly slam the door shut. Kate saw her turn a latch on the door, locking it, and some relief flushed through her – relief tinged with sadness. A small part of her had wanted Juniper to follow.
Mini’s long, tubular head rotated toward Kate, the little eyes glowing like bulbs. “What took you so long—?” The robot paused, registering Kate’s rumpled hair and clothing.
Kate realized with a miserable blush that her camisole was still hanging over one shoulder and one of her perky breasts was still poking out. She shivered: she could still feel Juniper’s amazing fingers on her sex, gently stroking, gently coaxing her to throbbing arousal—Casting her eyes down in shame, Kate quickly pulled her shoulder strap buck up, tucked her breast away, and tugged down her skirt, which had been hiked up by the Dreamscape queen’s hungry hand. When she looked up again, Mini was simply standing there, staring at her.
“What?” Kate demanded, abruptly turning her back. She hugged herself. “All right, so I may have . . .let Juniper touch me.”
“I begged you, I warned you,” sighed Mini, voice buzzing through her speaker. “Well, sit for supper. I suppose you shall learn the hard way.”
Kate heard the robot’s gears whizzing as it clomped away, and when she turned, Mini was heading to the front of the house. The robot had left the dining room entirely, passing through the open doorway into the front hall. Kate saw her take a trench coat off a hook and whirl it around her metal shoulders before pushing her arm through one of the sleeves.
“Wait a minute!” said Kate in amazement, and she hurried toward the robot. “You’re just going to leave me here?”
Mini slid her other arm in the second sleeve and started buttoning the coat. “Yes,” she answered calmly. “Don’t worry. You’ll be quite safe. If you hadn’t guessed, this is Minerva and Astrid’s house. You remember them, don’t you? The married couple I was cooking for at the picnic?”
Kate hesitated and then it came to her. “Oh—yes,” she said guiltily. After what had happened with Juniper, she had nearly forgotten the people she had first encountered. She glanced around. “Are they here? Do you know?”
“The house is empty,” said the robot heavily. “I cooked supper for them while I was waiting for you. Perhaps they’ll come in time to join you – if they haven’t been captured by Juniper’s shades. Or should I say your lover’s shades?”
Kate swallowed hard and touched a miserable hand to her chest. She gazed at the robot imploringly. “I—I didn’t mean to cause trouble . . . I wanted Juniper. I don’t know how to explain it to a robot. What do you know about sex?”
Kate had the feeling she had said something insensitive, for the robot’s long head spun sharply around on her neck. Mini regarded Kate in silence, her glowing eyes snapping open and shut irritably.
“To imply that I am a virgin!” the robot buzzed indignantly, her head spinning away again. “Stay here,” she said, closing her silver hand on the doorknob. “You should be quite safe, for the time being.”
Kate took another step forward. “But where are you going?” She did not want to be left all alone in that strange house, with its crooked-hanging portraits and dark wallpaper. She glanced back over her shoulder and could see the kitchen on the other side of the dining hall. The floor was black and white checkered linoleum and full of 50’s appliances. A cat-clock on the wall said it was ten o’clock at night.
“I do have a life outside of cooking for Astrid and Minerva, you know,” returned the robot irritably. “Really,” she complained. “How can you know so little about robots? You’re the one who dreamed me up!”
Kate frowned. “I . . . what?”
The robot wearily shook her head, rotating it back and forth on her neck. She turned the knob and opened the door. “Stay here. Stay safe,” she said, then she stepped outside and was gone, closing the door behind her.
In the six seconds that the door was open, Kate had glimpsed an urban city, full of glowing neon signs and honking cars, and her mouth fell open when she saw it. The city was noisy, with people shouting and buses roaring along, but the second the door had slammed shut, the noise was muted, as if Kate were trapped inside a soundless bubble.
Kate ran to the door and tried to turn the knob, but it didn’t budge. She was locked inside! She went to the window next and tried to pry it up, but it also didn’t budge. There were bars on the other side of the glass, so she couldn’t have escaped regardless.
“What is this? A prison?” Kate complained. She was beginning to wonder if the robot hadn’t led her into a trap. If Juniper was a tyrant and the Dreamscape was some sort of police state, then perhaps the robot was a part of an opposing political party that meant to use Kate as leverage. If Minvera and Astrid had indeed been captured, it would only make sense.
“I’m so stupid for trusting her,” Kate muttered, turning in circles on the spot. Her eyes danced over the walls as she searched for a way out, and she pushed her short blonde hair over her ear – then paused. Her hair was much longer than it had been only hours before! Her hair had been in a short bob cut, but now it was quite lengthy, falling to her shoulders!
Kate spied an oval mirror hanging over the fireplace and ran to it. She gasped at her reflection. Her once-short hair was indeed now spilling over her shoulders, and it had turned from blonde to a bright shade of magenta.
Kate backed away from the mirror, spinning on the spot, looking again for a way out of the house. She had to get away. She had to find some way to take control of the situation. She was changing, and it was bizarre, and she was frightened.
Kate’s stomach rumbled as she turned about, and she stopped, glancing yet again at the delicious feast spread on the table. Dare she eat any of it? What if it was poisoned? Or drugged? What if eating the cranberry sauce turned her into a toothpick?
Kate’s stomach rumbled again, and deciding she could stand the hunger no longer, she grudgingly moved toward the table. The nearest plate was full of stuffing and green beans. Kate took up a spoon and scooped some of the stuffing onto it and into her mouth. The result was abrupt: she screamed, and the spoon clattered to the table as she went shooting down and down to the floor.
As before, the world was now towering over Kate, but it was much bigger than it had been when she was a toddler. The nearby chair, for instance, was now enormous, its wooden legs like tree trunks to her. She walked toward and stopped in complete shock. When she moved, four legs had responded. Four.
Kate reared back on her hindlegs and looked down: little pink paws greeted her, and she was covered in smooth gray fur! She tried to gasp but only a squeak came out, and when she covered her mouth with her front paws, she felt long teeth there.
“Oh, God!” Kate wailed, her voice shrill. “I’m a mouse! I’m a mouse!”
Kate turned around and around on the spot, chasing her tail, trying to see her own backside, but always, her tail eluded her. She had a tail. A pink, bald tail.
“Okay, okay, don’t panic,” Kate panted, scrambling to a stop again. Her eyes went to the front door, and she realized suddenly that eating the turkey stuffing had freed her: she could now wiggle easily under the door!
Kate brightened at the thought of finally fleeing the house, but she slumped again as another thought occurred to her: what would happen to her once she slipped off into the streets of that unknown city?
“No time to think of that,” Kate told herself, and with sudden determination, she ran toward the door and wiggled under, her bald tail disappearing after her.