I awakened slowly, cocooned by three dogs, two cats, and my daughter. As my eyes adjusted to the faint light, I heard soft voices from the campfire outside. My parents? I hoped not—they really needed an uninterrupted night’s sleep. Lifting my head, I noted Charlotte’s empty bed at the other end of the camper. Then I heard her soft laughter outside.
Ah. Charlotte was enjoying the dawn hours with her deputy. As best I could tell from in here, they were sitting next to each other. Good for you, Char. Go for it.
Larissa edged closer. “I’m awake,” she said.
My lungs filled with the sweet scent of youth and innocence as I returned her hug. “I’m sorry I’ve been so busy with the case. We came up here to spend time together, and I’ve been everywhere but here with you.”
“We are together, and this is where we’re supposed to be.”
“Oh?”
“I had a feeling about coming here. And I was right. These people need your help.”
A feeling? Was she developing precognitive skills like my mother? “Hmm.”
“I’m proud of you, Mom.”
Her admiration caught me by surprise. “Thank you, but no way am I mother of the year. I get so caught up in these cases, I barely know my name. I’ve wanted to go paddleboarding with you every day since we arrived.”
“We’ll get there. Listen to how happy Charlotte is.”
More soft laughter wafted into our camper. “I hear them. She’s having the time of her life.” I gave Larissa another hug. “How’d I get so lucky to be your mom?”
“I don’t think luck had anything to do with it.”
Her serious tone startled me. “Oh?”
“I’m pretty certain I could only be your kid.”
“And your father’s kid.”
“That, too.”
“I miss him.”
“I used to think we’d get him back. I hoped for the miracle of him walking in our front door.”
Oh, dear. Larissa was ten. She’d already remarked that my best friend deserved a happy romance and declared herself to be content with my all-consuming work. Now she wanted to talk about death? Unease trickled through my veins. Had my dreamwalker vocation robbed her of a childhood?
“I hope I haven’t transferred my expectations to you,” I began slowly. “I would dearly love the three of us be a family again, but as time passes and we don’t hear from your father in this land or the next, I am losing hope. The man I love and married, that man would move heaven and earth to return to us.” I paused to get my emotions in check.
“If he’s still alive,” I went on, “and I say if, because the more dreamwalker experiences I have, the more I learn about things I never knew existed. Anyway, if he’s alive and can’t come home, there must be a reason. He might be trapped in some in-between place. That’s where Charlotte and her deputy were yesterday, stuck in an in-between realm. Until that happened, I didn’t know such places existed.”
“But Charlotte came back from there okay, so Dad might be okay too?”
“It’s possible. Anything’s possible. I promise you this. I won’t stop looking for him.”
Larissa didn’t say anything for a long moment. “What if someone else asked you out?”
“What? Who? Why would you even ask me that?”
“I notice things.”
That was an understatement. My baby’s abilities were beginning to make themselves known. Based on a vision she had earlier this summer, I’d assumed her talents would manifest as clairvoyance, but today she’d admitted to a flash of precognition. Multi-talents were rare. She would need all of us to help her understand and manage those extrasensory abilities.
I rubbed her back. “I’m not looking for a boyfriend. No need to worry about that.”
She hugged me back. “Good. I want to keep you for myself.”
Finally, she sounded like a ten-year-old. I tickled her, and she tickled me back. Gosh, it felt great to laugh. When we were tickled out, I rubbed my nose against hers. “I’m glad you had the idea to come to the mountains.”
We lay there entwined, until Larissa levered herself up on an elbow. “I want to see the sunrise. At the lake.”
I needed coffee, but this might be the only private window of time with my daughter. “Sure. Let’s get dressed. Maybe we can slip out without alerting the others.”
But everyone else was already awake and outside, waiting for us. So much for alone time. After the chorus of good mornings, we padded down the trail to the lake. Using my extra senses, I checked to make sure our group was alone, and we were. No one was within miles of our location.
We hiked a little past the finger of water where I’d tried fishing the other day, stopping at a large rock that faced east. Larissa climbed the rock first, and I followed. Charlotte and Deputy Duncan stood at the rock’s base, staring over the misty water. My parents scrambled up like billy goats.
“Careful,” I said, knowing how easy it was to twist an ankle or fall.
“We’ve got this,” my dad said, “though I appreciate your concern.”
Larissa climbed in my lap to make room for them. My parents sat to my right, Dad with his arm around Mom. Charlotte and her friend wandered farther down the lakeshore to be alone. Hard to miss their joined hands.
I grinned. “This is cozy.”
The vibe on the rock was great. I felt connected to the earth and to nature in a way I’d been too busy to acknowledge recently. The mist on the water intensified, and I found my eyes drawn to it instead of the waking sky.
The rose tattoos on my hand and back flared, and I sucked in a quick breath. I glanced at my parents and my daughter, who seemed enthralled by the mist. What were they seeing? I switched to my extra senses and heard the faint drumming.
My blood iced.
The Little People.
Were they after my entire family?
What was going on?
Two faces appeared in the fog. I recognized them immediately. Haney and White Feather. They beckoned me to follow them onto the water. I shook my head.
Even as I did so, I was aware of my parents rising beside me on the rock. Larissa was squirming a bit in my lap. No way was I giving them up to the Little People. I extended an extrasensory bubble around the four of us. The sound of the drumming faded. My father blinked and sat back down.
Everyone followed my gaze to the water. Had they seen the vision too? I sent a telepathic message to Dad and Larissa. The Little People are calling us. I blocked the signal temporarily. If you hear those soft drums again, and I’m not around, you must cover your ears.
My father nodded. Larissa burrowed farther into my arms. I held her close and shot a private message to Dad. Do you see anything in the mist?
He shook his head.
My mom said in a monotone voice, “I’ve got to go.”
Alarmed, I touched her arm. A pulse of energy shocked me. The flyaways that never quite stayed in Mom’s braid lifted as if electrified.
To my horror, both my daughter and father repeated Mom’s words, and they stood on the rock. I clambered after them, strengthening the protection bubble around us. Out on the water, Haney and White Feather were gesturing madly, but the mist was thinning.
Something was happening to us on this rock, but the spirit-infested mist over the water didn’t inspire confidence. We weren’t four feet above the water in front of us and the ground behind us. Better to jump on land where we could see our footing.
“Off the rock, now,” I urged, pointing to the footholds we’d used to ascend.
They listened and slid down the back of the rock. “Group hug,” I said, drawing my family into a tight clump. I clung tightly to the people I loved. The sun gleamed above the distant treetops. As the rays met the water, the mist disappeared.
My father laughed. “Good morning to you, dear daughter.”
I released them and slowly lowered the bubble of energy around us. The drums were gone, and so were the faces in the mist. I craned my neck and spotted Charlotte and Duncan necking behind the big tree.
“We’re safe,” I said. “That’s what’s important.”
“Of course we’re safe,” Mom said, smoothing her loose hairs back behind her ear. “Why wouldn’t we be?”
“You don’t remember?” I asked.
All three of them looked at me as if I’d lost my mind. I gestured with my hands. “Does any of this ring a bell? Drums? Faces in the mist?”
“Are you all right?” my father asked, concern in his eyes.
“I’m fine. I nearly lost all of you. My two victims appeared in the mist and urged us to walk on the water to them. Meanwhile, you two went into a trance of sorts, speaking in a robotic tone that you had to go. Mom’s hair stood on end.”
“I don’t remember any such thing,” my mother said. “How unusual.”
“There are strange forces at work here, forces that are reaching out from beyond the grave. Do me a favor and head to your friend’s farm for the day. Take Larissa and Charlotte with you.”
Before they could answer, a car horn sounded three times. It repeated three more times in longer increments. Then three final quick blasts.
SOS.