Chapter 5

“Your brother is the best-looking guy I’ve ever known,” Lucy whispered to Karen when they were at the video store. Lucy realized that Jesse was standing right next to Karen. “Oops, Jesse, sorry, but he is.” Lucy grinned.

“That’s okay, Lucy.” Jesse tightened his hold on Karen’s arm. “We can’t all be movie star hunks. Some of us settle for being strong and athletic.”

Karen tried to hold in her grin, but Jesse saw it. “What are you laughing about? Don’t you agree?”

“Of course. And I guess I have to laugh about Kerr being so impossible. Otherwise, I’d kill him. Next thing you know, he’ll have to approve of the guys I go out with.”

“I’ll get in my resume tomorrow.” Jesse didn’t laugh at Karen’s remark. She knew it was too close to the truth.

“Hey look, guys, this is perfect. Have you all seen it?” Kaziah had one arm draped around Easy’s shoulders, and her free hand held a colorful video box. “It goes right along with our class work.”

Groans went up from eight onlookers. “Can’t you forget about school, Kaziah? It’s the weekend.” Bill Jergens grabbed another tape. “Let’s get this.”

“That’s for jocks,” Kaziah complained. “This is not school work, believe me. It’s about experimenting with people’s dreams.”

Karen took the box and studied the blurb. The movie’s title was Dreamscape. “This does look good. I vote for it.”

The murder buffs won over the jocks. Easy checked out the movie and paid the rental fee. The skaters piled back into their cars and headed for Kaziah’s.

The Coles lived in a posh subdivision high above the lake, and it didn’t take long to get there. Snuggled into the center of five acres, the house had been designed to complement mountain living. There were decks on all sides, big windows with views of the lake and the mountains beyond. Inside, centered in the huge living room, a standing fireplace burned with crackling, inviting flames.

Shedding boots, the young people headed for the kitchen, ushered by Mrs. Cole, to load their plates with food. Then they sprawled on the carpeted floor around the fire. There were big pillows piled everywhere, encouraging guests to sit wherever they were comfortable.

Karen and Jesse set their plates on the floor near a couch. Jesse stacked pillows so they could lean on the couch.

“Not a bad layout, huh?” Jesse smiled at Karen and went to work on a fried chicken leg. Mrs. Cole had told them to forget the pizza, she’d treat.

“I could live here,” Karen agreed.

“With me?” Jesse teased.

“Can pro football players afford this kind of luxury?”

“You’d better believe it. And after the season, I’ll have lots of time off. Lots of time to snuggle.”

“Hey, when will I get my work done? I don’t know if I want a guy hanging around full time with nothing to do.”

“Maybe I can find some hobbies. And I can cut wood and shovel snow off walks, chores like that.”

“You know, I’m really enjoying this psychology class,” Karen said, getting serious. “Maybe I’ll major in it in college. But I think I’d rather do research than counsel with people.”

“You don’t want to help people solve their problems?”

“I don’t think so. Maybe I’ll study twins. The way they relate to each other—like communicating without talking, stuff like that. I find that people are fascinated with us.”

“You’re pretty fascinating. I don’t know about Kerr.” Jesse licked his fingers before he started on a mound of baked beans. “Can you get inside his mind?”

“Sometimes. It was easier when we were younger. He’s shut me out a lot lately. But then I’ve done the same thing to him. I needed the privacy.”

“What kind of thoughts were you having?” Jesse’s grin suggested he hoped he was included.

“Oh, fantasies about tall, dark strangers. Older men, macho Aussies. The things women daydream about.”

Jesse was tall and blond, so he wasn’t pleased. “You have no need to dream about other guys, lady. Tall, dark strangers? Not when you have a real, live, macho mountain man hanging around. I don’t dream about other women.”

“Oh, yeah, you expect me to believe that?” Karen kicked him. “Go get me a Coke. I forgot something to drink. And six more napkins.”

Jesse got up to wait on her. “I needed seconds, anyway.”

From across the room, Kerr caught her eye. He stared without smiling, then she looked away. She was going to have to talk to him, make him talk to her. He was still acting jealous.

They moved into the rec room for the movie. Karen and Jesse sat in the back on a couch. Karen snuggled into the warmth of his arms and felt as happy as she had ever been in her life. She was pleased to see Kerr sitting beside Alysia. He needed to date someone. Then he’d stop giving her a hard time.

“Well, what do you think, gang?” Kaziah stretched when the movie was over, got up and turned on some lights, while Easy rewound the tape.

“I thought it was great, really scary, but you know it couldn’t happen.” Danah was quick to put down the idea of going into someone’s dream.

“Why not?” Kerr asked. “I think it’s a neat idea.”

“You’d have to be really psychic.” Easy took the video out of the machine and put it back in its case. “Psychics get into other people’s minds.”

“Yeah, and they see things,” Kaziah agreed, “but to go into someone’s dream and participate—like that guy did helping that kid kill off his snake monster—that’s pure fantasy. But a neat idea.”

“I heard the Russians assign a psychic to each of their astronauts.” Bill smiled at Alysia. “That way if they lose radio communication, they’ll still be able to keep in touch.”

“That in itself is pretty farfetched.” Karen didn’t know what she believed about being psychic, but all these ideas fascinated her. “All they could do is know whether or not the astronaut was still alive. I’m not sure they could communicate.”

“I read this book the other day about a psychic who was hired to find a dead girl,” said Lucy. “Then it got out of hand. She started receiving pictures of more murders—she’d see the murder happening—and then she could locate the body. Finally she saw one before it happened, but it did happen. It was a really scary book. She thought she was losing her mind.”

“She saw pictures in her mind, like a movie?” asked Danah.

“Well, if you want my opinion—”

“We do, we do.” Everyone laughed and interrupted Lucy.

“Okay, okay.” She held up both hands. “Nobody ever listens to me, anyway.”

Mr. Cole interrupted with popcorn before they could beg Lucy to share her ideas.

“Let’s all try it.” Kerr tossed popcorn into the air and caught the fluffy grains in his mouth. “We know each other pretty well.”

“No way. I couldn’t even go to sleep with you guys sitting around watching me.” Alysia laughed. “You and Karen might be able to dream walk, but not the rest of us.”

“Yeah, I always know what she’s thinking.” Kerr grinned at Karen.

“You do not. What am I thinking right now?” Karen threw out the challenge good-naturedly.

Kerr shut his eyes, concentrating for a minute. Everyone got quiet, except for Kaziah, who giggled. “You’re thinking I can’t do this, and you’re thinking about Jesse and—”

“Stop there.” Karen felt her face heating up. Kerr was going to make up a lot of stuff. He’d be only too happy to embarrass her.

“Ooooh, Karen, let him go on. I want to hear this.” Kaziah put her arm around Easy. “But don’t anybody try such a thing on me.”

Without wanting to, Karen remembered her dream about Gordon Anderson. She decided to share it. Maybe it would help her forget it.

“While we’re on this subject, guys,” she started, “this is really spooky, but I dreamed about Gordon dying the other night—the night he really died.” She told them the dream in detail. When she finished, she realized she was squeezing Jesse’s hand. Alysia had moved to sit on the other side of her.

“Wow, that is scary, Karen,” said Lucy. “Did you tell Professor McArthur about it?”

“Yes, I thought he might have some ideas.” She didn’t tell them that she’d told the professor and Captain Martin at the same time. “He was really puzzled, too. He said to let him think about it, but he asked me if I was close to Gordon or had talked to him the day before.”

“If you were close to Gordon Anderson, I don’t want to know about it.” Jesse pushed Karen away playfully.

Everyone started teasing her. She’d made a mistake in sharing her dream. Telling hadn’t made it go away. It made it come back, more vividly than ever. She wanted to scream at them to forget it, stop talking about it. Finally, she tried to laugh with them. Laughing kept her from crying.

“I don’t know why we rented a movie, Sis.” Kerr was laughing harder than anyone. “You could go on Entertainment Tonight with that little hummer. You and Gordon Anderson—I love it. Here you guys were thinking Karen and I could communicate, and it was her and Anderson all along. I’ve been edged out.”

Karen kept trying to laugh, but she knew she was going to lose control any minute. “I’m ready to go home, Jesse. Will you take me?”

“Sure.” Jesse hurried to find their coats, while Karen thanked Mr. and Mrs. Cole for having them there.

Jesse helped her with her coat. As she pulled on her boots, she took a vow of silence. This was the last time she would go spilling her guts to this crowd. Sharing the dream only brought back the horror of it and made her understand the why of it even less.

Maybe she was losing her mind, like that psychic thought she was in the novel Lucy had read. She hoped she wasn’t going to start seeing people die on a regular basis.