“How do you know he’s not blind? You can’t tell that.”
“Yeah, maybe you’re right,” Janie says. “But his hands looked fine.”
“Well . . . what did Miss Stubin say in the green notebook? Mid-thirties for the hands? He can’t be much older than late thirties, forty tops, right? So maybe it just hasn’t happened yet.”
Janie sighs. Doesn’t want to go this deep. Doesn’t want to think about the green notebook anymore. She walks to the door and stands there a moment. Bangs her head lightly against it.
Then she opens it, goes outside and sits in the sweltering car until Cabel comes.
“Hospital?” he says, hope in his voice, when he turns the car onto the road.
“No.” Janie’s voice is firm. “We’re done with it, Cabe. I don’t care if he was the king of dream catchers. He’s probably not—he’s probably just some guy who would freak out if he knew we were snooping around inside his house. I just don’t want to pursue this anymore.” She’s tired of it all.
Cabe nods. “Okay, okay. Not another word. Promise.”
7:07 p.m.
At Cabel’s house, they both work out. Janie knows she’s got to keep her strength up. They have a meeting with Captain on Monday, which means an assignment looms. For the first time, Janie doesn’t feel very excited about it.
“Any idea what Captain will have for us?” Janie asks between presses.
“Never know with her.” Cabel breathes in and blows out fiercely as he reaches the end of his arm curl reps. “Hope it’s something light and easy.”
“Me too,” Janie says.
“We’ll find out soon enough.” Cabel puts his weights on the floor. “In the meantime, I can’t seem to stop thinking about Henry. There’s something weird about the whole situation.”
Janie sets the bar in the cradle and sits up. “Thought you said you were going to let it go,” she says. Teases. But the curiosity takes over. “What makes you say that, anyway?”
“Well, you said there was a connection in the dream, like you had with Miss Stubin, right? That’s what got my brain going and now I can’t stop it. And how odd, just the way he lives. He’s a recluse. I mean, he’s got that old station wagon parked in the yard, so he obviously drives, but . .
.”
Janie looks sharply at Cabel. “Hmm,” she says.
“Maybe it’s all just a coincidence,” he says.
“Probably,” she says. “Like you said, he’s just a recluse.”
But.
10:20 p.m.
“Goodnight, sweets,” Cabe murmurs in Janie’s ear. They’re standing on Cabel’s front stoop.
Janie’s not about to sleep there again. It’s too hard. Too hard to keep her secret.
“I love you,” she says, soulfully. Means it. Means it so much.
“Love you, too.”
Janie goes, arms outstretched and her fingers entwined in Cabel’s until they can’t reach anymore, and then she reluctantly lets her arm drop and walks slowly across the yards to her street, her house.
Lies awake on her back. And her mind shifts from Cabe to the earlier events of the day. To
Henry.
12:39 a.m.
She can’t stop thinking about him.
Because, what if?
And how is she supposed to know, unless . . . ?
Janie slips out of bed, puts her clothes on and grabs her phone, house key, and a snack for energy. The bus is empty except for the driver.
Thankfully, he’s not asleep.
12:58 a.m.
Janie’s flip-flops slap the hospital floor and echo through the otherwise quiet hallways. An orderly with an empty gurney nods to Janie as he exits the elevator. Up on the third floor, Janie pushes through the ICU door without hesitation. It’s dimly lit and quiet. Janie fends off the hallway dreams and, before she opens Henry’s door, goes over her plan in her mind.
She takes a deep breath and pushes open the door, closing it swiftly behind her as everything around her goes black, and then she’s slammed by the colors and the outrageous static once again.
The power of the dream forces Janie to her hands and knees. The attack on her senses makes gravity ten times stronger than normal. She sways inadvertently as if to avoid the giant block walls of burning color that swing toward her in 3-D. Mentally she’s trying to hear her own thoughts above the noise, and it’s incredibly difficult—it’s like she’s in a vortex of static.
Janie’s hands and feet quickly grow numb. Blindly, she turns to the right and crawls, aiming for the bathroom so that if she has to, she can get inside and close the door. As a flaming yellow block swings toward her, Janie lunges to avoid it and feels her head connect with the hospital room wall. Concentrate! she yells to herself. But the noise is overpowering. All she can do is slide forward on numb stumps, hoping she’s even moving at all, and waiting for a flash of something, anything that will explain some of the mystery of Henry.
Janie doesn’t know how much time goes by before she can’t continue moving.
Before she can no longer press on, unable to fight any longer. Unable to find the bathroom, to break the connection.
It’s as if she’s fallen through ice, engulfed in frigid water. Numb, both body and mind. Even the noise and the colors are muted.
Things stop mattering.
She can’t feel herself flopping around wildly.
Doesn’t know she’s losing consciousness.
Doesn’t care anymore either. She just wants to give up, let the nightmare overtake her, engulf her, fill her brain and body with the endless clamor and sickening dazzle.
And it does.
Soon, everything goes black.