Dare to Dream (21 page)

She once said she came back to find him. Now, he would go forward to find her or die trying.

He hadn’t believed her tale until now, but there was no other explanation for her disappearance. Her tracks lead to the ravine, but none led out, not hers or anyone else’s. At night when he tried to sleep, his body yearned for her, and his heart called to Meghan’s. Only the Spirits could guide him to her, and they were sometimes fickle. But if they brought her to him, perhaps they would allow him to bring her home.

Sweat poured from his body, although the blizzard raged, and snow rose deeper outside. The feather of an eagle adorned his hair. A chamois loincloth covered his groin, save those, he was as naked as the day he came into the world. He tried to focus his thoughts, to clear everything from his mind and heart except her, but it was impossible above the din.

“Enough! I am going.”

His shout quieted the old men who turned from each other to stare at him. They had fought from the time he made his decision, one for, the other against. The sides they chose amazed him. White Buffalo had prepared the herbs he would need to dream and enough extra for their return when he found her, but then argued Will shouldn’t make the attempt. It was Charlie, his father, who sided with him and, in the end, with Meghan.

Will stared at White Buffalo in disbelief. He was the one who had taught him of the All Father and the Spirit world. He had been his anchor on his first vision quest, and yet he doubted, and Charlie believed. Will believed. He believed the spirits wouldn’t have brought them together only to tear them apart, but mostly, he believed in the love he and Meghan shared. That was the power he would draw on to find her. He held out his hand for the herb packets.

“Give them to him, you red-skinned idiot. Can’t you tell he’s dying without her?”

His grandfather placed the three packs in his hand. One for him to travel on, two more for the journey home. Will had to believe.

“They are strong to get you far, but untried.” He clasped his forearm. “I will hold you to this world.”

“Is your faith strong enough, Grandfather?”

White Buffalo dropped his arm. “I do not know, Ghost Walking. That is the truth.”

“Hellfire! I’ll do it,” Charlie volunteered. “All I got to do is hold on tight, right?”

“You cannot let go no matter what you see or hear,” White Buffalo warned.

“I don’t scare easy.”

“This I know.”

“Let’s get this show on the road then.” The phrase Meg used to hurry him along brought her face to Will’s mind. He swallowed the first packet, and Charlie clasped his arm. His grandfather cast more water and then the herbs upon the stones and began to chant. Will thought of Meghan, and prayed.

His body burned brightly, heat radiating from him melted a tunnel in the snow. The drifts so high they blocked his view of the sky above him. He didn’t need the stars to guide him on this quest. Meghan was his loadstone. The thunder of a thousand buffalo shook the ground, but only one appeared. The All Father graced him with his presence and received his prayer. Ghost Walking chased the niggling doubts away. “Grant me passage to the one I seek.”

With a snort and the rumble of hooves, the Great One disappeared and in his place stood Ghost Walking’s guide, the medicine-hat stallion. A mighty eagle stretched across his muscled chest. As his spirit-form watched, the marking became the bird and flew, soaring high overhead, boring a hole through the snow clouds straight to the heavens. He didn’t understand the meaning, but that was often the way of the quest. He mounted the stallion in a single leap and turned him toward the tunnel only to find the white doe, his beloved’s totem. Without her guide, could Meghan return?

She was afraid. The fear shone is her eyes like a beacon in the night.

“I will find her.”

The stallion sped into the tunnel, sparks flying from his hooves like flint on stone. Snow swirled around them but left them untouched. The journey seemed endless, full of twists and turns. The farther the stallion ran, the greater Ghost Walking’s sense of urgency became. Something was horribly wrong. He kicked the stallion’s sides, urging him to go faster.

They burst from the tunnel onto a surface slick as glass, sliding between metal monsters that made high keening sounds as they twirled on the icy pathways. The stallion ran on, his fiery hooves melting the ice.

Buildings towered overhead, snow stood in drifts higher than a man. They came to a crossroads and the stallion skidded to a halt. The metal monsters wailed in protest, flinging themselves this way and that. The horse spun in a circle. Which way to go?

“Meghan, where are you?” he cried to the wind.

“Hey buddy, are you nuts or something? The hospital’s down thataway. I’m sure your keeper’s looking for you.” He stuck a thumb out of his yellow buggy, pointing north. “Nice horse, by the way.”

Will, swung the stallion in the direction indicated and waved thanks. His heart pounded. His skin burned.

“Meghan!” His heart listened and heard her faint call. He could not be too late!

A sharp cry rang from overhead. A bald eagle swooped and circled over a tall building. He urged the stallion on.

He leapt from the horse, and took the stairs three at a time. The glass doors breathed open before his touch. The heat crackled across his skin like flames. Where was she? How would he find her? A portal yawned open, and people poured out staring and pointing in his direction. Even though people scurried out of his path the chasm closed before he reached it. He pounded it with his fist.

“What do you mean you don’t know? You’re doctors for Pete’s sake! She’s burning up. Do something!” Donna saw the orderlies approaching. Fine, if the doctors wouldn’t do anything, she would. Although she hadn’t a clue what. Donna stormed out of the hospital room and shoved the burly orderlies out of her way. She called over her shoulder, “If they die, you’ll wish you did!”

She slammed her fist into the elevator button. She’d listened to Meghan call his name until she was too hoarse to continue, and still, her lips formed the word. Will was as real to Meghan as Dan to her. She’d find him, or there’d be hell to pay! The doors opened, and people stepped out of the crazy lady’s way. Good, she liked a nice empty elevator. She hit L for the lobby and leaned against the wall.

“Meghan never asked for much, God. Give her a break, okay?” The elevator slowed. She straightened her back and ran a finger under each eye.
Where do you search for a ghost?
The doors whooshed open, and she squealed, “Thank you, Jesus!”

Donna grabbed his loincloth and dragged him inside. “Tell me your name is Will.”

“I seek Meghan.”

“Oh baby, you have no idea how happy I am you said those words!” She slapped him hard across the face, and then before he could react, kissed his lips. When she pulled back, tears threatened again. “That’s for coming to take my best friend.”

“Which one?”

“Both.” She stuck out her hand. “I’m Donna.”

The door whooshed open. She grabbed his hand. “This way.”

One glimpse of the wild-eyed lady with the naked man and the orderlies parted like the Red Sea before Moses. Will tore free of her and raced to Meghan’s bedside. Fighting back tears, he winced at the IVs in her arms. His eyes riveted on the slight bulge under the thin blanket. His gaze rose to Donna’s. “Mine?”

“No, they’re mine. Of course they’re yours, you idiot! Now wave your magic wand or whatever you did to take her in the first place, and get the hell out of Dodge before the cavalry shows up.”

The orderlies stood at the nurse’s station, mouths yapping and hands flying. Codes were being called left, right, and sideways over the PA system. It didn’t take a genius to figure out the troops would arrive soon.

“They?”

Jesus, he might be good looking. Okay, gorgeous. But he sure seemed dense. Maybe she needed hand puppets? “Look, sugarpie. Meggie’s preggers and you’re gonna be a daddy times two. If you don’t get your ass moving, we’re all going to end up in jail. So presto-chango, alikazam, whoa Nellie-Bozo,
go
! Do what you came to do before I slap some sense into you.”

“These must go.” Will motioned to Meghan’s arms and the bags of fluids.

“Done.” She could do this. She’d watched the nurses often enough. Donna crimped the drip and pulled some cotton balls from the bedside dispenser. She placed one over the catheter, held the wings in her right hand and pulled straight back. How could she forget the Band-Aid?

“Hold this.” She placed the hunk’s finger on the cotton ball and began to search the bedside table. No joy. She dumped the contents of her purse in the recliner, located the duct tape, and tore a bit off with her teeth. Since Will had a grip on Meg’s left arm, she addressed the right before attending to the other. She glanced at the fresh wound on his bare shoulder. “Is that a bullet hole?”

“Yes.” He mixed powders in Meghan’s water glass.

“Will that take her back?”

Will met her gaze with a worried frown.

“You aren’t sure, are you?”

“They brought me here.”

The cops were coming down the corridor, flanked by the cowardly orderlies. Now or never. Donna pulled Meghan into a sitting position. “Meghan! Will’s come for you. Do you hear me? You have to drink this now. Right now!”

Meg’s eyes fluttered, her lips forming the words.

“Say something, you idiot!”

“I love you, sweetheart. Marry me?”

“Drink! Then you can answer him…”

Meghan took first one sip, and then another. The third drained the glass. Her gaze locked on Will. He poured the contents of a packet on his tongue and gulped water from the pitcher before pulling Meghan into the cradle of his arms.

Donna ran to the door. “I’ll stall as long as I can, but I have no idea how you’ll get past them.” She turned to say more and found herself alone, and the room empty. She swung the door open to let in the cops, orderlies, doctors, nurses, and other assorted spectators who wanted a peek at nothing. The blare of car horns rose in the stillness of the night, and she ran to the window before they could cuff her.

A semi-naked man with a woman in his arms rode a white horse—wearing a hat? That couldn’t be right—down Main Street, in a hospital zone, between snowdrifts left by the worst blizzard in a hundred years. She thought it seemed like the perfect cue.

Donna fainted.

She burned with fever. Her eyes glazed and bright, fixed on his face. The eagle flew ahead of them, and the stallion followed his lead. They seemed to know where to go. He left them to it and concentrated on the woman in his arms.

She raised a trembling hand to the clean-shaven side of her head, and frowned.

“You’re the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.” He brought the hand to his lips, kissing her palm.

The eagle cried. Ghost Walking looked up and saw the tunnel in the drift. His steed didn’t slow, but instead arrowed toward the opening. The moment they entered the snowy portal, his skin began to cool, and his erratic heart to quiet. He gazed at Meghan to find her sleeping, breath even, and the flush fading from her skin. He pulled his hand free of the medicine-hat’s mane, laying his fingers gingerly on her swollen belly where their children grew.

The eagle disappeared from sight, and then in one mighty leap, the stallion burst from the tunnel. The sun rose over the mountaintop, turning the snow shades of gold, amethyst, and red. Smoke from the lodge rose in a ribbon of blue to greet the new day.

Ghost Walking trudged down the mountain with his love clutched tight to his chest. The shoulder-high snow melted before him. He saw only a wall of white and the eagle soaring overhead. He followed the bird.

* * * *

The door of the lodge burst open, and he stood framed in the bright white light, Meghan in his arms. Charlie stared at the man in front of him, the one whose arm clasped his. He hadn’t moved a muscle or so much as flicked an eyelash in hours. Now there was two of him?

“Do not move,” White Buffalo said from across the fire. Only he couldn’t have because he’d never stopped chanting.

Charlie had promised them he wouldn’t let go, no matter what he saw or heard. A promise was a promise. He held tight—and waited.

The Will carrying the girl crossed to the one Charlie held on to. As he approached, his form seemed to waver. Charlie watched as one Will stepped into the other, the shadowy form shrinking down until Meghan rested in his Will’s lap, her legs draped across their joined arms. He saw the boy’s eyes flutter open, his gaze taking in the woman in his lap.

“Thank you, Father.” Will’s grip relaxed as his body folded over Meghan’s.

Charlie tried to rise, but he had been sitting too long on his old bones. “Stop that gosh awful racket. Get your red ass over here and see about the two of them. And close the damned door before we all freeze to death!”

Meghan glanced anxiously at the babies in the back of the buckboard. Will’s hand touched her cheek, and she smiled back at him. She was such a worrywart. Meg smoothed the red skirt with one hand while she tucked her free arm through Will’s as the team parade stepped down the mountain trail.