Gaia Dreams (Gaiaverse Book 1) (24 page)

Andy put both hands up to stop the flow of
words.

"Okay, okay, stop. Just how much money did you
have anyway? A couple thousand?"

"Hmmm, a little more than that," Lisanne said
hesitantly.

Andy's eyes narrowed and he said sternly "How
much, Lisanne?"

"Well, now I don't think we should get so caught
up in dollar amounts, here. After all, it is
my
money--"

"Lisanne!" Andy shouted.

"One hundred eighty-two thousand, nine hundred
and fifty-six dollars," Lisanne said quickly.

Andy just stared at her and then said ominously,
"$182,956? And you've been carrying that around with you in cash? All day?"

"Not exactly. It was more, but I spent about
a bunch on the computer for Merlin--" Seeing the look on his face, she
continued rapidly, "But other than that, yeah. It's in this duffle bag right
here." And she pointed to a black bag with purple piping on the edges on the
floorboard of the passenger side of the car.

Andy opened and shut his mouth a couple of times
to say something and finally gave up and started to laugh. Beside him Waldo
barked once in appreciation. Lisanne smiled tentatively and gave a little
laugh.

Finally Andy managed to say, "Can I ask you
where did you get that much money?"

"Inheritance. Mother's life insurance money.
Would have been more but I bought a condo with a large piece of it. A condo
that is probably floating in the ocean right now," she said regretfully.

"It does solve any immediate money problems, but
I still feel strange knowing you've got that much cash with you. However, I
can't think of what else you should do with it." He thought for a minute and
then said, "I've got close to twenty thousand in the bank. Plus, there are
credit cards. Are things really going to be wiped out everywhere? If they are,
we should use our credit cards, max them out and get cash advances."

"Hey, that's a great idea!" said Lisanne
enthusiastically. "Although, I have no clue exactly what we are shopping for
yet." At that, Merlin nudged her with his head. Looking at the computer screen,
Lisanne said, "Wow! You gotta see this, Andy."

She perched the laptop on the door of the car
and Andy saw a list of items that the cat had made up. "It looks like stuff you
would see on survivalist wish list--at least some of it does. Some doesn't make
sense to me." He looked at Merlin and then said, "But I guess at this point we
just go on faith, right?" Merlin nodded and Waldo barked twice.

"Right," said Andy. "Then let's get back on the
road if we're going to make it across that river tonight."

Cape Fair, The Samuels' House

It was 11:00 p.m. at John and Jessica's house
and all their friends had left except Mrs. Philpott and her cat. Harry and
Samantha were groggily awake, he on the floor and she snuggled into a corner of
the couch propped up with a pillow and covered with a navy and cream crocheted
afghan. Mrs. Philpott sat in the rocker sipping a cup of tea, and John and
Jessica took their seats in two overstuffed matching armchairs, each with a cup
of decaf. Perceval sat on a hard-backed chair in front of the laptop next to
Mrs. Philpott.

"I call this late-night meeting of strategists
to order," said Mrs. Philpott with a weary grin. "I know it's late and Sam
needs to get to bed, but I thought we should get her first impressions before
she goes to sleep."

Perceval, beside her, nodded yes.

Jessica leaned forward and said, "Well,
Sam...Can you tell us what you saw? Did you get a chance to...I don't know what
to call it...to 'see' everyone at the party?"

Samantha looked around at all of them and said, "Oh,
it's my turn now? Okay...yeah, I think I did see most of 'em. They kept on
wanting to talk to me so you know they kept on interruptin' me. But I think I
got 'em all." There was a pause and then she said sheepishly, "Oops, I guess
you want to know what they looked like, huh? Sorry, I'm kinda sleepy."

At that point Jessica said, "I don't know if we
should do this right now, I mean she's only a little girl and she needs her
sleep and--"

"No, Mom, it's okay," Sam interrupted strongly.
Jessica turned to look at her sharply. Sam suddenly looked much more awake than
she had. "Sam, what just happened? Why do you look so much more alert and
awake?"

"Oh, that. Perceval just woke me up a little
bit. He said its im-port-tant that I tell all, tell you all what I know. So now
I'm awake."

"Perceval?" Jessica asked worriedly. "Is this
safe? This won't hurt her will it?"

Perceval typed out:

NO SHE WILL BE FINE

"Okay," said Sam, "out of all those guys at the
party...there was only one."

"What?" said John explosively. "That can't be!
There have to be more than that!"

Mrs. Philpott looked perturbed. "I thought there
would be more," she said quietly.

Jessica just looked stunned.

"I'm sorry, Daddy," Samantha said firmly, "but
there was only one. All the others are not having any of the dreams. Perceval
and Harry better tell you the rest...Oh, wait I'm sposed to tell you some of that...Well,
Harry looked around. He says that there is about five possibles. Perceval says
there's about two possibles. And that's all for Cape Fair. 'Cept for one of
them is a teenager boy who don't...."

She stopped and frowned at Perceval, and said, "Sorry,
who
doesn't
have any mom or dad. Doesn't?"

Her mother nodded, "Yes, that's right." Then
Jessica turned and looked at Perceval and then back at Sam questioningly.

Sam continued, "Anyways, that boy, he's gettin'
the bad dreams. Harry says he lives in that empty house on the edge of town.
Harry thinks he is maybe gonna be in trouble if somebody doesn't go get him
soon."

The adults just stared at the little blonde
girl. If she had sprouted wings at that point, it wouldn't have surprised them.
Finally John thought to ask, "Sam, who was the 'one' at our party tonight? We
should contact that person right away."

Samantha, grinning and giggling, said, "It's
Harmony Gold."

All three adults in unison said, "Oh, no!" as
Samantha smiled contentedly and leaned back against the pillows.

Chicot, Arkansas 11:00 p.m.

As Andy and Lisanne crossed the Mississippi,
Lisanne tried not to think of what it would be like when the flooding took
place. Would the water beneath them become a roaring nightmare? Or just a
massive, spreading, overwhelming force of water that would take over the dry
land they were heading to now? How could there be a flood here? It didn't look
possible. Of course, she hadn't thought a hurricane was possible at her home,
either. And the radio today had mentioned some weird lightning in Oklahoma.
Come to think of it, what about that earthquake in California? True, she had
been drinking at the time, but now, now she wondered whether it was connected
as well.

After they checked into a motel, Andy, Lisanne
and the dog and cat joined forces in Lisanne's room. Merlin was perched on a
table in front of the computer. Lisanne was sitting cross-legged on one bed while
Andy sat on the desk chair with the back turned around so he could rest his
crossed arms on the top. Waldo was stretched out on the red carpet, ready to
listen.

"All right," said Andy. "I know we are all beat
and need to sleep. But we need to plan also. Where are we heading tomorrow?"

"Merlin says we head north on 65 towards Little
Rock, but there seems to be some question about whether we will actually go to
Little Rock?" Lisanne looked questioningly at Merlin.

He nodded and tapped on the keyboard. Andy
looked at the screen and read out loud: "Troubles," and then said, "Whatever
that means."

"I think it means we just go north and see what
happens," Lisanne said in a tired voice.

Merlin tapped on the screen again.

Andy read the screen and his eyebrows shot up. "It
says--gun show--does that mean you want us to go to a Gun Show? What for? Oh,
no, wait a minute now...you want us to buy guns?" he said in a disbelieving
voice.

Merlin stared at him and nodded. Waldo barked
twice.

Lisanne spoke, "I picked up some of this from
Merlin before, Andy. I think he's discovered there is a Gun Show not too far
off our path tomorrow and we need to go there to buy weapons. It's the easiest
place to buy guns without a waiting period or any questions. And from what I
can gather we might need them at some point in the future."

Andy said hotly, "There is no way I'm going to
use a gun! I will not be like my father--I will not pick up a weapon and kill
someone!" he said, ending on a somewhat pleading note. "It's just not in me,
don't you see?"

Lisanne didn't understand the reference to his
father, but could clearly see that Andy was disturbed by the topic of guns. She
tried again, "Andy, this isn't something we are suggesting so that we become
killers or something. This is a precaution. Things are going to start breaking
down out there," she waved a hand to the windows and door. "Society is going to
start falling apart at some point, and we have to be prepared to protect
ourselves from the bad guys. That doesn't mean we will become the bad guys. We
can still be the good guys."

Andy was shaking his head, saying, "I don't
know. I just don't know. It feels wrong."

Waldo got up and padded over to Andy, pushing
his head against Andy's leg. Andy reached down and began to stroke Waldo's back
and head. Slowly his breathing became more normal and he seemed to calm down.

Lisanne had been staring at Merlin and suddenly
said, "Oh, oh my goodness! Andy, there's another reason." He looked up at her. "Merlin
just told me that the other part of why we need to buy the weapons is for the
people at the place where we are going. They don't have time to travel to where
they could get what they need, so some of the stuff we are going to buy is for
the place there, where we are going, and part of that is for protection. You
don't have to necessarily use the guns if you don't want to."

Andy thought for a moment and seemed to feel
better after Lisanne's speech. "Okay," he said finally. "That sounds reasonable
enough to me. Just know that I don't plan on using a gun."

Lisanne nodded.

"Now, what about the rest of the list?" Andy
said briskly, getting back to the business at hand. While he and Lisanne looked
at the shopping list, Waldo and Merlin gazed deeply into each other's eyes.
Waldo was worried and let Merlin know it. Merlin agreed. They might soon be in
a situation where their survival would depend on Andy being able to defend
them. He could only hope that they made it to their destination before Andy was
forced to choose between using a gun and one of them living or dying.

Cape Fair, the Samuels' House

"Ha-Harmony Gold?" spluttered Mrs. Philpott, in
utter astonishment.

"You've got to be kidding," said John in a
pleading tone to Samantha.

"Nope," Sam said. "She's the one. What's wrong?
She's fun!"

"Oh, Sam," said Jessica wearily. "I think it's
time for you to go bed."

"Ah, Mom, you guys are gonna stay up and talk
about Harmony, aren't you?"

"Oh, definitely," stated Mrs. Philpott firmly.

Sam started to protest the order to go to bed,
and then looked thoughtfully at Harry for a minute, giggled and skipped to her
room and hopped into bed.

As Jessica made fresh coffee, John reviewed what
they all knew of Harmony Gold. She was a thirty-year-old flower child. Her
parents had been true hippies living on communes in the sixties; they had
brought up Harmony with virtually no rules or boundaries from what anyone could
tell. She was what some would call flighty, others scatter-brained, others
downright loony. Harmony was always working two or three part-time jobs that
she was on the verge of getting fired from, or had just gotten fired from, and was
just starting a new one. She had traveled all through her twenties with just a
backpack and somehow gotten by "on the kindness of strangers" and had landed in
Cape Fair about three years ago.

John and Jessica knew her because she was a
great fan of science fiction and tried to start a sci-fi convention in Cape
Fair, which failed miserably. In the process they learned a lot about her
amazing ability to talk her way into just about anywhere, her complete lack of
organizational skills, her gift for getting into trouble, and that underneath
all those blond curls lurked a mind of great depth, albeit strange and
convoluted at times.

Mrs. Philpott sat rocking slowly, thinking about
how she met Harmony when Harmony decided to join the Garden Club and wanted to
promote the growing of marijuana as a project of the Club. Since that fiasco,
Harmony had given up drugs, and the last they'd heard from her, she was into
crystals. Harmony's long flowing skirts, sandals on her feet, and beads
threaded in her waist-length dark blond curling tresses presented an innocent
and inviting picture to the male population, which had done nothing to make her
popular with the women of Cape Fair. Rumors flew and accusations were leveled,
but inevitably Harmony was proved to be the innocent bystander. Of course,
there were times when it seemed she was the catalyst for trouble. In fact, as
time went on, more and more people felt that her name was a misnomer, for it
seemed that wherever she worked, or lived for that matter, things were not
exactly harmonious.

Because John and Jessica were two of her first
acquaintances and had yet to be actually hurt by any of her accidents/schemes,
they had been called upon to vouch for her on more than one occasion, so that
over time Harmony had become a kind of friend, someone who was always around on
the periphery. They were there to smooth the waters when Harmony had been fired
from her job doing hair and makeup at McDougal's Funeral Home. Harmony had not
seen why it was a problem that she gave old Mrs. Whitman a dye job changing her
white hair to bright red for the funeral. "I just thought she'd want to look
her best when meeting her maker," said Harmony soulfully.